Chakma (draft)

Chakma script orthography notes

Updated 24 November, 2024

This page brings together basic information about the Chakma script and its use for the Chakma language. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Chakma using Unicode.

The information on this page is derived from the sources listed. Those sources are sometimes inconsistent or lacking in certain information. In addition, almost no IPA transcriptions were found for the few items in the term database. The information provided here should be reliable, but additional research is needed in some areas, many of which are noted in observations in the text.

Referencing this document

Richard Ishida, Chakma (Chakma script) Orthography Notes, 24-Nov-2024, https://r12a.github.io/scripts/cakm/ccp

Sample

Select part of this sample text to show a list of characters, with links to more details.
Change size:   28px

๐‘„™๐‘„ข ๐‘„ท ๐‘„๐‘„ฌ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„š๐‘„ช๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด ๐‘„š๐‘„จ๐‘„ข๐‘„จ๐‘„ž๐‘„จ๐‘„ฃ๐‘„จ ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ง๐‘„ ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„จ๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด๐‘„Ž๐‘„ฎ๐‘„–๐‘„ด ๐‘„ƒ๐‘…… ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„‡๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ ๐‘„š๐‘„จ๐‘„š๐‘„ฌ๐‘„ญ ๐‘„Ž๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ด๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„š๐‘„ด๐‘… ๐‘„–๐‘„ข๐‘„ข๐‘„ด ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ฌ๐‘„˜ ๐‘„ƒ๐‘…… ๐‘„๐‘„ช๐‘„–๐‘„ด๐‘„™๐‘„จ ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„Š๐‘„ฌ; ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ฌ๐‘„š๐‘„ง๐‘„–๐‘„ณ๐‘„ ๐‘„ด ๐‘„๐‘„ฌ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„…๐‘„š๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ฌ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„Ž๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ด ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ข๐‘„ฌ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด ๐‘„Ž๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด ๐‘„›๐‘„ณ๐‘„ข๐‘„ง๐‘„–๐‘„จ ๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ด ๐‘„˜๐‘„ฎ๐‘„ฃ๐‘„ด ๐‘„Œ๐‘„จ๐‘„˜๐‘„ณ๐‘„ ๐‘„ฌ ๐‘„š๐‘„จ๐‘„š๐‘„ฌ๐‘„ญ ๐‘„Œ๐‘„ง๐‘„ฃ๐‘„š ๐‘„…๐‘„ช๐‘„Œ๐‘„จ๐‘„–๐‘„ด๐‘…

