Lanna script
Encyclopedia
Northern Thai language
Northern Thai, Lanna, or Kham Mueang is the language of the Thai Yuan people of Lannathai, Thailand. It is a Tai language, closely related to Thai and Lao...
(that is, Kam Mueang), Tai Lü
Tai Lü language
Tai Lü is a language spoken by about 670,000 people in South East Asia. This includes 250,000 people in China, 200,000 in Burma, 134,000 in Thailand, and 5,000 in Vietnam...
and Khün
Khün language
The Khün language or Tai Khün language is the language of the Tai Khün people of Kengtung, Shan state, Myanmar. It is a Tai language, closely related to Thai and Lao.-Phonology:-External links:*...
. In addition, the Lanna script is also 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
Northern Thai language
Northern Thai, Lanna, or Kham Mueang is the language of the Thai Yuan people of Lannathai, Thailand. It is a Tai language, closely related to Thai and Lao...
is a close relative of Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
and member of the Chiang Saeng language family. It is spoken by nearly 6,000,000 people in Northern Thailand
Northern Thailand
Thailand's northern region is geographically characterised by multiple mountain ranges which continue from the Shan Hills in bordering Myanmar and Laos, and the river valleys which cut through them...
and several thousand in Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
of whom few are literate in Lanna script, although there is some resurgent interest in the script among the young. Northern Thai is now written with the Thai alphabet
Thai alphabet
Thai script , is used to write the Thai language and other, minority, languages in Thailand. It has forty-four consonants , fifteen vowel symbols that combine into at least twenty-eight vowel forms, and four tone marks ....
.
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.
Categorized letters
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Noncategorized letters
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Numerals
| Arabic numerals | 0 | | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | | 4 | 5 | | 6 | | 7 | | 8 | | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hora digits | ᪀ | ᪁ | ᪂ | ᪃ | ᪄ | ᪅ | ᪆ | ᪇ | ᪈ | ᪉ |
| Tham digits | ᪐ | ᪑ | ᪒ | ᪓ | ᪔ | ᪕ | ᪖ | ᪗ | ᪘ | ᪙ |
| Thai numerals Thai numerals Thai numerals constitute a numeral system of Thai number names for the Khmer numerals traditionally used in Thailand, also used for the more common Arabic numerals, and which follow the Hindu-Arabic numeral system.-Usage:... |
๐ | ๑ | ๒ | ๓ | ๔ | ๕ | ๖ | ๗ | ๘ | ๙ |
| Lao numerals | ໐ | ໑ | ໒ | ໓ | ໔ | ໕ | ໖ | ໗ | ໘ | ໙ |
| Burmese numerals Burmese numerals Burmese numerals are a set of numerals traditionally used in the Burmese language, although the Arabic numerals are also used. Burmese numerals follow the Hindu-Arabic numeral system commonly used in the rest of the world.-Main numbers:-Zero to nine:... |
๐ | ၁ | ၂ | ၃ | ၄ | ၅ | ၆ | ၇ | ၈ | ၉ |
Unicode
Tai Tham script was added to the UnicodeUnicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
Standard in October, 2009 with the release of version 5.2.
Fonts
There are currently a few fonts that support this range. Thai people are used to typing the Thai script by placing a front vowelVowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
before a consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
; 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
Khmer script
The Khmer script is an alphasyllabary script used to write the Khmer language . It is also used to write Pali among the Buddhist liturgy of Cambodia and Thailand....
, Myanmar or Tamil script
Tamil script
The Tamil script is a script that is used to write the Tamil language as well as other minority languages such as Badaga, Irulas, and Paniya...
.
External links
- Ethnologue report for Northern Thai
- 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