Lepcha letter la

Use Unicode input or a Lepcha-capable keyboard.

Windows Word: type 1C1C, then press Alt+X. On macOS, enable Unicode Hex Input, hold Option, and type 1C1C. On Linux GTK, press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 1C1C, then press Enter.

On iOS and Android, use a Lepcha-capable keyboard.

What does ᰜ mean in Lepcha?

It starts a Lepcha syllable with an l sound. “La” is the romanized letter name. In use, ᰜ carries Lepcha’s built-in vowel, which a vowel sign can change. The script was made to write Lepcha, also called Róng.

Lepcha derives directly from Tibetan writing. Its dbu-med source style—a Tibetan script form—ran in vertical columns; Lepcha turned the forms sideways and adopted horizontal lines read left to right.

Unicode places the script’s development around 1720 and credits Sikkim king Chakdor Namgyal. Lepcha tradition credits scholar Thikúng Mensalóng; a Tibetan tradition credits Lama Lhatsun Chenpo (1597–1654). Scholar Heleen Plaisier notes accounts of Mensalóng meeting Lhatsun and suggests they may have worked together. Plaisier dates the oldest identified handwritten Lepcha materials to the second half of the nineteenth century. Lepcha literature includes folktales, poetry, fiction, and religious works; some religious texts adapt Tibetan Buddhist material with Lepcha elements. The nearby Limbu (Kiranti) script developed separately under the same king.

Why does ᰜ look different?

The vowel signs can change its display.

In ᰜᰧ, the i vowel sign is stored after the base but rendered to its left. The visible order can differ from the encoded order.

A missing-glyph box means the font lacks Lepcha coverage.