| Limbu ᤕᤠᤰᤌᤢᤱ ᤐᤠᤴ | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | |
Time period | c. 1740–present |
| Direction | Left-to-right  |
| Region | Nepal and Northeastern India |
| Languages | Limbu |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Limb(336),Limbu |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Limbu |
| U+1900–U+194F | |
| Brahmic scripts |
|---|
| The Brahmi script and its descendants |
The Limbu script (also Sirijanga script) [1] is used to write the Limbu language. It is a Brahmic type abugida. [2]
The Limbu script was invented in the 18th century by Limbu monk and scholar Te-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe, in order to give the Limbu a distinct medium to commit their oral tradition to writing. He claimed that the script was used in late first millennium and that he had only rediscovered it, but no text from before the 18th century has been discovered. It was likely invented as an act of defiance. [3]
The Limbu language is one of the few Sino-Tibetan languages of the Central Himalayas to possess their own scripts. [4] [5] The Limbu or Sirijunga script was devised during the period of Buddhist expansion in Sikkim in the early 18th century when Limbuwan still constituted part of Sikkimese territory. The Limbu script was probably composed at roughly the same time as the Lepcha script which was created by the third King of Sikkim, Chakdor Namgyal (ca. 1700–1717). The Limbu script is ascribed to the Limbu hero, Te-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe.
The Limbu script is an abugida, which means that a basic letter represents both a consonant and an inherent, or default, vowel. In Limbu, the inherent vowel is /ɔ/, as in Bengali–Assamese and Odia scripts. To start a syllable with a vowel, the appropriate vowel diacritic is added to the vowel-carrier ᤀ. A vowel-carrier with no diacritic represents the sound /ɔ/.
ᤁ ko IPA: /kɔ/ | ᤂ kho IPA: /kʰɔ/ | ᤃ go IPA: /ɡɔ/ | ᤄ gho IPA: /ɡʱɔ/ | ᤅ ngo IPA: /ŋɔ/ | ᤆ co IPA: /t͡ɕɔ/ | ᤇ cho IPA: /t͡ɕʰɔ/ | ᤈ jo IPA: /d͡ʑɔ/ | ᤉ jho IPA: /d͡ʑʱɔ/ | ᤊ nyo IPA: /ɲɔ/ |
ᤋ to IPA: /tɔ/ | ᤌ tho IPA: /tʰɔ/ | ᤍ do IPA: /dɔ/ | ᤎ dho IPA: /dʱɔ/ | ᤏ no IPA: /nɔ/ | ᤐ po IPA: /pɔ/ | ᤑ pho IPA: /pʰɔ/ | ᤒ bo IPA: /bɔ/ | ᤓ bho IPA: /bʱɔ/ | ᤔ mo IPA: /mɔ/ |
ᤕ yo IPA: /jɔ/ | ᤖ ro IPA: /rɔ/ | ᤗ lo IPA: /lɔ/ | ᤘ wo IPA: /wɔ/ | ᤙ sho IPA: /ʃɔ/ | ᤚ sso IPA: /ʂɔ/ | ᤛ so IPA: /sɔ/ | ᤜ ho IPA: /ɦɔ/ |
ᤠ a IPA: /a/ | ᤡ i IPA: /i/ | ᤢ u IPA: /u/ | ᤣ ee IPA: /e/ | ᤤ ai IPA: /ai/ | ᤥ oo IPA: /o/ | ᤦ au IPA: /au/ | ᤧ e IPA: /ɛ/ | ᤨ o IPA: /ɔ/ |
z + ᤠ ᤁᤠ IPA: /ka/ | z + ᤡ ᤁᤡ IPA: /ki/ | z + ᤢ ᤁᤢ IPA: /ku/ | z + ᤣ ᤁᤣ IPA: /ke/ | z + ᤤ ᤁᤤ IPA: /kai/ | z + ᤥ ᤁᤥ IPA: /ko/ | z + ᤦ ᤁᤦ IPA: /kau/ | z + ᤧ ᤁᤧ IPA: /kɛ/ | z + ᤨ ᤁᤨ IPA: /kɔ/ |
Initial consonant clusters are written with small marks following the main consonant:
ᤩ y IPA: /j/ | ᤪ r IPA: /r/ | ᤫ w IPA: /w/ |
ᤁ + ᤩ ᤁᤩ IPA: /kjɔ/ | ᤁ + ᤪ ᤁᤪ IPA: /krɔ/ | ᤁ + ᤫ ᤁᤫ IPA: /kwɔ/ |
Final consonants after short vowels are written with another set of marks, except for some final consonants occurring only in loanwords. They follow the marks for consonant clusters, if any.
