New Tai Lue alphabet
Alphabet for the Tai Lue language
New Tai Lue script, also known as Xishuangbanna Dai and Simplified Tai Lue (Tai Lue: ᦟᦲᧅᦷᦎᦺᦑᦟᦹᧉ), is an abugida used to write the Tai Lue language. Developed in China in the 1950s, New Tai Lue is based on the traditional Tai Tham alphabet developed c. 1200. The government of China promoted the alphabet for use as a replacement for the older script; teaching the script was not mandatory, however, and as a result many are illiterate in New Tai Lue. In addition, communities in Burma, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam still use the Tai Tham alphabet.
01Consonants
Initials
Similar to the Thai and Lao scripts, consonants come in pairs to denote two tonal registers (high and low).
| High | ᦀ | ᦂ | ᦃ | ᦄ | ᦈ | ᦉ | ᦊ | ᦎ | ᦏ | ᦐ | ᦔ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | ᦁ | ᦅ | ᦆ | ᦇ | ᦋ | ᦌ | ᦍ | ᦑ | ᦒ | ᦓ | ᦗ |
| IPA | /ʔa/ | /ka/ | /xa/ | /ŋa/ | /t͡sa/ | /sa/ | /ja/ | /ta/ | /tʰa/ | /na/ | /pa/ |
| High | ᦕ | ᦖ | ᦚ | ᦛ | ᦜ | ᦡ | ᦢ | ᦠ | ᦦ | ᦧ | ᦪ |
| Low | ᦘ | ᦙ | ᦝ | ᦞ | ᦟ | ᦤ | ᦥ | ᦣ | ᦨ | ᦩ | ᦫ |
| IPA | /pʰa/ | /ma/ | /fa/ | /va/ | /la/ | /da/ | /ba/ | /ha/ | /kʷa/ | /xʷa/ | /sʷa/ |
Finals
Final consonants do not have an inherent /a/ vowel. They are modified forms of initials with a virama-like hook:
| Final | ᧅ | ᧆ | ᧇ | ᧂ | ᧃ | ᧄ | ᧁ | no final with ᦰ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | /k̚/ | /t̚/ | /p̚/ | /ŋ/ | /n/ | /m/ | /w/ | /ʔ/ |
02Vowels
Consonants have a default vowel of /a/. In the table below, '◌' represents a consonant and is used to indicate the position of the various vowels:
| Short vowels | Long vowels | Diphthongs with i | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letters | IPA | Letters | IPA | Letters | IPA |
| not present | /a/ | ᦺ◌ | /aj/ | ||
| ◌ᦰ | /aʔ/ | ◌ᦱ | /aː/ | ◌ᦻ | /aːj/ |
| ◌ᦲᦰ | /iʔ/ | ◌ᦲ | /i(ː)/ | ||
| ᦵ◌ᦰ | /eʔ/ | ᦵ◌ | /e(ː)/ | ||
| ᦶ◌ᦰ | /ɛʔ/ | ᦶ◌ | /ɛ(ː)/ | ||
| ◌ᦳ | /u(ʔ)/ | ◌ᦴ | /uː/ | ◌ᦼ | /uj/ |
| ᦷ◌ᦰ | /oʔ/ | ᦷ◌ | /o(ː)/ | ◌ᦽ | /oj/ |
| ◌ᦸᦰ | /ɔʔ/ | ◌ᦸ | /ɔ(ː)/ | ◌ᦾ | /ɔj/ |
| ◌ᦹᦰ | /ɯʔ/ | ◌ᦹ | /ɯ(ː)/ | ◌ᦿ | /ɯj/ |
| ᦵ◌ᦲᦰ | /ɤʔ/ | ᦵ◌ᦲ | /ɤ(ː)/ | ᦵ◌ᧀ | /ɤj/ |
In some words, the symbol ᦰ is just used for distinguishing homonyms or displaying onomatopoeiae.
Generally, vowels in open syllables (without final) become long whereas ones in closed syllables become short (except /aː/ and /uː/).
03Tones
New Tai Lue has two tone marks which are written at the end of a syllable: ᧈ and ᧉ. Because consonants come in pairs to denote two tonal registers, the two tone marks allow for representation of six specific tones:
| High register | Low register | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mark | ᧉ | ᧈ | ᧉ | ᧈ | ||
| Shown with k | ᦂ | ᦂᧉ | ᦂᧈ | ᦅ | ᦅᧉ | ᦅᧈ |
| IPA | /ka˥/ | /ka˩˧/ | /ka˧˥/ | /ka˥˩/ | /ka˩/ | /ka˧/ |
| Transcription | ka¹ | ka³ | ka⁵ | ka² | ka⁴ | ka⁶ |
04Abbreviations
Two letters are used only for abbreviations:
- Syllable ᦶᦟᦰ (/lɛʔ˧/, "and", "or") can be abbreviated as the character ᧞
- Syllable ᦶᦟᧁᧉ (/lɛu˩/, "already") can be abbreviated as the character ᧟
05Digits
New Tai Lue has its own set of digits:
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ᧐ | ᧑/᧚ | ᧒ | ᧓ | ᧔ | ᧕ | ᧖ | ᧗ | ᧘ | ᧙ |
An alternative glyph for one (᧚) is used when ᧑ might be confused with the vowel ᦱ.
06Unicode
New Tai Lue script was added to the Unicode Standard in March, 2005 with the release of version 4.1.
In June 2015, New Tai Lue was changed from an ISCII-style logical ordering (where vowel modifiers are always encoded after the base consonants which they modify), as used for most Indic scripts in Unicode, to a TIS-620-style visual ordering model (where a vowel modifier will be encoded before the base consonant if it appears before it in the line, or after it otherwise), as used for the Thai and Lao scripts. This change was made since visual ordering for New Tai Lue was found to be more widespread in practice than the previously prescribed logical ordering. This change affected the four vowel letters which appear to the left of the initial consonant.
The Unicode block for New Tai Lue is U+1980, U+19DF:
| New Tai Lue[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+198x | ᦀ | ᦁ | ᦂ | ᦃ | ᦄ | ᦅ | ᦆ | ᦇ | ᦈ | ᦉ | ᦊ | ᦋ | ᦌ | ᦍ | ᦎ | ᦏ |
| U+199x | ᦐ | ᦑ | ᦒ | ᦓ | ᦔ | ᦕ | ᦖ | ᦗ | ᦘ | ᦙ | ᦚ | ᦛ | ᦜ | ᦝ | ᦞ | ᦟ |
| U+19Ax | ᦠ | ᦡ | ᦢ | ᦣ | ᦤ | ᦥ | ᦦ | ᦧ | ᦨ | ᦩ | ᦪ | ᦫ | ||||
| U+19Bx | ᦰ | ᦱ | ᦲ | ᦳ | ᦴ | ᦵ | ᦶ | ᦷ | ᦸ | ᦹ | ᦺ | ᦻ | ᦼ | ᦽ | ᦾ | ᦿ |
| U+19Cx | ᧀ | ᧁ | ᧂ | ᧃ | ᧄ | ᧅ | ᧆ | ᧇ | ᧈ | ᧉ | ||||||
| U+19Dx | ᧐ | ᧑ | ᧒ | ᧓ | ᧔ | ᧕ | ᧖ | ᧗ | ᧘ | ᧙ | ᧚ | ᧞ | ᧟ | |||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “New Tai Lue alphabet”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- China Post logo with (New) Tai Lü script in Mohan, Yunnan.jpg by Hippietrail Logo: China Post, CC BY-SA 3.0
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.
