Lepcha letter pha

It is a p released with a distinct burst of breath.

ᰐ is a consonant in Lepcha, also called Róng. It marks the opening consonant of a syllable and combines with the rest of a Lepcha word to spell its pronunciation.

How did Lepcha writing develop?

It grew from Tibetan models and was reshaped for horizontal writing.

Accounts place Lepcha script’s development around 1720 during the reign of Sikkim’s Chakdor Namgyal. Lepcha tradition credits the scholar Thikúng Mensalóng; a Tibetan tradition credits Lhatsun Chenpo. The accounts differ, so one inventor is not settled.

Earlier Lepcha writing followed a vertical model derived from Tibetan, then shifted to left-to-right horizontal lines. Its documented literary tradition reaches back to the eighteenth century, with folktales, poetry, fiction, prayers, blessings, and religious works.

Traditional Lazóng recitation, a way to learn letter combinations by chanting, presents them in a different order from modern primers. A 2007 grammar describes regional speech differences: Lepcha spoken in Sikkim shows more influence from Dränjoke, the Sikkimese Bhutia language, while speech around Kalimpong and Darjeeling shows more Nepali influence. These are teaching and language-contact differences; they do not change ᰐ’s sound.

Why does my Lepcha vowel appear on a different side?

Enter signs in reading order; the font sets their positions.

In a Lepcha syllable, enter the base consonant first, followed by its vowel sign and any final consonant sign—the consonant that closes the syllable. Vowels i, o, and oo may render to the left of the base; e may sit below, and final consonant signs above. A mark on the left still comes after ᰐ in encoded order.