ᤰ -k IPA: /k/ | ᤱ -ng IPA: /ŋ/ | ᤳ -t IPA: /t/ | ᤴ -n IPA: /n/ | ᤵ -p IPA: /p/ | ᤶ -m IPA: /m/ | ᤷ -r IPA: /r/ | ᤸ -l IPA: /l/ |
ᤁᤰ IPA: /kɔk/ | ᤁᤱ IPA: /kɔŋ/ | ᤁᤳ IPA: /kɔt/ | ᤁᤴ IPA: /kɔn/ | ᤁᤵ IPA: /kɔp/ | ᤁᤶ IPA: /kɔm/ | ᤁᤷ IPA: /kɔr/ | ᤁᤸ IPA: /kɔl/ |
Long vowels without a following final consonant are written with a diacritic called kemphreng⟨᤺⟩, for example, ⟨ᤁ᤺⟩, /kɔː/.
There are two methods for writing long vowels with syllable-final consonants:
The first method is widely used in Sikkim; the second method is advocated by certain writers in Nepal. [2]
Glottalization is marked by a sign called mukphreng⟨᤹ ⟩, for example, ⟨ᤁ᤹ ⟩, /kɔʔ/.
ᤛᤧᤘᤠᤖᤥ᥄ ᤀᤠᤍᤠᤱᤒᤠ ᤜᤠᤍᤠᤱᤔᤠᤛᤣ ᤗᤠᤶᤎᤡᤱᤃᤥ ᤗᤠᤶᤎᤰ ᤕᤠᤰᤌᤢᤱᤐᤠᤴ ᤖᤧ ᤘᤡᤁᤡᤐᤡᤍᤡᤕᤠ ᤀᤥ ॥ ᤛᤧᤘᤠᤖᤥ᥄ ᤀᤠᤍᤠᤏᤠᤒᤠ ᤀᤠᤍᤠᤏᤠᤔ ᤀᤠᤛᤧ ᤗᤠᤶᤎ ᤀᤡᤏᤠᤃ ᤗᤠᤶᤎᤠᤁᤠ ᤕᤠᤰᤌᤢᤱ ᤐᤠᤏᤠ ᤖᤧ ᤘᤡᤁᤡᤐᤧᤍᤤ ᤀ। ᤗᤡᤶᤒᤢ ᤓᤠᤙᤠᤁᤥ ᤘᤡᤁᤡᤐᤡ᤺ᤍᤡᤕᤠᤔᤠ ᤛᤫᤠᤃᤋ ᤇ। ᤗᤡᤶᤒᤢ ᤓᤠᤛᤠᤁᤨ ᤘᤡᤁᤡᤐᤡᤍᤡᤕᤠ ᤀᤜᤡᤗᤧ ᤀᤡᤴᤁᤢᤒᤧᤛᤠᤏᤠ (ᤐᤠᤖᤣᤰᤙᤠᤏ ᤘᤡᤁᤡ) ᤀᤷᤌᤠᤳ ᤁᤨᤁᤨᤔᤠ ᤇᤠ। ᤕᤛᤗᤠᤀᤡ᤺ ᤀᤃᤠᤍᤡ ᤒᤎᤠᤀᤢᤏᤠᤁᤠ ᤗᤠᤃᤡ ᤁᤠᤶᤋᤡᤔᤠ ᥈ ᤛᤠᤕᤠ ᤗᤧᤰ ᤗᤡᤶᤒᤢ ᤓᤠᤙᤠᤔᤠ ᤜᤢᤏᤠ ᤈᤠᤖᤥᤖᤣ ᤇᤠ। ᤋᤩᤛᤁᤠᤖᤏ ᤗᤡᤶᤒᤢ ᤓᤠᤙᤠᤔᤠ ᤗᤧᤂᤠᤜᤠᤖᤢ ᤗᤧᤰᤏᤠ ᤛᤢᤖᤢᤃᤠᤷᤏᤠ ᤛᤠᤒᤤ ᤗᤡᤶᤒᤢᤓᤠᤙᤡ ᤔᤡᤳᤖᤜᤠᤖᤢᤔᤠ ᤜᤠᤷᤍᤡᤰ ᤀᤠᤏᤢᤖᤨᤎ ᤇᤠ।
Three additional letters were used in early versions of the modern script: [2]
Two ligatures were used for Nepali consonant conjuncts: [6]
Nineteenth-century texts used a small anusvara (ᤲ) to mark nasalization. This was used interchangeably with ᤱ /ŋ/.
The sign ᥀ was used for the exclamatory particle ᤗᤥ (/lo/). [2]
The main punctuation mark used in Limbu is the Devanagari double danda (॥). [2] It has its own exclamation mark (᥄) and question mark (᥅).
0 ᥆ | 1 ᥇ | 2 ᥈ | 3 ᥉ | 4 ᥊ | 5 ᥋ | 6 ᥌ | 7 ᥍ | 8 ᥎ | 9 ᥏ |
