Jtc1/sc2/iso/iec Jtc1/sc2/wg2 N2042
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N2042
1999-07-20
Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set
International Organization for Standardization
Organisation Internationale de Normalisation
Œåæäóíàðîäíàß îðãàíèçàöèß ïî ñòàíäàðòèçàöèè
Doc Type: Working Group Document
Title:
Unicode Technical Report #3: Early Aramaic, Balti, Kirat (Limbu), Manipuri
(Meitei), and Tai Lü scripts
Source:
Rick McGowan (UTC), Michael Everson (IE)
Status:
Discussion document
Action:
For consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2
Date:
1999-07-20
Apparently, Unicode Technical Report #3, published in 1993, was never submitted to
JTC1/SC2/WG2 for distribution. Since a number of scripts in that Technical Report have already
been encoded, or since other proposals for them have already been put forward to WG2,
distribution of the UTR#3 itself at the present time would not be very useful.
This document presents the names and code tables of the scripts in the UTR#3 which have not yet
been otherwise discussed in WG2, namely: Early Aramaic, Balti, Kirat/Limbu, Manipuri/Meitei,
and Tai Lü.
These proposals were written by Rick McGowan. Formatting and some minor editing in this
document is by Michael Everson.
Page 1
Early Aramaic
The Aramaic alphabet branched from the 22 letter alphabet used for
Phoenician and evolved along separate lines culminating in Syriac,
Arabic and other scripts. The Early Aramaic block should be used for
Late Aramaic (especially papyri), Palmyrene, and Nabataean, Mandaic
and their immediate precursors and successors.
The order shown in the accompanying chart matches the order of the
Early Phoenician block and the shapes shown there are in the Palmyrene
style.
See the Phoenician block introduction and the Early Alphabets block
introduction in UTR#3 for further information and issues.
Healey, John F. The Early Alphabet.
Cross, Frank Moore. The Invention and Development of the Alphabet.
Diringer, David. Writing.
Aramaic Names List, draft 1999-07-20
00 ARAMAIC LETTER ALEPH
01 ARAMAIC LETTER BETH
02 ARAMAIC LETTER GIMEL
03 ARAMAIC LETTER DALETH
04 ARAMAIC LETTER HE
05 ARAMAIC LETTER WAW
06 ARAMAIC LETTER ZAIN
07 ARAMAIC LETTER HETH
08 ARAMAIC LETTER THET
09 ARAMAIC LETTER YODH
0A ARAMAIC LETTER KAPH
0B ARAMAIC LETTER LAMED
0C ARAMAIC LETTER MEM
0D ARAMAIC LETTER NUN
0E ARAMAIC LETTER SAMEKH
0F ARAMAIC LETTER AIN
10 ARAMAIC LETTER PE
11 ARAMAIC LETTER SAN
12 ARAMAIC LETTER QOPPA
13 ARAMAIC LETTER RESH
14 ARAMAIC LETTER SHIN
15 ARAMAIC LETTER TAU
Page 2
Balti
The Balti script is now extinct, but was formerly used to write the Balti
language of Baltistan, in what is now part of Ladakh in Northern
Kashmir. The script was apparently introduced in about the fifteenth
century CE when the people converted to Islam. It is related to the Arabic
script.
In contrast to many other Brahmic scripts, Balti is written from right to
left horizontally, in the Arabic manner. All of the vowel signs except long
a are integrated into the glyphs used for consonants, becoming
projections from the consonants rather than being separate marks as in
most of the modern Brahmic scripts. The consonants apparently have an
inherent a vowel (or an explicit vowel sign a may appear; there may not
be a distinction between long and short a). There appears to be a sign
(overdot) used to indicate the end of a word, but no interword spacing
seems to be used.
The base form of b is the same as p and t; only the dots distinguish these.
There are two other similar pairs. These appear to approximately parallel
similar dotted versus dotless letters in Arabic.
Issues: The set of Balti consonants is too small to make it worth
encoding parallel to any of the other Brahmic scripts, or to Arabic. Not
enough information is available at this time to determine the
completeness of the accompanying chart. The digits, if any, are
unknown. It is unknown how much literature is available in the old Balti
script, or what the level of scholarly interest in it is. The function of the
character listed in the names list as “Balti null vowel or word ending” is
uncertain.
Grierson, G. A. Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. 3.
One photocopy of 2 pages (326 and 327) from an unknown volume in German.
