Lepcha script

Lepcha
ᰛᰩᰵ‎
Lepcha; ᰛᰩᰵ‎
Script type	Abugida
Time period	c. 1700–present
Direction	Left-to-right
Languages	Lepcha
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Aramaic Brahmi Gupta Tibetan Lepcha; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Child systems	Limbu
Sister systems	Meitei, Khema, Phagspa, Marchen
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Lepc (335), Lepcha (Róng)
Unicode
Unicode alias	Lepcha
Unicode range	U+1C00–U+1C4F
	This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

This article contains Lepcha characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.

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.

History

Lepcha is derived from the Tibetan script, and may have some Burmese influence. According to tradition, it was devised at the beginning of the 18th century by prince Chakdor Namgyal of the Namgyal dynasty of Sikkim, or by scholar Thikúng Men Salóng in the 17th century. Early Lepcha manuscripts were written vertically. When they were later written horizontally, the letters remained in their new orientations, rotated 90° from their Tibetan prototypes. This resulted in an unusual method of writing final consonants.

Typology

Lepcha is now written horizontally, but the changes in the direction of writing have resulted in a metamorphosis of the eight syllable-final consonants from conjuncts (ligatures) as in Tibetan to superposed diacritics.

As in most other Brahmic scripts, the short vowel /-a/ is not written; other vowels are written with diacritics before (/-i, -o/), after (/-ā, -u/), or under (/-e/) the initial consonant. The length mark, however, is written over the initial, as well as any final consonant diacritic, and fuses with /-o/ and /-u/. (When fused as /-ō/, however, it lies below any final consonant.) Initial vowels do not have separate letters, but are written with the vowel diacritics on an &-shaped zero-consonant letter.

There are postposed diacritics for medial /-y-/ and /-r-/, which may be combined (krya). For medial /-l-/, however, there are seven dedicated conjunct letters. That is, there is a special letter for /kla/ which does not resemble the letter for /ka/. (Only /gla/ is written with a straightforward diacritic.)

One of the final letters, /-ŋ/, is an exception to these patterns. First, unlike the other finals, final /-ŋ/ is written to the left of the initial consonant rather than on top, occurring even before preposed vowels. That is, /kiŋ/ is written "ngki". Second, there is no inherent vowel before /-ŋ/; even short /-a-/ must be written, with a diacritic unique to this situation. (It appears to be the diacritic for long /-ā/ rotated 180° around the consonant letter.) That is, /kaŋ/ is written "ngka", rather than "ngk" as would be expected from the general pattern.

Structure

As an abugida, a basic letter represents both a consonant followed by an inherent vowel. In Lepcha, the inherent vowel is /a/. To start a syllable with a vowel, the appropriate vowel diacritic is added to the vowel-carrier ᰣ‎. A vowel-carrier with no diacritic represents the sound /a/.

Consonants

Consonants
ᰀ‎ ka IPA: /ka/	ᰂ‎ kha IPA: /kʰa/	ᰃ‎ ga IPA: /ga/	ᰅ‎ nga IPA: /ŋa/	ᰆ‎ ca IPA: /ca/	ᰇ‎ cha IPA: /cʰa/	ᰈ‎ ja IPA: /dʒa/	ᰉ‎ nya IPA: /nja/	ᰊ‎ ta IPA: /ta/	ᰋ‎ tha IPA: /tʰa/
ᰌ‎ da IPA: /da/	ᰍ‎ na IPA: /na/	ᰎ‎ pa IPA: /pa/	ᰐ‎ pha IPA: /pʰa/	ᰑ‎ fa IPA: /fa/	ᰓ‎ ba IPA: /ba/	ᰕ‎ ma IPA: /ma/	ᰗ‎ tsa IPA: /tˢa/	ᰘ‎ tsha IPA: /tʃa/	ᰙ‎ za IPA: /za/
ᰚ‎ ya IPA: /ja/	ᰛ‎ ra IPA: /ra/	ᰜ‎ la IPA: /la/	ᰝ‎ ha IPA: /ha/	ᰟ‎ va IPA: /va/	ᰡ‎ sha IPA: /ʃa/	ᰠ‎ sa IPA: /sa/	ᰢ‎ wa IPA: /ua/	ᰁ‎ kla IPA: /kla/
ᰄ‎ gla IPA: /gla/	ᰞ‎ hla IPA: /hla/	ᱍ‎ tta IPA: /ʈa/	ᱎ‎ ttha IPA: /ʈʰa/	ᱏ‎ dda IPA: /ɖa/	ᰏ‎ pla IPA: /pla/	ᰒ‎ fla IPA: /fla/	ᰔ‎ bla IPA: /bla/	ᰖ‎ mla IPA: /mla/

A consonant cluster can be formed by adding one of the subjoiners to a base letter.