๐‘„™๐‘„ข ๐‘„ธ ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ฌ ๐‘„ฃ๐‘„ฌ๐‘„Š๐‘„จ ๐‘„‡๐‘„ง๐‘„ ๐‘„ฌ ๐‘„˜๐‘„ฌ๐‘„‰๐‘„ฌ๐‘„ ๐‘„ฌ ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„™๐‘„ฉ๐‘„š๐‘„ง๐‘„– ๐‘„ƒ๐‘…… ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„‡๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ง๐‘„๐‘„ข๐‘„ด ๐‘„‰๐‘„ช๐‘„–๐‘„จ๐‘„จ, ๐‘„™๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ง, ๐‘„๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด๐‘„š๐‘„ง, ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„จ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„ˆ, ๐‘„ž๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด, ๐‘„ข๐‘„Ž๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„จ๐‘„–๐‘„จ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด ๐‘„ ๐‘„š๐‘„š๐‘„‡๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„ด๐‘„š๐‘„ด ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ง๐‘„–๐‘„ด, ๐‘„Ž๐‘„–๐‘„ฉ๐‘„ ๐‘„ด ๐‘„ ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„Ž๐‘„จ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด ๐‘„œ๐‘„ช๐‘„ข๐‘„จ๐‘„…๐‘„ช๐‘„–๐‘„ณ๐‘„ ๐‘„ด, ๐‘„Ž๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ด๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ง, ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ง๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ด๐‘„›๐‘„ง๐‘„–๐‘„จ๐‘„จ ๐‘„ ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ณ๐‘„ ๐‘„ง ๐‘„‡๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ง ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„จ๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด๐‘„Ž๐‘„ฎ๐‘„–๐‘„ด ๐‘„๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด๐‘„๐‘„จ๐‘„Ž๐‘„ฌ๐‘„ข๐‘„ด ๐‘„๐‘„ข ๐‘„๐‘„ฌ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„…๐‘„š๐‘„ฌ ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ง๐‘„ ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„‡๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ ๐‘„—๐‘„ฌ๐‘„๐‘„ง๐‘… ๐‘„‡๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ง ๐‘„˜๐‘„ฌ๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด ๐‘„๐‘„ง ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„˜๐‘„จ๐‘„ž๐‘„จ๐‘„˜๐‘„ฌ๐‘„ข๐‘„ด ๐‘„ข๐‘„Ž๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„จ๐‘„–๐‘„จ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด, ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„จ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„จ๐‘„š๐‘„ฌ ๐‘„ ๐‘„›๐‘„จ๐‘„–๐‘„จ๐‘„จ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„จ๐‘„ข๐‘„ด ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„จ๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด๐‘„Ž๐‘„ฎ๐‘„˜๐‘„ง ๐‘„…๐‘„ซ๐‘„‰๐‘„ช๐‘„ข๐‘„ฌ ๐‘„–๐‘„ข๐‘„ด ๐‘„‡๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ง ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ง๐‘„™๐‘„จ๐‘„๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ฉ๐‘„ข๐‘„ด ๐‘„›๐‘„ณ๐‘„ข๐‘„ง๐‘„–๐‘„จ ๐‘„‡๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ง๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ด ๐‘„–๐‘„ฌ๐‘„ข๐‘„ง๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ฌ๐‘„ข๐‘„ง๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด ๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„ข ๐‘„š๐‘„ง ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„ง๐‘„๐‘„ง; ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ฌ ๐‘„˜๐‘„ฌ๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด ๐‘„ ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„˜๐‘„จ๐‘„ž๐‘„จ๐‘„˜๐‘„ฌ ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„™๐‘„ฉ๐‘„š๐‘„ด ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„ฎ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด, ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„ฎ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ง๐‘„๐‘„จ๐‘„ž๐‘„ช๐‘„‡๐‘„ง๐‘„ง, ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ง๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ ๐‘„จ๐‘„–๐‘„ง๐‘„ง๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„จ๐‘„–๐‘„ง ๐‘„‡๐‘„จ๐‘„๐‘„ ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ข๐‘„ด๐‘„๐‘„ง๐‘„ž๐‘„ฏ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ง๐‘„–๐‘„ง๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ณ๐‘„ ๐‘„ง ๐‘„‡๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ง ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„จ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„จ๐‘„š๐‘„ฌ๐‘„ข๐‘„ด ๐‘„ž๐‘„จ๐‘„˜๐‘„จ๐‘„ข๐‘„ฌ๐‘…

Source: Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Chakma, articles 1 & 2

Usage & history

Origins of the Chakma script, 7thC โ€“ today.

Phoenician

โ”” Aramaic

โ”” Brahmi

โ”” Tamil-Brahmi

โ”” Pallava

โ”” Mon-Burmese

โ”” Chakma

+ Burmese

+ Mon

+ Sgaw Karen

+ Shan

+ Tai Tham

+ Ahom

+ Tai Le

+ Khamti

Chakma is spoken by about 300,000 people in southeast Bangladesh and neighbouring parts of India.u The number of people who write their language in the Chakma script is small, however, as the majority use the Bengali script, instead.ws The language and script have been introduced to non-governmental schools in Bangladesh and Mizoram.@Chakma script,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4I4N0B7_8A

๐‘„Œ๐‘„‹๐‘„ด๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ง๐‘„๐‘„›๐‘„–๐‘„ด

The Chakma script is an early offshoot from the Mon-Burmese script, and retains many of it's forms and features. It is currently in danger of being replaced by the Bengali script, due to cultural and political developments over the past century.

More information: Unicode proposal โ€ข Endangered Alphabets

Comparison table here

Basic features

The Chakma script is an abugida, ie. each consonant contains an inherent vowel sound. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for the modern Chakma orthography.

Chakma text runs left-to-right in horizontal lines. There is no case distinction. Words are separated by spaces.

โฏ consonantSummary

Chakma represents native consonant sounds using 32 basic letters and a couple more for specialised orthographies.