Balti Names, draft 1999-07-20
00 BALTI LETTER A
10 BALTI LETTER NA
01 BALTI LETTER BA
11 BALTI LETTER HA
02 BALTI LETTER PA
12 BALTI LETTER JA
03 BALTI LETTER TA
13 BALTI LETTER KHA
04 BALTI LETTER GA
14 BALTI LETTER THA
05 BALTI LETTER HHA
15 BALTI LETTER TSA
06 BALTI LETTER CA
16 BALTI LETTER NGA
07 BALTI LETTER CHA
17 BALTI VOWEL SIGN A
08 BALTI LETTER DA
18 BALTI VOWEL SIGN AA
09 BALTI LETTER RA
19 BALTI VOWEL SIGN E
0A BALTI LETTER ZA
1A BALTI VOWEL SIGN I
0B BALTI LETTER SA
1B BALTI VOWEL SIGN O
0C BALTI LETTER SHA
1C BALTI VOWEL SIGN U
0D BALTI LETTER KA
1D BALTI NULL VOWEL OR WORD
0E BALTI LETTER LA
ENDING?
0F BALTI LETTER MA
Page 3
Kirat (Limbu)
The Limbu (or Kirat or Kiranti) alphabet is (or was) used among the Limbu of Sikkim and
Darjeeling. Kirat is structurally similar to the Lepcha (Rong) script. It has 20 consonants (including
the stand-alone “A” as in other Brahmic scripts), 8 vowel signs, 7 (or 8 or 10?) final consonants.
Letters YA, RA, and WA may be subscripted in a manner similar to the Tibetan and Rong scripts.
There appears to have been, at sometime in the past, an orthographic reform, and two slightly
different varieties of the script appear to be in existence.
There are three other symbols needed for proper pronunciation of Limbu. These are mukphreng
(aspiration mark), kehmphreng (length mark) and sa-i (possibly the virama). The sa-i appears to be
used to remove the inherent A sound like a virama. Sa-i has been conjectured to occur visibly only
in word-medial position. It has been observed also in apparent word-final position. Its function may
be therefore different from an invisible virama.
Kirat appears to include three other marks, the names of which are not presently known. These are
(1) a mark indicating colon or full stop, (2) a mark indicating a prolonged final note during a chant,
(3) a mark which looks like the Oriya anusvara (a circle above) indicating an acute type of accent.
The accompanying chart was prepared from a draft supplied by Lloyd Anderson. The ISCII model
and layout is followed in the accompanying chart. The shaded cells to the far right are final
consonants (lower nine cells), a “tr” conjunct and a “j” rendering form.
Issues: It is not known whether the Kirat script is still in use as of this writing (1992). It was reported
in 1855 as nearly extinct, but sources as recent as 1979 are available.
This draft for Kirat is by no means complete. Sources vary even as to the correct number of final
consonants (or “conjoint letters” called kedumba sok); there may be as many as ten of them.
There are two different approaches to encoding of Kirat. If the script is postulated to contain an
invisible virama distinct from sa-i, then the final consonants could be rendered in text by using this
virama followed by the corresponding normal forms If, however, no such invisible virama is
postulated, then the final consonants should be encoded distinctly. There is no concrete evidence yet
available [to this author] for or against such an invisible virama that is distinct from sa-i. Both are
transliterated into Devanagari by use of half-consonant forms, as Devanagari has no such distinction
at all. The final consonants cannot be rendered alone by use of sa-i, since the sa-i appears to be
always visible when it occurs, and kedumba sok forms also occur without the sa-i. There thus
appears to be some distinction, and sa-i alone is insufficient to generate both forms. Sa-i is also seen
with full consonants, where it presumably functions like a virama (in eliding the inherent vowel).
In either case, the script bears some similarity to the Lepcha script, and it seems that the same
conceptual model should be used for both. Kirat could be laid out in a manner compatible with ISCII
and parallel to Devanagari as far as the arrangement of its vowels and consonants. However, since
it has a somewhat smaller complement of consonants than Devanagari, and needs no precomposed
long vowels, many empty codepoints are unnecessarily scattered throughout such an encoding. Kirat
could also be encoded parallel to Tibetan as far as the arrangement of its consonants.
Campbell, A. Note on the Limboo Alphabet of the Sikkim Himalaya.
Chemsong, Iman Singh. The Kirat Grammar (Limbu).
Subba, B. B. Limbu Nepali English Dictionary.
