The Limbu script (also Sirijanga script) is used to write the Limbu language. It is a Brahmic type abugida.
History
The Limbu script was invented in the 18th century by Limbu monk and scholar Te-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe, in order to give the Limbu a distinct medium to commit their oral tradition to writing. He claimed that the script was used in late first millennium and that he had only rediscovered it, but no text from before the 18th century has been discovered. It was likely invented as an act of defiance.
Accounts with Sirijunga
The Limbu language is one of the few Sino-Tibetan languages of the Central Himalayas to possess their own scripts. The Limbu or Sirijunga script was devised during the period of Buddhist expansion in Sikkim in the early 18th century when Limbuwan still constituted part of Sikkimese territory. The Limbu script was probably composed at roughly the same time as the Lepcha script which was created by the third King of Sikkim, Chakdor Namgyal (ca. 1700–1717). The Limbu script is ascribed to the Limbu hero, Te-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe.
Structure
thumb|right|The word "Yakthung pān" written in limbu script
The Limbu script is an abugida, which means that a basic letter represents both a consonant and an inherent, or default, vowel. In Limbu, the inherent vowel is , as in Bengali–Assamese and Odia scripts. To start a syllable with a vowel, the appropriate vowel diacritic is added to the vowel-carrier . A vowel-carrier with no diacritic represents the sound .
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Initial consonant clusters are written with small marks following the main consonant:
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Final consonants after short vowels are written with another set of marks, except for some final consonants occurring only in loanwords. They follow the marks for consonant clusters, if any.
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Long vowels without a following final consonant are written with a diacritic called kemphreng , for example, , .
There are two methods for writing long vowels with syllable-final consonants:
- With a kemphreng diacritic and the final consonant, such as , .
- By replacing the final consonant with the corresponding full consonant and adding an underscore-like diacritic mark . This indicates that the consonant has no following vowel and that the preceding vowel is lengthened, example, , . The same diacritic may be used to mark final consonants in loanwords that do not have final forms in Limbu, regardless of the length of the vowel.
The first method is widely used in Sikkim; the second method is advocated by certain writers in Nepal.
- <span style="font-family: 'Noto Sans Limbu', 'Namdhinggo SIL', 'Code2000', 'Sun-ExtA', 'MPH 2B Damase';
></span> jña (for Devanagari )
- <span style="font-family: 'Noto Sans Limbu', 'Namdhinggo SIL', 'Code2000', 'Sun-ExtA', 'MPH 2B Damase';
></span> tra (for Devanagari )
Nineteenth-century texts used a small anusvara (<span style="font-family: 'Noto Sans Limbu', 'Namdhinggo SIL', 'Code2000', 'Sun-ExtA', 'MPH 2B Damase';
></span>) to mark nasalization. This was used interchangeably with <span style="font-family: 'Noto Sans Limbu', 'Namdhinggo SIL', 'Code2000', 'Sun-ExtA', 'MPH 2B Damase';
></span> /ŋ/.
The sign <span style="font-family: 'Noto Sans Limbu', 'Namdhinggo SIL', 'Code2000', 'Sun-ExtA', 'MPH 2B Damase';
></span> was used for the exclamatory particle <span style="font-family: 'Noto Sans Limbu', 'Namdhinggo SIL', 'Code2000', 'Sun-ExtA', 'MPH 2B Damase';
></span> (/lo/).