Tai Tham alphabet

Tai Tham
Type	Abugida
Languages	Northern Thai, Tai Lü, Khün
Time period	c. 1300–present
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic alphabet Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Brāhmī Pallava Tai Tham
ISO 15924	Lana, 351
Direction	Left-to-right
Unicode alias	Tai Tham
Unicode range	U+1A20–U+1AAF

The Tai Tham script (Northern Thai: ᨲᩫ᩠ᩅᨾᩮᩬᩥᨦ, Northern Thai pronunciation: [tǔa.mɯ̄aŋ]  listen, tua mueanɡ; Tai Lü: ᦒᧄ , Tham, "scripture"), also known as the Lanna script or Tua Mueang, is used for three living languages: Northern Thai (that is, Kham Mueang), Tai Lü and Khün. In addition, the Lanna script is used for Lao Tham (or old Lao) and other dialect variants in Buddhist palm leaves and notebooks. The script is also known as Tham or Yuan script.

The Northern Thai language is a close relative of Thai and member of the Chiang Saeng language family. It is spoken by nearly 6,000,000 people in Northern Thailand and several thousand in Laos of whom few are literate in Lanna script. The script is still read by older monks. Northern Thai has six linguistic tones and Thai only five, making transcription into the Thai alphabet problematic. There is some resurgent interest in the script among younger people, but an added complication is that the modern spoken form, called Kammuang, differs in pronunciation from the older form.^[1]

There are 670,000 speakers of Tai Lü of whom those born before 1950 are literate in Lanna script. The script has also continued to be taught in the monasteries. There are 120,000 speakers of Khün for which Lanna is the only script.

Name board outside a Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai written with Lanna characters: Wat Mokhamtuang (and street number 119 in Thai)

Consonants

Consonants are divided into two groups: main consonants (พยัญชนะหลัก) and added consonants (พยัชนะเติม). There are 33 main consonants, and there are 15 added consonants. The main consonants are those from Pali. The main consonant group is further divided into two groups: categorized (พยัญชนะวัคค์, vagga) and uncategorized consonants (พยัญชนะอวัคค์, avagga). There are 25 categorized consonants, and there are 8 uncategorized consonants. The added consonant group consists of consonants that have been added to write Tai sounds that do not occur in Pali.

Categorized
Obstruents							Nasals
main	added	main	added	main	added	main
ká /k/ hiɡh		khá /x/ hiɡh	khá /x/ hiɡh	ka᷇ /k/ low	kha᷇ /x/ low	kha᷇ /x/ low	nga᷇ /ŋ/ low
chá /t͡ɕ/ hiɡh		sá /s/ hiɡh		cha᷇ /t͡ɕ/ low	sa᷇ /s/ low	, sa᷇ /s/ low	nya᷇ /ɲ/ low
la tá /t/ hiɡh		, la thá /tʰ/ hiɡh		da᷇ /d/ mid		la tha᷇ /tʰ/ low	la na᷇ /n/ low
tá /t/ hiɡh		thá /tʰ/ hiɡh		ta᷇ /t/ low		tha᷇ /tʰ/ low	na᷇ /n/ low
bá /b/ mid	pá /p/ hiɡh	phá /pʰ/ hiɡh	fá /f/ hiɡh	pa᷇ /p/ low	fa᷇ /f/ low	pha᷇ /pʰ/ low	ma᷇ /m/ low
Uncategorized
nya᷇ /ɲ/ low	yá /j/ mid	ha᷇ /h/ low		la᷇ /l/ low		wa᷇ /w/ low
sá /s/ hiɡh		sá /s/ hiɡh		sá /s/ hiɡh
há /h/ hiɡh		la᷇ /l/ low		, á /ʔ/ mid	ha᷇ /h/ low

, lāe /lɛ̄ː/

nā /nāː/

sǒr sǒnɡ ho᷇nɡ /sɔ̌ː sɔ̌ːŋ hɔ᷇ːŋ/

nya᷇ nya᷇ /ɲa᷇ʔ ɲa᷇ʔ/

ra rōnɡ /la᷇.hōːŋ/

lu᷇e /lɯ᷇ʔ/

lūe /lɯ̄ː/

Vowels

Northern Thai language written in Tai Tham script in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Vowels are written at various locations around their consonant, like Thai.^[2] There are special letters for initial vowels, and many vowel combinations.