Limbu script was added to the Unicode Standard in April, 2003 with the release of version 4.0.
The Unicode block for Limbu is U+1900–U+194F:
| Limbu [1] [2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+190x | ᤀ | ᤁ | ᤂ | ᤃ | ᤄ | ᤅ | ᤆ | ᤇ | ᤈ | ᤉ | ᤊ | ᤋ | ᤌ | ᤍ | ᤎ | ᤏ |
| U+191x | ᤐ | ᤑ | ᤒ | ᤓ | ᤔ | ᤕ | ᤖ | ᤗ | ᤘ | ᤙ | ᤚ | ᤛ | ᤜ | ᤝ | ᤞ | |
| U+192x | ᤠ | ᤡ | ᤢ | ᤣ | ᤤ | ᤥ | ᤦ | ᤧ | ᤨ | ᤩ | ᤪ | ᤫ | ||||
| U+193x | ᤰ | ᤱ | ᤲ | ᤳ | ᤴ | ᤵ | ᤶ | ᤷ | ᤸ | ᤹ | ᤺ | ᤻ | ||||
| U+194x | ᥀ | ᥄ | ᥅ | ᥆ | ᥇ | ᥈ | ᥉ | ᥊ | ᥋ | ᥌ | ᥍ | ᥎ | ᥏ | |||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
An abugida – sometimes also called alphasyllabary, neosyllabary, or pseudo-alphabet – is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is secondary, similar to a diacritical mark. This contrasts with a full alphabet, in which vowels have status equal to consonants, and with an abjad, in which vowel marking is absent, partial, or optional – in less formal contexts, all three types of the script may be termed "alphabets". The terms also contrast them with a syllabary, in which a single symbol denotes the combination of one consonant and one vowel.
The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India and are used by various languages in several language families in South, East and Southeast Asia: Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, Mongolic, Austroasiatic, Austronesian, and Tai. They were also the source of the dictionary order (gojūon) of Japanese kana.
The Soyombo script is an abugida developed by the monk and scholar Zanabazar in 1686 to write Mongolian. It can also be used to write Tibetan and Sanskrit.
