Limbu Letter Pha

It writes p with an extra puff of air.

In Romanized spelling, Pha is written “ph”; the h marks the breath after p. At the start of a syllable, the letter normally carries a built-in vowel. A vowel sign can change that vowel, and a smaller consonant written underneath can add another sound inside the syllable. So ᤑ is one piece of Limbu spelling, not a complete word on its own.

How did the Limbu script develop?

Its history includes an older tradition and a modern revival.

Traditional Limbu accounts credit King Sirijanga with creating the script in the 9th century. A British Library catalogue describes an early 18th-century Limbu alphabet book associated with Sirijanga; its introduction links writing with religious teaching.

After Limbu writing fell out of use, a revival began around 1925 in Kalimpong. Historical records include 19th-century manuscripts, early-modern forms, and the modern form used since the 1970s. Across Nepal, Sikkim and West Bengal, Limbu writing grew from manuscript, religious and literary use into literacy, standardization and cultural-revival work. The script descends from Brahmi, an old South Asian script. Computer encoding for some Limbu syllables also uses Tibetan-style consonants written below a main letter; this technical influence does not make Limbu another form of Tibetan. Limbu writing also has distant connections with Tibetan and Lepcha writing, but remains distinct from both.

How do I type ᤑ?

Use a Limbu keyboard for entry and a Unicode font for display.

As of 2026, SIL documents two Keyman layouts: a phonetic layout places Limbu letters on corresponding Latin keys, and a typewriter layout roughly follows a Devanagari typewriter, used for Hindi. If you lack a Limbu keyboard, your system’s Unicode input method can enter the character using its value in the page’s character facts. A keyboard controls entry; a font controls display.

Older eight-bit Limbu-font text needs conversion to Unicode; changing fonts only changes how the stored text looks.