Shan alphabet
Shan script လိၵ်ႈတႆး | ||
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Script type | ||
Direction | Left-to-right Unicode range | Myanmar |
[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon. |
Brahmic scripts |
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The Brahmi script and its descendants |
The Shan alphabet is a Brahmic abugida, used for writing the Shan language, which was derived from the Burmese alphabet.[2] Due to its recent reforms, the Shan alphabet is more phonetic than other Burmese-derived alphabets.
History
Around the 15th or 16th centuries, the
Until the 1960s, Shan alphabet did not differentiate all vowels and diphthongs and had only one tone marker and a single form could represent up to 15 sounds. Only the well-trained were able to read Shan. The alphabet was reformed, making the modern alphabet easier to read with all tones indicated unambiguously.
Characteristics
The Shan alphabet is characterised by the circular letter forms of the
Vowels
The representation of the vowels depends partly on whether the syllable has a final consonant. They are typically arranged in the manner below to show the logical relationships between the medial and the final forms and between the individual vowels and the vowel clusters they help form.
Medial Vowels | ||||||||||
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(unmarked) a (a) |
ၢ aa (ɑː) |
ိ i (i) |
ဵ e (e) |
ႅ ae (æ) |
ု u (u) |
ူ o (o) |
ွ aw/o (ɔ) |
ို eu (ɯ) |
ိူ oe (ə) |
ႂ[7] wa (ʷ) |
Final Vowels | ||||||||||
ႃ aa (ɑː) |
ီ ii (iː) |
ေ e (e) |
ႄ ae (æ) |
ူ uu (uː) |
ူဝ် o (o) |
ေႃ aw/o (ɔ) |
ိုဝ် eu (ɯ) |
ိူဝ် oe(ə) | ||
ႆ ai (ai) |
ၢႆ aai (aːi) |
ုၺ် ui (ui) |
ူၺ် ohi/uai (oi) |
ွႆ oi/oy (ɔi) |
ိုၺ် uei/uey (ɨi) |
ိူၺ် oei/oey (əi) | ||||
ဝ် aw (au) |
ၢဝ် aaw (aːu) |
ိဝ် iu (iu) |
ဵဝ် eo(eu) |
ႅဝ် aeo (æu) |
ႂ် aɨ (aɯ) |
Consonants
The Shan alphabet is much less complex than those of related
The number of consonants in a textbook may vary: there are 19 universally accepted Shan consonants (ၵ ၶ င ၸ သ ၺ တ ထ ၼ ပ ၽ ၾ မ ယ ရ လ ဝ ႁ ဢ) and five more which represent sounds not found in Shan, g, z, b, d and th [θ]. These five (ၷ ၹ ၿ ၻ ႀ) are quite rare. In addition, most editors include a dummy consonant (ဢ) used in words with a vowel onset. A textbook may therefore present 18-24 consonants.
ၵ ka (ka) |
ၶ kha (kʰa) |
င nga (ŋa) |
ၸ tsa (t͡ɕa) |
သ sa (sa) |
ၺ nya (ɲa) | ||
တ ta (ta) |
ထ tha (tʰa) |
ၼ na (na) |
ပ pa (pa) |
ၽ pha (pʰa) |
ၾ fa (fa) | ||
မ ma (ma) |
ယ ya (ja) |
ရ ra (ra) |
လ la (la) |
ဝ wa (wa) |
ႁ ha (ha) | ||
ဢ a (ʔa) | |||||||
Final consonants and other symbols | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
မ် (m) |
ၼ် (n) |
င် (ŋ) |
ပ် (p) |
တ် (t) |
ၵ် (k) |
ျ (ʃa) |
ြ (pʰra) |
4 consonants used primarily in loan words:
ၷ gǎ (/ɡa˨˦/) |
ႀ xǎ (/θa˨˦/) |
ၻ dǎ (/da˨˦/) |
ၿ bǎ (/ba˨˦/) |
Like other Brahmi scripts, Shan consonants are typically arranged in rows based on place of articulation with columns based on aspiration and voicing. This chart displays a 19 consonant version of the consonants in that style. The 4 loan consonants are typically arranged below this chart.