The Odia script is a Brahmic script used to write primarily Odia language and others including Sanskrit and other regional languages. It is one of the official scripts of the Indian Republic. The script has developed over more than 1000 years from a variant of Siddhaṃ script which was used in Eastern India, where the characteristic top line transformed into a distinct round umbrella shape due to the influence of palm leaf manuscripts and also being influenced by the neighbouring scripts from the Western and Southern regions.
Surat Buhid is an abugida used to write the Buhid language. As a Brahmic script indigenous to the Philippines, it closely related to Baybayin and Hanunó'o. It is still used today by the Mangyans, found mainly on island of Mindoro, to write their language, Buhid, together with the Filipino latin script.
The Cham script is a Brahmic abugida used to write Cham, an Austronesian language spoken by some 245,000 Chams in Vietnam and Cambodia. It is written horizontally left to right, just like other Brahmic abugidas.
Limbu is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Limbu people of Nepal and Northeastern India as well as expatriate communities in Bhutan. The Limbu refer to themselves as Yakthung and their language as Yakthungpan. Yakthungpan has four main dialects: Phedape, Chhathare, Tambarkhole and Panthare dialects.
Warang Citi is a writing system invented by Lako Bodra for the Ho language spoken in East India. It is used in primary and adult education and in various publications.
The Lepcha script, or Róng script, is an abugida used by the Lepcha people to write the Lepcha language. Unusually for an abugida, syllable-final consonants are written as diacritics.
The Rejang script is an abugida of the Brahmic family that is related to other scripts of the region, such as the Batak and Lontara scripts. Rejang is also a member of the closely related group of Ulu scripts that include the script variants of South Sumatra, Bengkulu, Lembak, Lintang, Lebong, and Serawai. Other closely related scripts that are sometimes included in the Surat Ulu group include the Ogan, Kerinci, and Lampung scripts. The script was in use prior to the introduction of Islam to the Rejang area; the earliest attested document appears to date from the mid-18th century CE. The Rejang script is sometimes also known as the KaGaNga script following the first three letters of the alphabet. The term KaGaNga was never used by the users of the script community, but it was coined by the British anthropologist Mervyn A. Jaspan (1926–1975) in his book Folk literature of South Sumatra. Redjang Ka-Ga-Nga texts. Canberra, The Australian National University 1964.
The Saurashtra script is an abugida script that is used by Saurashtrians of Tamil Nadu to write the Saurashtra language. The script is of Brahmic origin, although its exact derivation is not known; it was later reformed and standardized by T. M. Rama Rai. Its usage has declined, and the Tamil and Latin scripts are now used more commonly.
In orthography, a zero consonant, silent initial, or null-onset letter is a consonant letter that does not correspond to a consonant sound, but is required when a word or syllable starts with a vowel. Some abjads, abugidas, and alphabets have zero consonants, generally because they have an orthographic rule that all syllables must begin with a consonant letter, whereas the language they transcribe allows syllables to start with a vowel. In a few cases, such as Pahawh Hmong below, the lack of a consonant letter represents a specific consonant sound, so the lack of a consonant sound requires a distinct letter to disambiguate.
Ja is the eighth consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, ja is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter .
Zanabazar's square script is a horizontal Mongolian square script, an abugida developed by the monk and scholar Zanabazar based on the Tibetan alphabet to write Mongolian. It can also be used to write Tibetan language and Sanskrit as a geometric typeface.
A is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, A is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter . Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the "A" vowel inherently, and thus there is no modifier sign for "A" in Indic scripts.
Ī is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ī is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter . As an Indic vowel, Ī comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.
U is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, U is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter . As an Indic vowel, U comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.
Ḷ or Vocalic L is a vowel symbol of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ḷ is derived from the Brahmi letter . As an Indic vowel, Ḷ comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.
O is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, O is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter . As an Indic vowel, O comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.
The Tai Viet script is a Brahmic script used by the Tai Dam people and various other Thai people in Vietnam and Thailand.