Kirat Primary Book.
Limbu Reader VI.
Page 4
Kirat (Limbu) Names List, draft 1999-07-20
00 Reserved
3A Reserved
01 Reserved
3B Reserved
02 Reserved
3C Reserved
03 KIRAT ASPIRATION MARK (mukhphreng)
3D KIRAT VOWEL SIGN AH (tit-cha)
04 Reserved
3E KIRAT VOWEL SIGN AA
05 KIRAT LETTER A
3F KIRAT VOWEL SIGN I
06 Reserved
40 KIRAT VOWEL SIGN II
07 Reserved
41 KIRAT VOWEL SIGN U
08 Reserved
42 KIRAT VOWEL SIGN UU
09 Reserved
43 Reserved
0A Reserved
44 Reserved
0B Reserved
45 Reserved
0C Reserved
46 KIRAT VOWEL SIGN AE (peh-cha)
0D Reserved
47 KIRAT VOWEL SIGN E
0E Reserved
48 KIRAT VOWEL SIGN AI
0F Reserved
49 Reserved
10 Reserved
4A Reserved
11 Reserved
4B KIRAT VOWEL SIGN O
12 Reserved
4C KIRAT VOWEL SIGN AU
13 Reserved
4D KIRAT VIRAMA (sa-i)
14 Reserved
4E Reserved
15 KIRAT LETTER KA
4F KIRAT LENGTH MARK (kehmphreng)
16 KIRAT LETTER KHA
50 Reserved
17 KIRAT LETTER GA
51 Reserved
18 KIRAT LETTER GHA
52 Reserved
19 KIRAT LETTER NGA
53 Reserved
1A KIRAT LETTER CHA
54 Reserved
1B KIRAT LETTER CHHA
55 Reserved
1C KIRAT LETTER JA
56 Reserved
1D KIRAT LETTER JHA
57 Reserved
1E KIRAT LETTER NYA
58 Reserved
1F Reserved
59 Reserved
20 Reserved
5A KIRAT STOP
21 Reserved
5B Reserved
22 Reserved
5C KIRAT SUBSCRIPT YA
23 Reserved
5D KIRAT SUBSCRIPT RA
24 KIRAT LETTER TA
5E KIRAT SUBSCRIPT WA
25 KIRAT LETTER THA
5F Reserved
26 KIRAT LETTER DA
27 KIRAT LETTER DHA
65 KIRAT CONJUNCT TR
28 KIRAT LETTER NA
66 KIRAT RENDERING FORM OF JA
29 Reserved
67 KIRAT FINAL CONSONANT K
2A KIRAT LETTER PA
68 KIRAT FINAL CONSONANT NG
2B KIRAT LETTER PHA
69 Reserved
2C KIRAT LETTER BA
6A KIRAT FINAL CONSONANT T
2D KIRAT LETTER BHA
6B KIRAT FINAL CONSONANT N
2E KIRAT LETTER MA
6C KIRAT FINAL CONSONANT P
2F KIRAT LETTER YA
6D KIRAT FINAL CONSONANT M
30 KIRAT LETTER RA
6E KIRAT FINAL CONSONANT R
31 Reserved
6F KIRAT FINAL CONSONANT L
32 KIRAT LETTER LA
33 Reserved
34 Reserved
35 KIRAT LETTER WA
36 KIRAT LETTER SHA
37 KIRAT LETTER SSA
38 KIRAT LETTER SA
39 KIRAT LETTER HA
Page 5
Page 6
Manipuri (Meithei)
The Manipuri script is a recently extinct script that was formerly used to write the Meithei language
in Manipur State, India. The script may have been introduced as early as the fourteenth century CE
or as late as the sixteenth. The only available source has been Grierson (see below).
The script is of the same lineage as Devanagari. Unlike Devanagari, there are no independent signs
for vowels other than a, the other independent vowels being expressed as signs upon the independent
vowel a (similar to the Tibetan method). The consonantal and vowel systems are both fairly
complete, so it is probably most useful and correct to encode it in the ISCII manner, parallel to
Devanagari as much as possible.
The anusvara (nasalization) mark in Manipuri produces some special rendering forms depending on
the vowel preceding it. There are eight of these, producing the endings ang, -ng, -ng, -ing, -eng,
-ung, ng, and -ong. The rendering forms look like ligatures of the vowel sign with the anusvara, or
similar. Manipuri contains no long O vowel, so the place of the long O is filled with the diphthong
sign AO, which does not seem to fit elsewhere.