Pali vowels

Tai Tham		-						-
	ᩋ	-ᩣ	ᩍ	ᩎ	ᩏ	ᩐ	ᩑ	-ᩮᩣ,-ᩮᩤ, ᩒ
IPA	/ʔáʔ/	/ʔāː/	/ʔíʔ/	/ʔīː/	/ʔúʔ/	/ʔūː/	/ʔēː/	/ʔōː/

Tonal markers

mai yo /máj.jɔ́ʔ/

mai kho chang /máj.xɔ̌ː.t͡ɕáːŋ/

Tai Tham and Other Scripts

Categorized letters

Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese Khmer IPA Alphabet Subs. /ká/ ᨠ -᩠ᨠ ก ກ က ក /xá/ ᨡ -᩠ᨡ ข ຂ ခ ខ /xá/ ᨢ - ฃ /ka᷇/ ᨣ -᩠ᨣ ค ຄ ဂ គ /xa᷇/ ᨤ - ฅ /xa᷇/ ᨥ -᩠ᨥ ฆ ဃ ឃ /ŋa᷇/ ᨦ -᩠ᨦ ง ງ င ង	Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese Khmer IPA Alphabet Subs. /t͡ɕá/ ᨧ -᩠ᨧ จ ຈ စ ច /sá/ ᨨ -᩠ᨨ ฉ ဆ ឆ /t͡ɕa᷇/ ᨩ -᩠ᨩ ช ຊ ဇ ជ /sa᷇/ ᨪ - ซ /sa᷇/ ᨫ -᩠ᨫ ฌ ဈ ឈ /ɲa᷇/ /ja᷇/[3] ᨬ -᩠ᨬ ญ ည ញ	Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese Khmer IPA Alphabet Subs. /tá/ ᨭ -᩠ᨭ ฏ ဋ ដ /tʰá/ ᨮ -᩠ᨮ ฐ ဌ ឋ /dá/ ᨯ -᩠ᨯ ฑ,ด ,ດ ဍ ឌ /tʰa᷇/ ᨰ -᩠ᨰ ฒ ဎ ឍ /na᷇/ ᨱ -᩠ᨱ ณ ဏ ណ
Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese Khmer IPA Alphabet Subs. /tá/ ᨲ -᩠ᨲ ต ຕ တ ត /tʰá/ ᨳ -᩠ᨳ ถ ຖ ထ ថ /ta᷇/ ᨴ -᩠ᨴ ท ທ ဒ ទ /tʰa᷇/ ᨵ -᩠ᨵ ธ ဓ ធ /na᷇/ ᨶ -᩠ᨶ น ນ န ន	Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese Khmer IPA Alphabet Subs. /bá/ ᨷ -᩠ᨷ บ ບ ပ ប /pá/ ᨸ - ป ປ /pʰá/ ᨹ -᩠ᨹ ผ ຜ ဖ ផ /fá/ ᨺ - ฝ ຝ /pa᷇/ ᨻ -᩠ᨻ พ ພ ဗ ព /fa᷇/ ᨼ - ฟ ຟ /pʰa᷇/ ᨽ -᩠ᨽ ภ ဘ ភ /ma᷇/ ᨾ -᩠ᨾ ม ມ မ ម

Uncategorized letters

Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese Khmer IPA Alphabet Subs. /ɲa᷇/ /ja᷇/[3] ᨿ -᩠ᨿ ย ต่ำ ຍ ယ យ /já/ ᩀ - ย กลาง, อย ຢ /há/ /lá/ ᩁ -᩠ᩁ ร ຣ ရ រ /lɯ́ʔ/ ᩂ - ฤ /la᷇/ ᩃ -᩠ᩃ ล ລ လ ល /lɯ̄ː/ ᩄ - ฦ /wa᷇/ ᩅ -᩠ᩅ ว ວ ဝ វ

Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese Khmer IPA Alphabet Subs. /sá/ ᩆ -᩠ᩆ ศ ၐ ឝ /sá/ ᩇ -᩠ᩇ ษ ၑ ឞ /sá/ ᩈ -᩠ᩈ ส ສ သ ស /há/ ᩉ -᩠ᩉ ห ຫ ဟ ហ /la᷇/ ᩊ -᩠ᩊ ฬ ဠ ឡ /ʔá/ ᩋ -᩠ᩋ อ ອ အ អ /ha᷇/ ᩌ - ฮ ຮ

Numerals

Sanskrit and Pali

The Tai Tham script (like all Indic scripts) uses a number of modifications to write Pali and related languages (in particular, Sanskrit). When writing Pali, only 33 consonants and 12 vowels are used.

