Lisu letter cha

It marks an aspirated cha in the Fraser script’s Lisu consonant set. The closest English cue is “ch” in “church,” followed by a clear puff of air; that is an approximation. Lisu consonants carry an inherent vowel unless another written vowel follows, so ꓛ usually forms part of a syllable. In ꓛꓱ, it combines with the vowel ꓱ in a Lisu word for “tongue.”

Sara Ba Thaw adapted Latin letter shapes for this writing system between 1908 and 1914; James O. Fraser and Lisu pastors later revised it for literacy, teaching, and Christian Bible and hymn texts.

Why does ꓛ look like Latin?

Fraser borrowed Latin letter shapes, not Latin letter identities. A Latin C-like outline is a design clue, not a sound guide: Lisu gives this letter its own sound value and uses one letter set without uppercase and lowercase pairs.

Fraser is one Lisu spelling system. Other Latin-based Lisu spellings exist, and a separate syllabary—a system with one sign per syllable—was designed in the 1920s. A reader using another system may not use ꓛ; here, the glyph identifies a spelling tradition as well as a consonant.

Why does ꓛ show as a box?

Your font may not include Lisu characters. Lisu letters run left to right and do not join or reshape to match their neighbors. If a font lacks Lisu coverage, a box or fallback mark can appear on screen without changing the underlying text.

Vowels and tone letters are separate characters written in sequence. Lisu tone letters can resemble punctuation, but they mark tone and belong to the word’s spelling.