Lisu Letter Eu

Its tongue position is like “eh,” but the lips form a small round opening.

Lisu is a language; Fraser is one way of writing it. In Fraser spelling, a consonant usually carries an unwritten “a” sound, and ꓱ after it replaces that sound. Tone marks may follow the syllable to show its pitch. A vowel at the start of a syllable usually has a glottal stop before it—the brief catch in the throat between the parts of “uh-oh”—even though that consonant is not written.

Why does ꓱ look like a turned E?

Latin-letter shapes inspired it, but ꓱ is a distinct Lisu letter. The Fraser script took shape around 1914 through work by Sara Ba Thaw, James O. Fraser, and George J. Geis. The first publication in 1915 used an early form; a Lisu Gospel of Mark in 1921 and a primer in 1922 used the later form. The script was made for Christian teaching and books, including scripture and hymns.

A competing way of writing Lisu, New Lisu, adapted Pinyin—the Latin-letter system for writing Mandarin—to Lisu. New Lisu handled government publishing from 1959 to 1980 while Fraser continued among Christian Lisu; Fraser returned to official government use in 1983, including primary schooling. Outside China, Fraser was also a main written form among literate Lisu, largely in Christian communities. The Pollard script and a Lisu syllabary, where each sign represents a syllable, are other ways to write the language. Writing traditions used for Burmese and Karen languages also influenced Fraser’s tone marks and built-in vowel.