Sunuwar Letter Tasla

An ordinary t or a t made with the tongue curled back. The second is called retroflex; Sunuwar tasla can spell either sound, depending on the spelling tradition.

Krishna Bahadur Jentich developed the modern Sunuwar script in 1942 to write the Sunuwar language. A Nepali literary-periodical article discussed it in 1980; a 1982/3 periodical publicized it. The writing system began with 22 letters and later expanded.

Why can 𑯁 have two readings?

Older spelling used 𑯁 for both t sounds. Around the turn of the 21st century, Sunuwar users added separate letters for retroflex consonants. The later letter 𑯞 marks the curled-back t, while Tasla can retain its older two-sound role.

The Hamso magazine in Nepal uses an alphabet, where each letter marks a sound. The Sikkim Herald uses an abugida: each consonant carries a default short vowel unless the spelling marks its absence. As of April 28, 2026, both publications still use their respective conventions. The surrounding spelling system affects how to read Tasla.

Why does 𑯁 appear as a blank box?

A font without Sunuwar support may show a blank box. A keyboard enters text; a font draws it. Missing coverage changes the display, not which character is encoded.

Older Sunuwar fonts mapped Latin letters to Sunuwar shapes, but text made with them is not Unicode Sunuwar. A Unicode Sunuwar layout and a font with Sunuwar coverage solve different problems.