Syllable-final consonants are typically written using 11134 to kill the vowel of a syllable-final consonant letter, but the diacritics ๐‘„ and ๐‘„‚ may be used for -ล‹ and -h, respectively.

The absence of an inherent vowel is usually indicated in modern text by the explicit diacritic 11134 (maayyaa). However, 5 consonants (and occasionally more) may be subjoined to indicate a consonant cluster. A more old-fashioned alternative is to create ligatures rather than stacks.

11134 is also used to indicate geminated consonants, in which case the base consonant typically supports this diacritic plus a vowel sign.

โฏ basicV

Chakma is an abugida with an inherent vowel pronounced aห. Plain post-consonant vowel sounds are written using 7 combining marks and 3 more are used for diphthongs. Chakma has 1 pre-base vowel sign and 2 circumgraphs.

Four independent vowels are available for writing standalone vowels. Other standalone vowels can be written by attaching vowel signs to 11103.

Nasalisation is indicated using ๐‘„€, which can be combined with either an anusvara or a visarga diacritic.

Chakma has a set of native digits, but sometimes Bengali digits may be used. It has a mixture of ASCII and Chakma code points for punctuation marks.

Character index

Letters

Show

Basic consonants

๐‘„‡โฃ๐‘„ˆโฃ๐‘„‰โฃ๐‘„Šโฃ๐‘„‹โฃ๐‘„Œโฃ๐‘„โฃ๐‘„Žโฃ๐‘„โฃ๐‘„โฃ๐‘„‘โฃ๐‘„’โฃ๐‘„“โฃ๐‘„”โฃ๐‘„•โฃ๐‘„–โฃ๐‘„—โฃ๐‘„˜โฃ๐‘„™โฃ๐‘„šโฃ๐‘„›โฃ๐‘„œโฃ๐‘„โฃ๐‘„žโฃ๐‘„Ÿโฃ๐‘„ โฃ๐‘„กโฃ๐‘„ขโฃ๐‘„ฃโฃ๐‘„คโฃ๐‘„ฅโฃ๐‘„ฆ

Extended consonants

๐‘…‡โฃ๐‘…„

Vowels

๐‘„ƒโฃ๐‘„„โฃ๐‘„…โฃ๐‘„†

Combining marks

Show

Vowels

๐‘„งโฃ๐‘„จโฃ๐‘„ฉโฃ๐‘„ชโฃ๐‘„ซโฃ๐‘„ฌโฃ๐‘„ญโฃ๐‘„ฎโฃ๐‘„ฏโฃ๐‘„ฐโฃ๐‘„ฑโฃ๐‘„ฒโฃ๐‘……โฃ๐‘…†

Bindus

๐‘„€โฃ๐‘„

Visarga

๐‘„‚

Pure killer

๐‘„ด

Invisible stacker

๐‘„ณ

Numbers

Show
๐‘„ถโฃ๐‘„ทโฃ๐‘„ธโฃ๐‘„นโฃ๐‘„บโฃ๐‘„ปโฃ๐‘„ผโฃ๐‘„ฝโฃ๐‘„พโฃ๐‘„ฟโฃเงฆโฃเงงโฃเงจโฃเงฉโฃเงชโฃเงซโฃเงฌโฃเงญโฃเงฎโฃเงฏ

Punctuation

Show
๐‘…€โฃ๐‘…โฃ๐‘…‚โฃ๐‘…ƒ

ASCII

(โฃ)โฃ,โฃ-โฃ;

Other

Show

To be investigated

!โฃ'โฃ.โฃ0โฃ1โฃ2โฃ3โฃ4โฃ5โฃ6โฃ7โฃ8โฃ9โฃ:โฃ?โฃ[โฃ]โฃยซโฃยปโฃโ€‘โฃโ€“โฃโ€”โฃโ€˜โฃโ€™โฃโ€œโฃโ€โฃโ€ฆโฃโ€ฏโฃโ€นโฃโ€บโฃโ‹ฏโฃ
Items to show in lists

Phonology

The following represents the repertoire of the Chakma language.

Click on the sounds to reveal locations in this document where they are mentioned.

Phones in a lighter colour are non-native or allophones. Source Wikipedia.

