Lisu Letter Za

ꓤ is a Lisu consonant read within a syllable.

The Lisu letter za belongs to the Fraser, or Old Lisu, script. Its consonants normally carry an inherent “a” vowel unless another vowel letter follows; a separate mark indicates the syllable's tone, or pitch pattern. The consonant contributes to a syllable rather than standing as a whole word.

Why was the Fraser script created?

Ba Thaw created it; Fraser and Lisu clergy later revised it.

The earliest version took shape from 1908 to 1914, when Ba Thaw, a Karen Christian evangelist, adapted Latin letters to write Lisu and support Christian literacy. James O. Fraser, George J. Geis, and Lisu clergy helped revise the script; Burmese and Karen writing traditions influenced its tone marks.

Ba Thaw's publication in 1915 is the earliest documented print in the preliminary form. A Lisu Gospel of Mark appeared in the revised script in 1921, and a primer used that form in 1922. The script later appeared in schools, books, radio, and newspapers. A 2021 study of Myanmar Lisu describes both its Christian-literacy role and its use for cross-border cultural identity. Other systems include a syllabary developed in China in the early 1920s and a Pinyin-based New Lisu orthography from the 1950s. Pollard-style Miao writing was adapted for Lipo, a closely related language.