Marchen Subjoined Pha

Marchen Pha sits below a base consonant in a stack. In a Marchen text sequence, the full-size base consonant comes first; this subjoined form follows it. The shaping font lays the characters out vertically, so 𑲟 contributes Pha to the syllable rather than standing as a full-size letter.

Enter the Marchen base consonant first, then 𑲟; add any further subjoined consonants and vowel signs in logical order.

Where did Marchen come from?

Accounts trace Marchen to Tibetan writing in a Bön setting. Bön is a Tibetan religious tradition. Specialist summaries place Marchen's development around the 7th century and describe its use for the extinct Zhang-zhung language until about the 10th century, then for Tibetan. The origin story is contested: Bön accounts link the script to Zhang-zhung, while academic histories note that contemporary evidence does not confirm that account.

The 2011 encoding proposal names a bronze seal at Menri Monastery as one of the earliest known Marchen examples, but the seal's date and authenticity are uncertain. The proposal also groups Marchen with the Bön scripts Marchung, Pungchen, Pungchung and Drusha, while distinguishing Marchen from Tibetan and Lantsa.