Tai Tham script

A name board on a Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai written in Lanna characters.

Tai Tham
Type	Abugida
Languages	Northern Thai, Tai Lü, Khün
Time period	c. 1300–present
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic alphabet Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Brāhmī Pallava Mon Tai Tham
ISO 15924	Lana, 351
Direction	Left-to-right
Unicode alias	Tai Tham
Unicode range	U+1A20–U+1AAF
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols.

The Tai Tham script (Northern Thai: ᨲ᩠ᩅᩫᨾᩮᩬᩥᨦ, Dai Tam; Tai Lü: ᦒᧄ, Tam, "scripture"), also known as the Lanna script, is used for three living languages: Northern Thai (that is, Kam Mueang), Tai Lü and Khün. In addition, the Lanna script is also used for Lao Tham (or old Lao) and other dialect variants in Buddhist palm leaves and notebooks. The script is also known as Tham or Yuan script.

The Northern Thai language is a close relative of Thai and member of the Chiang Saeng language family. It is spoken by nearly 6,000,000 people in Northern Thailand and several thousand in Laos of whom few are literate in Lanna script, although there is some resurgent interest in the script among the young. Northern Thai is now written with the Thai alphabet.

There are 670,000 speakers of Tai Lü of whom those born before 1950 are literate in Lanna script.^{[citation needed]} The script has also continued to be taught in the monasteries. There are 120,000 speakers of Khün for which Lanna is the only script.

Consonants

Categorized letters

Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese IPA Alphabet Subs. ᨠ -᩠ᨠ ก ກ က /ka/ ᨡ -᩠ᨡ ข ຂ ခ /kʰa/ ᨢ - ฃ /kʰa/ /xa/ ᨣ -᩠ᨣ ค ຄ ဂ /ka/ ᨤ - ฅ /kʰa/ /xa/ ᨥ -᩠ᨥ ฆ ဃ /kʰa/ ᨦ -᩠ᨦ ง ງ င /ŋa/	Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese IPA Alphabet Subs. ᨧ -᩠ᨧ จ ຈ စ /tɕa/ ᨨ -᩠ᨨ ฉ ဆ /sa/ ᨩ -᩠ᨩ ช ຊ ဇ /tɕa/ ᨪ - ซ /sa/ ᨫ -᩠ᨫ ฌ ဈ /sa/ ᨬ -᩠ᨬ ญ ည /ɲa/	Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese IPA Alphabet Subs. ᨭ -᩠ᨭ ฏ ဋ /ta/ ᨮ -᩠ᨮ ฐ ဌ /tʰa/ ᨯ -᩠ᨯ ฑ,ด ດ ဍ /da/ ᨰ -᩠ᨰ ฒ ဎ /tʰa/ ᨱ -᩠ᨱ ณ ဏ /na/
Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese IPA Alphabet Subs. ᨲ -᩠ᨲ ต ຕ တ /ta/ ᨳ -᩠ᨳ ถ ຖ ထ /tʰa/ ᨴ -᩠ᨴ ท ທ ဒ /ta/ ᨵ -᩠ᨵ ธ ဓ /tʰa/ ᨶ -᩠ᨶ น ນ န /na/	Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese IPA Alphabet Subs. ᨷ -᩠ᨷ บ ບ ပ /ba/ ᨸ - ป ປ /pa/ ᨹ -᩠ᨹ ผ ຜ ဖ /pʰa/ ᨺ - ฝ ຝ /fa/ ᨻ -᩠ᨻ พ ພ ဗ /pa/ ᨼ - ฟ ຟ /fa/ ᨽ -᩠ᨽ ภ ဘ /pʰa/ ᨾ -᩠ᨾ ม ມ မ /ma/

Noncategorized letters

Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese IPA Alphabet Subs. ᨿ -᩠ᨿ ย ต่ำ ຍ ယ /ɲa/ ᩀ - ย กลาง ຢ /ja/ ᩁ -᩠ᩁ ร ຣ ရ /ha/ /la/ ᩂ - ฤ /lɯ/ ᩃ -᩠ᩃ ล ລ လ /la/ ᩄ - ฦ /lɯ/ ᩅ -᩠ᩅ ว ວ ဝ /wa/

