Limbu letter Na

It starts a Limbu syllable with the n sound. The letter has a default vowel built into its writing; a following vowel sign can change that vowel. At a syllable end, the separate small form ᤴ marks final n; it is an orthographic form, not a smaller font style of ᤏ.

Where did Limbu writing come from?

Limbu writing has a revival history, but no settled origin date. Local tradition credits King Sirijanga; the origin remains unsettled as of 2026. A British Library catalogue dates an alphabet book probably to c. 1730 or earlier, while the Unicode Standard describes the oldest known writings as manuscripts collected in Darjeeling, India, in the 1850s. Modern development of the script began in Kalimpong, India, in 1925.

Writing served practical and cultural ends: Limbu literature, ritual material such as mundhum, the Limbu ritual tradition, and language teaching. Sirijanga Singthebe traveled to Sikkim to popularize the script. Its structure follows a Brahmic script tradition, a family of writing systems used across South and Southeast Asia. The Limbu language is distantly related to Lepcha and Tibetan; that does not establish a script connection.

Manuscripts, early modern writing, and the current script form are distinct stages. The current form has been used in Nepal and India since the 1970s. Limbu publications include songs, poetry, novels, histories, and teaching material, sometimes alongside Devanagari. Choosing Limbu script can connect a text with the language's ritual and literary traditions.