Issues: Because Manipuri lacks special symbols for the independent vowels, the entire first column
of an encoding completely parallel to Devanagari would be empty but for anusvara and the letter A.
Therefore, to save one column, these have been moved into the column containing the consonants,
so that A occurs just before KA, and the anusvara is left in the third position of that same row. The
script can thus be put into four rows instead of five. There are presumably digits belonging to
Manipuri, but no samples have been available. Space for them is available in the fifth column of the
chart. It is also not known how much scholarly and historical interest there is in the Manipuri script.
Grierson, G. A. Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. 3, pt. 3., Bombay?, 1898?
Manipuri Names draft, mostly parallel to ISCII, 1992-10-23
00
01
02 MANIPURI ANUSVARA
03
04 MANIPURI LETTER A
05 MANIPURI LETTER KA
06 MANIPURI LETTER KHA
07 MANIPURI LETTER GA
08 MANIPURI LETTER GHA
09 MANIPURI LETTER NGA
0A MANIPURI LETTER CA
0B MANIPURI LETTER CHA
0C MANIPURI LETTER JA
0D MANIPURI LETTER JHA
0E MANIPURI LETTER NYA
0F MANIPURI LETTER TTA
10 MANIPURI LETTER TTHA
11 MANIPURI LETTER DDA
12 MANIPURI LETTER DDHA
13 MANIPURI LETTER NNA
14 MANIPURI LETTER TA
15 MANIPURI LETTER THA
16 MANIPURI LETTER DA
17 MANIPURI LETTER DHA
18 MANIPURI LETTER NA
Page 7
19
1A MANIPURI LETTER PA
1B MANIPURI LETTER PHA
1C MANIPURI LETTER BA
1D MANIPURI LETTER BHA
1E MANIPURI LETTER MA
1F MANIPURI LETTER YA
20 MANIPURI LETTER RA
21
22 MANIPURI LETTER LA
23
24
25 MANIPURI LETTER WA
26 MANIPURI LETTER SHA
27 MANIPURI LETTER SSA
28 MANIPURI LETTER SA
29 MANIPURI LETTER HA
2A MANIPURI LETTER KSHA
2B
2C
2D
2E MANIPURI VOWEL SIGN AA
2F MANIPURI VOWEL SIGN I
30 MANIPURI VOWEL SIGN II
31 MANIPURI VOWEL SIGN U
32 MANIPURI VOWEL SIGN UU
33
34
35
36 MANIPURI VOWEL SIGN E
37
38 MANIPURI VOWEL SIGN AI
39 MANIPURI VOWEL SIGN OI
3A MANIPURI VOWEL SIGN O
3B MANIPURI VOWEL SIGN OI
3C MANIPURI VOWEL SIGN AU
3D MANIPURI VIRAMA
3E
3F
40 MANIPURI DIGIT ZERO
41 MANIPURI DIGIT ONE
42 MANIPURI DIGIT TWO
43 MANIPURI DIGIT THREE
44 MANIPURI DIGIT FOUR
45 MANIPURI DIGIT FIVE
46 MANIPURI DIGIT SIX
47 MANIPURI DIGIT SEVEN
48 MANIPURI DIGIT EIGHT
49 MANIPURI DIGIT NINE
4A
4B
4C
4D
4E
4F
Page 8
Tai Lü (Chieng Mai, Northern Thai)
The Tai Lü script is widely used for various Tai dialects in northern Thailand, Yunnan, and parts of
Myanmar (they are variously referred to as Lannathai, Yuan, or Kam Muang). The Tai Lü script is
of the Brahmic variety, and is structurally similar to both the Thai and Myanmar scripts to which the
affinities can be easily seen in the forms. The script is also known by the name Northern Thai;
neither name seems to be a standard. The script referred to as Chieng Mai by Nakanishi is a fancier
typographical form of the Tai Lü script, and hence included here. The language known as Tai Lü is
in use in northern Thailand and in Yunnan province of China. There are about 1 million speakers of
Tai Lu, and this script is officially recognized by the Chinese government.
Each Tai Lü consonant has an inherent vowel and (apparently) an inherent tone. Most of the
consonants contain an inherent “o” vowel (or “a”?), but some seem to contain other inherent vowels.