Vowel sounds

Plain vowels

iห i u uห e o ษ› ษ” รฆ a aห a aห

Consonant sounds

labial labio-
dental		 alveolar post-
alveolar		 retroflex palatal velar glottal
stop p b   t d   สˆ ษ–   k ษก  
  pสฐ bสฐ   tสฐ dสฐ   สˆสฐ ษ–สฐ   kสฐ ษกสฐ  
affricate       tอกสƒ dอกส’        
        tอกสƒสฐ dอกส’สฐ        
fricative   v s z สƒ       h
nasal m ษฑ n   ษณ ษฒ ล‹
approximant w   l     j  
trill/flap     r   ษฝ
 

Tone

Chakma is not a tonal language.

Structure

tbd

Vowels

Vowel summary table

The following table summarises the main vowel to character assigments.

โ“˜ represents the inherent vowel. Diacritics are added to the vowels to indicate nasalisation (not shown here). The right-hand column lists independent vowels.

Simple
๐‘„จโฃ๐‘„ฉโฃ๐‘„ชโฃ๐‘„ซ
๐‘„„โฃ๐‘„…
๐‘„ฌโฃ๐‘„ฎ
๐‘„†
๐‘„ฌโฃ๐‘„ง
  
โ“˜
๐‘„ƒ
Diphthongs
๐‘„ฐโฃ๐‘„ญโฃ๐‘„ฏ
  

For additional details see vowel_mappings.

Inherent vowel

𑄇 ka U+11107 LETTER KAA

The inherent vowel for Chakma is aห (longer than the inherent vowels in Bangla and Hindi). So kaห is written by simply using the consonant letter.

Post-consonant vowels

𑄇𑄨 ki U+11107 LETTER KAA + U+11128 VOWEL SIGN I

Plain post-consonant vowel sounds are written using 7 combining marks and 3 more are used for diphthongs. Chakma has 1 pre-base vowel sign and 2 circumgraphs.

Two of the vowel signs are spacing marks, meaning that they consume horizontal space when added to a base consonant.

All vowel signs are typed and stored after the base consonant, and the glyph rendering system takes care of the positioning at display time. When consonants are stacked the glyphs used to represent vowels, whether alone or in multipart vowels, are arranged around a syllable onset, which may be 2 consonants, rather than just around the immediately preceding consonant. See prebase and circumgraphs.

Plain vowels

Chakma uses the following dedicated combining marks for basic vowels. They are all vowel signs.

๐‘„จโฃ๐‘„ฉโฃ๐‘„ชโฃ๐‘„ซโฃ๐‘„ฌโฃ๐‘„ฎโฃ๐‘„งโฃ๐‘……

The vowel-sign ๐‘…… is used to indicate an explicit aห sound in the Baarah Maatraa orthography.

Diphthongs

Single-character vowel signs are used to write the following diphthongs.

๐‘„ฐโฃ๐‘„ญโฃ๐‘„ฏโฃ๐‘…†

The Baarah Maatraa orthography uses the vowel sign ๐‘…† to write the sound eหi.

Other diphthongs appear to use multiple vowel signs over the same base consonant. These include:

๐‘„ช๐‘„ญ

Nasalisation

Nasalisation is indicated using 11100.

This can also be used in syllables that end with an anusvara or a visarga.mh,2 For example, ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„‚๐‘„€.

Since both diacritics have the same combining class, the order in typing and storage should reflect the increasing distance from the base character.

Pre-base vowel sign

𑄇𑄬 ke U+11107 LETTER KAA + U+1112C VOWEL SIGN E

Chakma has one pre-base vowel sign.

๐‘„ฌ

This combining mark is always typed and stored after the base consonant. The rendering process places the glyph before the base consonant at the time of display.

๐‘„›๐‘„ฌ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด

When this vowel is pronounced after a consonant cluster the vowel sign is typed and stored after the second consonant in the cluster but is displayed before the first consonant.

๐‘„๐‘„ฌ๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„ฌ๐‘„‰

Circumgraphs

𑄇𑄮 ko U+11107 LETTER KAA + U+1112E VOWEL SIGN O

Chakma has 2 circumgraphs.

๐‘„ฎโฃ๐‘„ฏ

Like pre-base glyphs, these are single combining marks that are always stored after the base consonant. When rendered, the single code point produces multiple glyphs, which are placed on different sides of the base consonant.

These circumgraphs have canonically equivalent decomposed forms (see encoding).