Subjoined Consonants
y subjoiner ᰤ‎ y	ᰜ + ◌ ᰤ‎ ᰜᰤ‎ lya	r subjoiner ᰥ‎ r	ᰜ + ◌ ᰥ‎ ᰜ ᰥ‎ la

Final Consonants, their diacritics, and examples
ᰭ‎ k	ᰮ‎ m	ᰯ‎ l	ᰰ‎ n	ᰱ‎ p	ᰲ‎ r	ᰳ‎ t	ᰴ‎ ng	ᰵ‎ ng
ᰜᰭ‎ lak	ᰜᰮ‎ lam	ᰜᰯ‎ lal	ᰜᰰ‎ lan	ᰜᰱ‎ lap	ᰜᰲ‎ lar	ᰜᰳ‎ lat	ᰜᰫᰴ‎ lang ^{[note 1]}	ᰜᰫ ᰵ‎ lúng ^{[note 1]}

^ ^a ^b Written as ⟨ᰴ‎⟩ with an /-a-/ vowel, as in the example. When a vowel diacritic is present, it is written ⟨ᰵ‎⟩, as in ⟨ᰜᰫ ᰵ‎⟩

Vowels

Vowels diacritics, and examples
	ᰶ‎ â IPA: /ə/	ᰦ‎ á IPA: /a/	ᰧ‎ i IPA: /i/	ᰧ ᰶ‎ í IPA: /i/	ᰨ‎ o IPA: /o/	ᰩ‎ ó IPA: /ɔ/	ᰪ‎ u IPA: /ɯ/	ᰫ‎ ú IPA: /u/	ᰬ‎ e/ä IPA: /e~ɛ/ ^{[note 1]}
ᰣ‎	ᰣᰶ‎	ᰣᰦ‎	ᰣᰧ‎	ᰣᰧᰶ‎	ᰣᰨ‎	ᰣᰩ‎	ᰣᰪ‎	ᰣᰫ‎	ᰣᰬ‎
ᰜ‎ la	ᰜᰶ‎ lâ	ᰜᰦ‎ lá	ᰜᰧ‎ li	ᰜᰧᰶ‎ lí	ᰜᰨ‎ lo	ᰜᰩ‎ ló	ᰜᰪ‎ lu	ᰜᰫ‎ lú	ᰜᰬ‎ le

^ The transcription 'e' is used in this article.

Numerals

Lepcha numerals
0 ᱀‎	1 ᱁‎	2 ᱂‎	3 ᱃‎	4 ᱄‎	5 ᱅‎	6 ᱆‎	7 ᱇‎	8 ᱈‎	9 ᱉‎

Unicode

Lepcha script was added to the Unicode Standard in April, 2008 with the release of version 5.1.

The Unicode block for Lepcha is U+1C00–U+1C4F:

Lepcha^[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+1C0x	ᰀ‎	ᰁ‎	ᰂ‎	ᰃ‎	ᰄ‎	ᰅ‎	ᰆ‎	ᰇ‎	ᰈ‎	ᰉ‎	ᰊ‎	ᰋ‎	ᰌ‎	ᰍ‎	ᰎ‎	ᰏ‎
U+1C1x	ᰐ‎	ᰑ‎	ᰒ‎	ᰓ‎	ᰔ‎	ᰕ‎	ᰖ‎	ᰗ‎	ᰘ‎	ᰙ‎	ᰚ‎	ᰛ‎	ᰜ‎	ᰝ‎	ᰞ‎	ᰟ‎
U+1C2x	ᰠ‎	ᰡ‎	ᰢ‎	ᰣ‎	ᰤ‎	ᰥ‎	ᰦ‎	ᰧ‎	ᰨ‎	ᰩ‎	ᰪ‎	ᰫ‎	ᰬ‎	ᰭ‎	ᰮ‎	ᰯ‎
U+1C3x	ᰰ‎	ᰱ‎	ᰲ‎	ᰳ‎	ᰴ‎	ᰵ‎	ᰶ‎	᰷‎				᰻‎	᰼‎	᰽‎	᰾‎	᰿‎
U+1C4x	᱀‎	᱁‎	᱂‎	᱃‎	᱄‎	᱅‎	᱆‎	᱇‎	᱈‎	᱉‎				ᱍ‎	ᱎ‎	ᱏ‎
Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 15.1 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

References

Leonard van der Kuijp, The Tibetan Script and Derivatives, in Daniels and Bright, The World's Writing Systems, 1996.

External links

Lepcha script at Omniglot.com
Róng Kít - A free Lepcha Unicode Kit including fonts and keyboard files (Win/Mac/Linux), published by the Sikkim Bhutia Lepcha Apex Committee (SIBLAC)
Noto Sans Lepcha - A free Lepcha Unicode font that harmonizes with other fonts of the Noto font family
Mingzat - A Lepcha Unicode font by SIL, based on Jason Glavy’s JG Lepcha
JG Lepcha - A free and well designed but non-Unicode compliant font by Jason Glavy.