Lisu Letter La

It is a Lisu consonant with its own vowel when written alone.

In Fraser Lisu, also called Old Lisu, ꓡ represents the l sound at the start of leaf. Written alone, it supplies an inherent open ‘ah’ vowel; a following vowel letter changes that vowel.

Why does ꓡ look like a capital L?

Latin capital shapes helped form the Fraser Lisu alphabet, including this letter.

The collaborative design began in 1914–15 with Sara Ba Thaw, James O. Fraser, and George J. Geis. The first publication in 1915 used a preliminary form; the Gospel of Mark and a reading primer from 1921–22 show the final form. Lisu letters use one case, without uppercase and lowercase pairs.

The script gave Lisu readers books they could read, especially Christian teaching texts: catechisms (short guides to Christian beliefs), Gospel translations, primers, and hymnbooks. It later served education, publishing, radio broadcasts, newspapers, and other public writing.

How did Fraser and New Lisu develop?

Fraser Lisu and New Lisu took different institutional paths.

New Lisu, a Latin-letter spelling modeled on Chinese Pinyin, appeared in the 1950s. It served Chinese government publications during 1959–1980, while Fraser Lisu remained in Christian use. Fraser Lisu returned to official nonreligious publishing in 1980 and government work, including primary education, in 1983. Outside China, literate Lisu communities use Fraser Lisu.

Burmese and Karen writing traditions influenced Fraser Lisu’s inherent vowel and tone marks, which show pitch patterns. Wa Renbo developed a separate Lisu syllabary in the 1920s—a system with one sign for each spoken syllable.