𑄮␣𑄯

The code point ๐‘„ง is commonly used alone to represent the sound ษ”, but the ๐‘„ฑ and ๐‘„ฒ code points are not usually found in text.

Vowel length

Dedicated vowel signs are available for long vowel sounds.

Composite vowels

Composite vowels are only produced when the 2 circumgraphs are decomposed (see encoding).

Standalone vowels

At the beginning of a word standalone vowels can be written using either one of four independent vowels or using combinations of vowel signs with ๐‘„ƒ.

The independent vowels are the following.

๐‘„„โฃ๐‘„…โฃ๐‘„†โฃ๐‘„ƒ

Other standalone vowels are written using vowel signs attached to ๐‘„ƒ, but there is also a modern trend to represent the sounds covered by the independent vowels using combinations, too. The following list shows just a few examples.

๐‘„ƒ๐‘„จโฃ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ฉโฃ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ชโฃ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ซโฃ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ฌโฃ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ฐ

Vowel absence

The dropping of the inherent vowel for syllable codas in Chakma is marked using ๐‘„ด.

๐‘„Œ๐‘„–๐‘„ด

๐‘„–๐‘„จ๐‘„š๐‘„ด

๐‘„ˆ๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด

The same diacritic is also used to signal consonant clusters and gemination.

Vowel sounds to characters

This section maps Chakma vowel sounds to common graphemes in the Chakma orthography.

The left column shows dependent vowels, and the right column independent vowel letters.

Plain vowels

 
 
Dependent vowels
Independent vowels
i
 

๐‘„จ

๐‘„–๐‘„จ๐‘„š๐‘„ด

๐‘„„

iห
 

๐‘„ฉ

 
u
 

๐‘„ช

๐‘„ž๐‘„ช๐‘„–๐‘„ด

๐‘„…

uห
 

๐‘„ซ

 
e
 

๐‘„ฌ

๐‘„›๐‘„ฌ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด

๐‘„†

o
 

๐‘„ฎ

๐‘„๐‘„ฎ๐‘„ฃ๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด

 
ษ”
 

๐‘„ง

๐‘„ˆ๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด

 
aห
 

Inherent vowel

๐‘„‡๐‘„‹๐‘„ข

๐‘…… Used by the Baarah Maatraa orthography.

๐‘„ƒ

๐‘„ƒ๐‘„˜๐‘„ข

Complex vowels

aiฬฏ
 

๐‘„ญ

๐‘„‡๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„ญ

ouฬฏ
 

๐‘„ฏ

๐‘„ข๐‘„˜ ๐‘„‡๐‘„ช๐‘„ข๐‘„ฏ

oiฬฏ
 

๐‘„ฐ

eหiฬฏ
 

๐‘…† Used by the Baarah Maatraa orthography.

Consonants

Consonant summary table

The following table summarises the main consonant to character assigments.

The right column contains aspirated sounds.

Onsets
๐‘„›โฃ๐‘„โฃ๐‘„–โฃ๐‘„˜โฃ๐‘„‘โฃ๐‘„“โฃ๐‘„‡โฃ๐‘„‰
๐‘„œโฃ๐‘„žโฃ๐‘„—โฃ๐‘„™โฃ๐‘„’โฃ๐‘„”โฃ๐‘„ˆโฃ๐‘„Š
๐‘„Œโฃ๐‘„Ž
๐‘„โฃ๐‘„
๐‘„ฅโฃ๐‘„ฆ
  
๐‘„Ÿโฃ๐‘„šโฃ๐‘„•โฃ๐‘„โฃ๐‘„‹
  
๐‘„คโฃ๐‘„ขโฃ๐‘„ฃโฃ๐‘„กโฃ๐‘„ 
  
Finals
๐‘„โฃ๐‘„‚

For additional details see consonant_mappings.

Basic consonants

Whereas the table just above takes you from sounds to letters, the following simply lists the basic consonant letters (however, since the orthography is highly phonetic there is little difference in ordering).

