Cham letter Ngue

It marks a plain velar nasal consonant. That is a nasal sound made with the back of the tongue near the soft palate. In Eastern Cham orthography, ꨊ begins a syllable. Cham consonants carry a built-in vowel; nasal letters use a different default vowel from most consonants, and dependent vowel signs can change it. Latin “ng” may represent a similar sound, but it does not reproduce the Cham letter or its whole syllable.

How did Cham writing develop?

Cham writing grew from South Indian Pallava script. Pallava was a writing system derived from Brahmi. Cham inscriptions appear around the 5th century CE in Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language, and in Cham. From the 15th century, handwritten Middle Cham used a cursive form distinct from older stone inscriptions. From the 19th century, texts used modern Cham and scholarly romanized transliteration.

Cham communities have different writing practices. The traditional Cham script is used more by Eastern Cham; some Western Cham writing uses Jawi, an Arabic-based script.

What does ꨊ mean by itself?

Treat a lone ꨊ as a letter sample. Without surrounding Cham spelling, it does not identify a whole word. Ask for the surrounding letters or a transliteration if a complete reading matters.