YAKTHUNG

Chapter · Language & script

The script that refused to die.

Yakthung pan, the Limbu tongue, and Sirijunga, an alphabet twice nearly lost, now taught to children again.

An alphabet is a fire: bury it twice, and it still finds dry wood.

A language with its own alphabet of light.

The Limbu speak Yakthungpan, a Tibeto Burman tongue, and write it in the Sirijunga script, revived from near loss and now encoded for the digital age. Each consonant carries an inherent vowel ɔ, so the bare letters read ko, kho, go, which the dependent signs below reshape into every other vowel.

Consonants · each carries an inherent vowel ɔ
ko
/kɔ/
kho
/kʰɔ/
go
/ɡɔ/
gho
/ɡʱɔ/
ngo
/ŋɔ/
co
/t͡ɕɔ/
cho
/t͡ɕʰɔ/
jo
/d͡ʑɔ/
jho
/d͡ʑʱɔ/
nyo
/ɲɔ/
to
/tɔ/
tho
/tʰɔ/
do
/dɔ/
dho
/dʱɔ/
no
/nɔ/
po
/pɔ/
pho
/pʰɔ/
bo
/bɔ/
bho
/bʱɔ/
mo
/mɔ/
yo
/jɔ/
ro
/rɔ/
lo
/lɔ/
wo
/wɔ/
sho
/ʃɔ/
sso
/ʂɔ/
so
/sɔ/
ho
/ɦɔ/
Dependent vowel signs · shown on the base ᤁ (k)
ᤁᤠ
a
/a/
ᤁᤡ
i
/i/
ᤁᤢ
u
/u/
ᤁᤣ
ee
/e/
ᤁᤤ
ai
/ai/
ᤁᤥ
oo
/o/
ᤁᤦ
au
/au/
ᤁᤧ
e
/ɛ/
ᤁᤨ
o
/ɔ/

jho, nyo and sso remain encoded in Unicode but are not used in modern Limbu. Chart after the Limbu script (Unicode block U+1900 to U+194F).

Next chapter

Clans

The script names the world. Your thar names you.

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