Lisu Letter Sha

ꓫ is the Lisu consonant called sha.

Its sound is [ɕ] in the International Phonetic Alphabet, close to the “sh” in “ship,” but formed with the tongue slightly farther forward. In Fraser-script spelling, a consonant carries an inherent “a”-type vowel unless another vowel letter follows; tone letters, which mark pitch, come after the syllable. ꓫ is one part of a written syllable.

Who shaped the Fraser script?

Ba Thaw began it; James Fraser and Lisu pastors revised it.

Ba Thaw, a Karen Christian preacher from Myanmar, adapted Latin letter forms to write Lisu for Christian teaching and translation. He shaped it between 1908 and 1914; British missionary James Fraser and Lisu pastors later revised it. A handwritten version is documented in 1917, followed by Christian publications from 1921 and a primer in 1922.

In the 1950s, Chinese authorities devised New Lisu, a separate spelling system based on the Latin alphabet. The Fraser script remained in Christian use among Lisu communities in China, Myanmar, Thailand and India; it became an official script in China in 1992. It also carried Christian texts in other languages: a Naxi Gospel of Mark in 1932 and a Zaiwa (Atsi) Gospel of Mark in 1938.