Limbu script

Infobox Writing system
name=Limbu
type=Abugida
languages=Limbu
time=c. 1740–present
unicode= [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1900.pdf U+1900–U+194F]
iso15924=Limb
region=Nepal and Eastern India
fam1=Proto-Canaanite alphabet ^[a]
fam2=Phoenician alphabet ^[a]
fam3=Aramaic alphabet ^[a]
footnotes= [a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon.
fam4=Brāhmī
fam5=Gupta
fam6=Siddhaṃ
fam7=Tibetan
fam8=LepchaThe Limbu alphabet, or Kirat-Sirijonga script, is a Brahmic script used to write the Limbu language of northern India and Nepal. The Limbu language is also written in Devanagari.

History

According to traditional histories, it was first invented in the late 9th century by the king Sirijonga Hang, then fell out of use, to be reintroduced in the 18th century by Te-ongsi Sirijonga (1704-1741?). This Sirijonga, who was believed to be the reincarnation of the first, was apparently martyred in 1741 (or 1743) for the sake of this script by the Sikkim Lamas, who tied him to a tree and flung poison arrows at him. The script was named 'Sirijonga' in his honour by the Limbu scholar Iman Singh Chemjong in 1925.

Unlike most other Brahmic scripts, it does not have separate independent vowel characters, instead using a vowel carrier letter with the appropriate dependent vowel attached.

tructure

As an abugida, a basic letter represents both a consonant and an inherent, or default, vowel. In Limbu, the inherent vowel is IPA|/ɔ/.

Final consonants after short vowels are written with another set of marks, except for some final consonants occurring only in loanwords. They follow the marks for consonant clusters, if any.

The other is to write the final consonant with the basic letter, and a diacritic that marks both that the consonant is final, and that the preceding vowel is lengthened:This same diacritic may be used to mark final consonants in loanwords that do not have final forms in Limbu, regardless of the length of the vowel.

Glottalization is marked by a sign called "mukphreng".

Unicode

The Unicode range for Limbu is U+1900–U+194F. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points.

External links

* [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/limbu.htm Limbu script page from Omniglot]
* [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1900.pdf Unicode code charts (range 1900-194F)]