ၵ kǎ (/ka˨˦/) |
ၶ khǎ (/kʰa˨˦/) |
င ngǎ (/ŋa˨˦/) |
ၸ tsǎ (/t͡ɕa˨˦/) |
သ sǎ (/sʰa˨˦/) |
ၺ nyǎ (/ɲa˨˦/) |
တ tǎ (/ta˨˦/) |
ထ thǎ (/tʰa˨˦/) |
ၼ nǎ (/na˨˦/) |
ပ pǎ (/pa˨˦/) |
ၽ phǎ (/pʰa˨˦/) |
ၾ fǎ (/fa˨˦/) |
မ mǎ (/ma˨˦/) |
ယ yǎ (/ja˨˦/) |
ရ rǎ (/ra˨˦/) |
လ lǎ (/la˨˦/) |
ဝ wǎ (/wa˨˦/) |
ႁ hǎ (/ha˨˦/) |
ဢ ʼǎ (/ʔa˨˦/) |
Tones
The tones are indicated by tone markers at the end of the syllable. Shan tonal markers are mostly unambiguous and phonetic. In the absence of any marker, the default is the rising tone.
Sign | Name | Tone |
---|---|---|
ႇ | ယၵ်း (ják) | 2 |
ႈ | ယၵ်းၸမ်ႈ (ják tsam) | 3 |
း | ၸမ်ႈၼႃႈ (tsam naː) | 4 |
ႉ | ၸမ်ႈတႂ်ႈ (tsam tau) | 5 |
ႊ | ယၵ်းၶိုၼ်ႈ (ják kʰɯn) | 6 |
While the reformed script originally used only four diacritic tone markers, equivalent to the five tones spoken in the southern dialect, the Lashio-based Shan Literature and Culture Association now, for a number of words, promotes the use of the 'yak khuen' (Shan: ယၵ်းၶိုၼ်ႈ) to denote the sixth tone as pronounced in the north.
Numerals
There are differences between the numerals used by the Shan script in China and Myanmar. The numerals used by Shan in China are similar to the numbers in
Arabic | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
Tham Hora | ᪀ | ᪁ | ᪂ | ᪃ | ᪄ | ᪅ | ᪆ | ᪇ | ᪈ | ᪉ |
Chinese Shan | ᧐ | ᧑ | ᥨ | ၃ | ၄ | ၅ | ᧖ | ၇ | ᧘ | ᧙ |
Chinese Tai Le | ᧐ | ᧑ | ᥨ | ၃ | ၄ | ၅ | ᧖ | ၇ | ᧘ | ᧖ |
Burmese | ၀ | ၁ | ၂ | ၃ | ၄ | ၅ | ၆ | ၇ | ၈ | ၉ |
Burmese Shan | ႐ | ႑ | ႒ | ႓ | ႔ | ႕ | ႖ | ႗ | ႘ | ႙ |
Burmese Tai Le | ႐ | ႑ | ႔ | ႕ | ႖ | ႗ | ႘ | ႙ |
Punctuation
There are three main punctuation marks in Shan script with an addition mark for letter reduplication, typically as shorthand.
၊ Comma |
။ Period |
႟ Exclamation |
ꧦ Letter reduplication |
Syllables
Below are charts with syllables showcasing how of Shan script vowels and consonants are combined.
