Lisu Letter Ae

It writes Lisu’s open e vowel. The sound of ꓯ is /ɛ/, like the vowel in English bed.

In Fraser spelling, ꓯ is an ordinary spacing letter after a consonant, not a mark attached to it. A bare consonant carries a default vowel, roughly an open “ah” sound (/ɑ/). ꓯ can also begin a vowel-initial syllable, usually after a brief catch in the throat that is not written. Tone marks, which show a syllable’s pitch, follow the syllable.

How did the Fraser script take shape?

Its forms emerged through Lisu and missionary work over time. The script took shape somewhere between 1908 and 1914, when Sara Ba Thaw adapted Latin forms for Lisu. A handwritten Lisu form is recorded from 1917; J. O. Fraser later modified the script in the 1930s. It was first used for Christian literacy materials, including catechisms (books teaching Christian beliefs), hymns, Gospel passages, and Bible publishing.

The Fraser alphabet uses upright or rotated capital-like forms, and its tone conventions draw on Burmese writing practice. Fraser writing supported Christian Lisu literacy across China, Myanmar, Thailand, and India. China also uses a pinyin-based Lisu orthography, especially among non-Christian Lisu. In Thailand, Southern Lisu literacy was effectively absent until the early 1970s, when Christian converts learned Fraser. In 1983, the script became a government standard in two Chinese Lisu autonomous areas.