There are 41 consonants, five stand-alone vowels, and 32 vowel signs. The vowel system of the
Northern Thai language is very complex, so the script contains a correspondingly large number of
vowel signs, though some of them are written as compounds of simpler graphic symbols.
The traditional order of the consonants as given by Davis is distinctly different from the typical
Devanagari order (for instance, the aspirated letters all come before the associated unaspirated ones,
while Devanagari order is the opposite).
Issues: This draft is nowhere near complete as not enough is known at this time and sources are
currently scarce. The chart is thought to contain a complete repertoire of possible candidates for
encoding, except for punctuation and digits.
The vowel system could be greatly reduced by removing several compound vowel signs and
manufacturing these vowels from simpler vowels and glyphic fragments. The glottal stop consonant
itself is a component of the graphic representation of two other vowel signs.
The letters at codepoints 1B, 1D, 1E, 1F may be conjuncts of some type involving 18 together with
other letters. Perhaps: MA=1B=18+13, LA=1D=18+14, NYA=1E=18+07, NGA=1F=18+03.
The names list is fully inadequate for any purpose except unique identification. The names were
generated by taking Davis's pseudo-IPA transliterations and formulating unique names from them,
while utilizing only the symbols allowed in ISO names.
Because the order cited by Davis differs so significantly from the Devanagari order, the utility and
correctness of this order should be corroborated by other sources.
Davis, Richard. A Northern Thai Reader.
Pontalis, Pierre Lefevre. L'invasion Thaie en Indo-Chine.
Tai Lü (Chieng Mai, Northern Thai) names, rev 1992-10-21
00 TAI LU LETTER KHA
01 TAI LU LETTER KA
02 TAI LU LETTER KHAA1
03 TAI LU LETTER NGAA
04 TAI LU LETTER SA1
05 TAI LU LETTER CAA
06 TAI LU LETTER SAA1
07 TAI LU LETTER NYAA
08 TAI LU LETTER LAATHA
09 TAI LU LETTER LAADA
Page 9
0A TAI LU LETTER LAATHAA
0B TAI LU LETTER LAANAA
0C TAI LU LETTER THA
0D TAI LU LETTER TAA
0E TAI LU LETTER THAA
0F TAI LU LETTER NAA1
10 TAI LU LETTER PHA
11 TAI LU LETTER PAA
12 TAI LU LETTER PHAA
13 TAI LU LETTER MAA
14 TAI LU LETTER LAA1
15 TAI LU LETTER LAA2
16 TAI LU LETTER WAA
17 TAI LU LETTER SA2
18 TAI LU LETTER HA
19 TAI LU LETTER LAA3
1A TAI LU LETTER A
1B TAI LU LETTER MA
1C TAI LU LETTER WA
1D TAI LU LETTER LA
1E TAI LU LETTER NYA
1F TAI LU LETTER NGA
20 TAI LU LETTER FA
21 TAI LU LETTER FAA
22 TAI LU LETTER HAA
23 TAI LU LETTER LAEAE
24 TAI LU LETTER NAA2
25 TAI LU LETTER LII
26 TAI LU LETTER PA
27 TAI LU LETTER KHAA2
28 TAI LU LETTER SAA2
29 TAI LU LETTER I
2A TAI LU LETTER II
2B TAI LU LETTER U
2C TAI LU LETTER UU
2D TAI LU LETTER EE
2E
2F
30 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN A
31 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN AA
32 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN I
33 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN II
34 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN I BAR
35 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN II BAR
36 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN U
37 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN UU
38 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN E
39 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN EE
3A TAI LU VOWEL SIGN AE
3B TAI LU VOWEL SIGN AEAE
3C TAI LU VOWEL SIGN O
3D TAI LU VOWEL SIGN OO
3E TAI LU VOWEL SIGN OH
3F TAI LU VOWEL SIGN OHOH
40 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN UEH
41 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN UE
Page 10
42 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN IEH
43 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN IE
44 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN I BAR E
45 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN I BAR SCHWA
46 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN SCHWA
47 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN SCHWA SCHWA
48 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN ANG
49 TAI LU VOWEL SIGN AM
4A TAI LU VOWEL SIGN AW
4B TAI LU VOWEL SIGN OO TWO
4C TAI LU VOWEL SIGN ANG TWO
4D TAI LU VOWEL SIGN ANG THREE
4E TAI LU VOWEL SIGN O MEDIAL
4F TAI LU VOWEL SIGN A MEDIAL
Page 11