๐‘„›โฃ๐‘„œโฃ๐‘„โฃ๐‘„žโฃ๐‘„–โฃ๐‘„—โฃ๐‘„โฃ๐‘„˜โฃ๐‘„™โฃ๐‘„โฃ๐‘„‘โฃ๐‘„’โฃ๐‘„“โฃ๐‘„”โฃ๐‘„‡โฃ๐‘„ˆโฃ๐‘„‰โฃ๐‘„Šโฃ๐‘„Œโฃ๐‘„Žโฃ๐‘„ฅโฃ๐‘„กโฃ๐‘„ฆโฃ๐‘„Ÿโฃ๐‘„šโฃ๐‘„•โฃ๐‘„โฃ๐‘„‹โฃ๐‘„คโฃ๐‘„ขโฃ๐‘„ฃโฃ๐‘„ 

Ganguly et al. say that native speakers don't distinguish between s and สƒ, and that there is also much interchangeability between s and tอกสƒ. The following 2 examples with IPA transcriptions in Wikipedia appear to illustrate this, and an ambivalence between kสฐ and h, but more research is needed to completely map out the correspondences between written letters and sounds, and for now we will stick with the correspondences conventionally ascribed in the resources seen.

๐‘„๐‘„ฎ๐‘„ฃ๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด

๐‘„ˆ๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด

Observation: It is worth noting, however, that recordings on YouTube by Bivuti Chakma pronounce ๐‘„‡ and ๐‘„ˆ as haห. He also tends to pronounce ๐‘„Œ and ๐‘„ as saห. It isn't clear whether this is a dialect, or idiolect, or standard pronunciation.

Observation: Bivuti also appears to pronounce ๐‘„› and ๐‘„œ as faห.

Other consonants

The following consonants were introduced for use with specialised orthographies.

๐‘…‡โฃ๐‘…„

๐‘…‡ is used for the sound v when writing Pali.

๐‘…„ is used for the aspirated sound lสฐ in the Baarah Maatraa orthography.

Onsets

Observation: There is an indication from the couple of terms below that multiple consonants can appear in syllable onsets, but this needs further investigation. The examples found both use stacked consonants, which may be significant. The combination with h may produce breathiness or aspiration(?).

๐‘„Œ๐‘„‹๐‘„ด๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ ๐‘„ž๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด

๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ณ๐‘„ข๐‘„จ๐‘„–๐‘„ด๐‘„จ๐‘„‡

Observation: It's not clear whether a subjoined HA represents a way of indicating an aspirated or breathy consonant, or a syllable-initial h, or a syllable-final h. In the word for Chakma above it doesn't appear to be a syllable initial. However, there are other occurrences of a subjoined HA with come with a maayyaa above the stack, and this may indicate a different pronunciation, eg. ๐‘„‡๐‘„ง๐‘„™๐‘„๐‘„–๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„ด.

Finals

General vowel suppression The dropping of the inherent vowel for syllable codas in Chakma is marked using ๐‘„ด.

๐‘„Œ๐‘„–๐‘„ด

๐‘„–๐‘„จ๐‘„š๐‘„ด

๐‘„ˆ๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด

The same diacritic is also used to signal consonant clusters and gemination.

Syllable codas are generally marked using ๐‘„ด over an ordinary consonant letter, but some are indicated by stacking (or in older texts ligation) of consonant glyphs (see clusters).

๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„–๐‘„ด

Marks for codas Final ล‹ and h can also be marked using the anusvara and visarga diacritics, ๐‘„ and ๐‘„‚, respectively.

๐‘„ฆ๐‘„จ๐‘„ ๐‘„ง๐‘„

Consonant clusters

As a rule, consonant clusters only involve 2 consonants.mh,5

Consonant clusters are visually indicated in one of the following ways.

  1. Show ๐‘„ด above the initial consonant in the cluster.
  2. Stack or conjoin the characters. The non-initial consonant is reduced in size and positioned below or alongside the first.
  3. Create a ligature. A fusion of the letter shapes, where it may be difficult to identify one or more of the components.

See also finals and clength.

Using MAAYYAA

This is the most common way of indicating a consonant cluster in modern Chakma writing.mh,3 11134 is a combining mark attached to and appearing above the first consonant in the cluster. It is always visible, and no shaping is applied to either consonant.

๐‘„ž๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„–๐‘„ด

11134 is also used to kill the inherent vowel when no cluster is involved (as shown at the end of the example above).

It is also used to indicate gemination when combined with a vowel sign. When it appears above a stack it indicates gemination of the initial consonant; it is not being used as a vowel killer.