Plosives (วัคค์ ᩅᩢᨣ᩠ᨣ᩼ vagga)

class	unaspirated unvoiced สิถิลอโฆษะ	aspirated ธนิตอโฆษะ	unaspirated voiced สิถิลโฆษะ	aspirated voiced ธนิตโฆษะ	nasal นาสิก
velar	ká [ka]	khá [kha]	ka᷇ [ga]	kha᷇ [gha]	nga᷇ [ṅa]
palatal	cá [ca]	sá [cha]	ca᷇ [ja]	sa᷇ [jha]	nya᷇ [ña]
retroflex	tá [ṭa]	thá [ṭha]	da᷇ [ḍa]	tha᷇ [ḍha]	na᷇ [ṇa]
dental	tá [ta]	thá [tha]	ta᷇ [da]	tha᷇ [dha]	na᷇ [na]
labial	pá [pa]	phá [pha]	pa᷇ [ba]	pha᷇ [bha]	ma᷇ [ma]
tone class	H		L

Non-plosives (อวัคค์ ᩋᩅᩢᨣ᩠ᨣ᩼ avagga)

glottal	palatal	retroflex	dental	labial	tonal class
	nya᷇ [ya]	ha᷇ [ra]	la᷇ [la]	wa᷇ [va]	L
	sá [śa]	sá [ṣa]	sá [sa]		H
há [ha]

Unicode

Tai Tham script was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 2009 with the release of version 5.2.

Block

The Unicode block for Tai Tham is U+1A20–U+1AAF:

Fonts

There are currently a few fonts that support this range.^[4] Thai people are used to typing the Thai script by placing a front vowel before a consonant; this might cause incorrect input method for Tai Tham script because the consonant must be always typed before the associated vowel, regardless of the relative written position of the vowel, similar to typing the Khmer, Myanmar or Tamil script.

References

1. ↑ Natnapang Burutphakdee (October 2004). Khon Muang Neu Kap Phasa Muang [Attitudes of Northern Thai Youth towards Kammuang and the Lanna Script] (M.A. Thesis). Presented at 4th National Symposium on Graduate Research, Chiang Mai, Thailand, August 10–11, 2004. Asst. Prof. Dr. Kirk R. Person, adviser. Chiang Mai: Payap University. P. 7, digital image 30. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-06-14. Retrieved June 8, 2013. The reason why they called this language ‘Kammuang’ is because they used this language in the towns where they lived together, which were surrounded by mountainous areas where there were many hill tribe people. 
2. ↑ see examples of syllabic vowels in Ian James' rendition of Lanna, New Lanna at SkyKnowledge.com
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 In Tai Lue
4. ↑ Tai Tham fonts, Southeast Asian Unicode fonts for Windows computers, Alan Wood’s Unicode Resources

• Everson, Michael; Hosken, Martin (2006-08-06). "Proposal for encoding the Lanna script in the BMP of the UCS" (PDF). Working Group Document. International Organization for Standardization. 
• "Lanna alphabet (Tua Mueang)". Omniglot. Retrieved 2008-04-23. 
• Khamjan, Mala(มาลา คำจันทร์). Kham Mueang Dictionary(พจนานุกรมคำเมือง). Chiang Mai: bookworm, 2008. ISBN 978-974-8418-55-1.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lanna script.

• ISO/IEC 10646:2003/Amd.5:2008 Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set (UCS) -- Amendment 5: AMENDMENT 5: Tai Tham, Tai Viet, Avestan, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, CJK Unified Ideographs Extension C, and other characters
• Tai Tham Unicode Font