Tai Tham Thai Lao Burmese IPA Alphabet Subs. ᩆ -᩠ᩆ ศ /sa/ ᩇ -᩠ᩇ ษ /sa/ ᩈ -᩠ᩈ ส ສ သ /sa/ ᩉ -᩠ᩉ ห ຫ ဟ /ha/ ᩊ -᩠ᩊ ฬ ဠ /la/ ᩋ - อ ອ အ /ʔa/ ᩌ - ฮ ຮ /ha/

Numerals

Arabic numerals	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Hora digits	᪀	᪁	᪂	᪃	᪄	᪅	᪆	᪇	᪈	᪉
Tham digits	᪐	᪑	᪒	᪓	᪔	᪕	᪖	᪗	᪘	᪙
Thai numerals	๐	๑	๒	๓	๔	๕	๖	๗	๘	๙
Lao numerals	໐	໑	໒	໓	໔	໕	໖	໗	໘	໙
Burmese numerals	๐	၁	၂	၃	၄	၅	၆	၇	၈	၉

Unicode

Tai Tham script was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 2009 with the release of version 5.2.

Block

The Unicode block for Tai Tham is U+1A20–U+1AAF:

Tai Tham Unicode.org chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+1A2x

ᨠ

ᨡ

ᨢ

ᨣ

ᨤ

ᨥ

ᨦ

ᨧ

ᨨ

ᨩ

ᨪ

ᨫ

ᨬ

ᨭ

ᨮ

ᨯ

U+1A3x

ᨰ

ᨱ

ᨲ

ᨳ

ᨴ

ᨵ

ᨶ

ᨷ

ᨸ

ᨹ

ᨺ

ᨻ

ᨼ

ᨽ

ᨾ

ᨿ

U+1A4x

ᩀ

ᩁ

ᩂ

ᩃ

ᩄ

ᩅ

ᩆ

ᩇ

ᩈ

ᩉ

ᩊ

ᩋ

ᩌ

ᩍ

ᩎ

ᩏ

U+1A5x

ᩐ

ᩑ

ᩒ

ᩓ

ᩔ

ᩕ

ᩖ

ᩗ

ᩘ

ᩙ

ᩚ

ᩛ

ᩜ

ᩝ

ᩞ

U+1A6x

᩠

ᩡ

ᩢ

ᩣ

ᩤ

ᩥ

ᩦ

ᩧ

ᩨ

ᩩ

ᩪ

ᩫ

ᩬ

ᩭ

ᩮ

ᩯ

U+1A7x

ᩰ

ᩱ

ᩲ

ᩳ

ᩴ

᩵

᩶

᩷

᩸

᩹

᩺

᩻

᩼

᩿

U+1A8x

᪀

᪁

᪂

᪃

᪄

᪅

᪆

᪇

᪈

᪉

U+1A9x

᪐

᪑

᪒

᪓

᪔

᪕

᪖

᪗

᪘

᪙

U+1AAx

᪠

᪡

᪢

᪣

᪤

᪥

᪦

ᪧ

᪨

᪩

᪪

᪫

᪬

᪭

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 6.0

Fonts

There are currently a few fonts that support this range. Thai people are used to typing the Thai script by placing a front vowel before a consonant; this might cause incorrect input method for Tai Tham script because the consonant must be always typed before the associated vowel, regardless of the relative written position of the vowel, similar to typing the Khmer, Myanmar or Tamil script.

References

• Everson, Michael; Hosken, Martin (2006-08-06). "Proposal for encoding the Lanna script in the BMP of the UCS" (pdf). Working Group Document. International Organization for Standardization. http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3121.pdf. 
• "Lanna alphabet (Tua Mueang)". Omniglot. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/lanna.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-23. 
• Khamjan, Mala(มาลา คำจันทร์). Kham Mueang Dictionary(พจนานุกรมคำเมือง). Chiang Mai: bookworm, 2008. ISBN 978-974-84-1855-1.

External links

• Ethnologue report for Northern Thai
• ISO/IEC 10646:2003/Amd.5:2008 Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set (UCS) -- Amendment 5: AMENDMENT 5: Tai Tham, Tai Viet, Avestan, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, CJK Unified Ideographs Extension C, and other characters
• Tai Tham Unicode Font