Monophthongs
ဢ - ʼǎ (/ʔa˨˦/) |
ဢႃ -ႃ ʼǎa (/ʔaː˨˦/) |
ဢိ -ိ ʼǐ (/ʔi˨˦/) |
ဢီ -ီ ʼǐi (/ʔiː˨˦/) |
ဢေ ေ- ʼǎe (/ʔeː˨˦/) |
ဢႄ ႄ- ʼě (/ʔɛː˨˦/) |
ဢု -ု ʼǔ (/ʔu˨˦/) |
ဢူ -ူ ʼǔu (/ʔuː˨˦/) |
ဢူဝ် -ူဝ် ʼǒ (/ʔoː˨˦/) |
ဢေႃ ေ-ႃ ʼǎu (/ʔɔː˨˦/) |
ဢိုဝ် -ိုဝ် ʼǔe (/ʔɯː˨˦/) |
ဢိူဝ် -ိူဝ် ʼǒe (/ʔɤː˨˦/) |
Diphthongs
ဢႆ -ႆ ʼǎi (/ʔaj˨˦/) |
ဢၢႆ -ၢႆ ʼǎai (/ʔaːj˨˦/) |
ဢွႆ -ွႆ ʼǎui (/ʔɔj˨˦/) |
||
ဢုၺ် -ုၺ် ʼǔi (/ʔuj˨˦/) |
ဢူၺ် -ူၺ် ʼǒi (/ʔoj˨˦/) |
ဢိုၺ် -ိုၺ် ʼǔei (/ʔɯj˨˦/) |
ဢိူၺ် -ိူၺ် ʼǒei (/ʔɤj˨˦/) |
|
ဢဝ် -ဝ် ʼǎo (/ʔaw˨˦/) |
ဢၢဝ် -ၢဝ် ʼǎao (/ʔaːw˨˦/) |
ဢိဝ် -ိဝ် ʼǐo (/ʔiw˨˦/) |
ဢဵဝ် -ဵဝ် ʼǎei (/ʔew˨˦/) |
ဢႅဝ် -ႅဝ် ʼěo (/ʔɛw˨˦/) |
ဢႂ် -ႂ် ʼǎue (/ʔaɰ˨˦/) |
Tones
ပႃ pǎa (/paː˨˦/) |
ပႃႇ pàa (/paː˩/) |
ပႃႈ pāa (/paː˧˧˨/) |
ပႃး páa (/paː˥/) |
ပႃႉ pâ̰a (/paː˦˨ˀ/) |
ပႃႊ pa᷈a (/paː˧˦˧/) |
Unicode
The Shan script has been encoded as a part of the Myanmar block with the release version of Unicode 3.0.
Myanmar[1] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
U+100x | က | ခ | ဂ | ဃ | င | စ | ဆ | ဇ | ဈ | ဉ | ည | ဋ | ဌ | ဍ | ဎ | ဏ |
U+101x | တ | ထ | ဒ | ဓ | န | ပ | ဖ | ဗ | ဘ | မ | ယ | ရ | လ | ဝ | သ | ဟ |
U+102x | ဠ | အ | ဢ | ဣ | ဤ | ဥ | ဦ | ဧ | ဨ | ဩ | ဪ | ါ | ာ | ိ | ီ | ု |
U+103x | ူ | ေ | ဲ | ဳ | ဴ | ဵ | ံ | ့ | း | ္ | ် | ျ | ြ | ွ | ှ | ဿ |
U+104x | ၀ | ၁ | ၂ | ၃ | ၄ | ၅ | ၆ | ၇ | ၈ | ၉ | ၊ | ။ | ၌ | ၍ | ၎ | ၏ |
U+105x | ၐ | ၑ | ၒ | ၓ | ၔ | ၕ | ၖ | ၗ | ၘ | ၙ | ၚ | ၛ | ၜ | ၝ | ၞ | ၟ |
U+106x | ၠ | ၡ | ၢ | ၣ | ၤ | ၥ | ၦ | ၧ | ၨ | ၩ | ၪ | ၫ | ၬ | ၭ | ၮ | ၯ |
U+107x | ၰ | ၱ | ၲ | ၳ | ၴ | ၵ | ၶ | ၷ | ၸ | ၹ | ၺ | ၻ | ၼ | ၽ | ၾ | ၿ |
U+108x | ႀ | ႁ | ႂ | ႃ | ႄ | ႅ | ႆ | ႇ | ႈ | ႉ | ႊ | ႋ | ႌ | ႍ | ႎ | ႏ |
U+109x | ႐ | ႑ | ႒ | ႓ | ႔ | ႕ | ႖ | ႗ | ႘ | ႙ | ႚ | ႛ | ႜ | ႝ | ႞ | ႟ |
Notes
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Gallery
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A sign written in Shan along with other languages in Chiang Mai, Thailand
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A sign written in Shan in Chiang Mai, Thailand
References
- ^ Diringer, David (1948). Alphabet a key to the history of mankind. p. 411.
- ^ a b Ager, Simon. "Shan alphabet, pronunciation and language". Omniglot. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
- ^ Ferlus, Michel (Jun 1999). "Les dialectes et les écritures des Tai (Thai) du Nghệ An (Vietnam)". Treizièmes Journées de Linguistique d'Asie Orientale. Paris, France.
- .
- ^ Terwiel, B. J., & Wichasin, R. (eds.), (1992). Tai Ahoms and the stars: three ritual texts to ward off danger. Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program.
- S2CID 143348310.
- ^ "Data" (PDF). unicode.org. Retrieved 2020-06-22.