๐‘„ž๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„ช๐‘„ข๐‘„จ

๐‘„๐‘„ง๐‘„–๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ 

Stacking & conjoining

Clusters can also be indicated by stacking the consonants. To tell the font to stack the letters, use the invisible character 11133 between them.

In 2001 an orthographic reform was proposed that would limit conjuncts to just 5 subjoined lettersmh,3, shown below in combination with ๐‘„‡.

๐‘„‡๐‘„ณ๐‘„คโฃ๐‘„‡๐‘„ณ๐‘„ขโฃ๐‘„‡๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฃโฃ๐‘„‡๐‘„ณ๐‘„ โฃ๐‘„‡๐‘„ณ๐‘„š

The 'subjoined' form of ๐‘„  is actually conjoined, as in:

๐‘„Œ๐‘„š๐‘„ด๐‘„˜๐‘„ณ๐‘„  tอกสƒaหndjษ› cฤndแบฤ

Observation: The letter HA commonly appears in subjoined form, but it isn't clear whether this indicates an aspirated onset or a final -h.

๐‘„›๐‘„‰๐‘„ข๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ

Observation: Some combinations of consonants are both stacked and have maayyaa above. More research is needed to understand this usage. See questions for more detail.

Ligated forms

Ligated forms are now considered old-fashioned.mh,3 In this style of writing, the second consonant in the cluster is often alongside the first, and both are shaped so that they join together.

๐‘„˜๐‘„ณ๐‘„™ ๐‘„‡๐‘„ณ๐‘„‘ ๐‘„š๐‘„ณ๐‘„Ÿ
Examples of ligated conjunct forms.

More examples of these conjunct forms can be found in Everson & Hosken, p4.

Consonant length

Gemination is indicated using ๐‘„ด. Iusually t is distinguished from the use for consonant clusters because a vowel sign is combined with the same base consonant.gc

๐‘„‡๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„ญ

๐‘„‡๐‘„จ๐‘„–๐‘„ด๐‘„ฌ

When the maayyaa appears with a stacked consonant cluster, it is used in this role, ie. not to kill the vowel, but to lengthen the initial consonant.

๐‘„ž๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„ช๐‘„ข๐‘„จ

๐‘„ž๐‘„ฃ๐‘„ง๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„š๐‘„จ

The Noto and RibengUni fonts allow maayyaa to appear immediately after the initial consonant in a stack, or after the final consonant, with no difference in the rendered result, and it is possible to find examples encoded in both ways. Everson and the Unicode Standard (whose text is derived from Everson's proposal) seem to assume that both the virama and the maayyaa are present to kill a vowel, and their texts indicate that there is no justification for having both combining marks side by side in storage. However, since the maayyaa doesn't have the role of killing the vowel here, but instead indicates gemination of the initial character in the cluster, it is logical to use the order:

C๐‘„ด๐‘„ณC

This order is also confirmed as the appropriate one by Glass.cldt,177

Consonant sounds to characters

This section maps Chakma consonant sounds to common graphemes in the Chakma orthography. Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc.

p
 

๐‘„›

๐‘„›๐‘„š๐‘„จ

pสฐ
 

๐‘„œ

b
 

๐‘„

๐‘„๐‘„ฌ๐‘„‹๐‘„ด

bสฐ
 

๐‘„ž

๐‘„ž๐‘„ช๐‘„–๐‘„ด

t
 

๐‘„–

๐‘„–๐‘„จ๐‘„š๐‘„ด

tสฐ
 

๐‘„—

๐‘„—๐‘„ฃ๐‘„ด

tอกสƒ
 

๐‘„Œ

๐‘„Œ๐‘„–๐‘„ด

tอกสƒสฐ
 

๐‘„

d
 

๐‘„˜

๐‘„˜๐‘„ง๐‘„‰๐‘„š๐‘„ด

dสฐ
 

๐‘„™

๐‘„’๐‘„™๐‘„ข๐‘„ด

dอกส’
 

๐‘„Ž

๐‘„Ž๐‘„ง๐‘„˜

dอกส’สฐ
 

๐‘„

๐‘„๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด

สˆ
 

๐‘„‘

สˆสฐ
 

๐‘„’

๐‘„’๐‘„‰๐‘„ช๐‘„ข๐‘„ด

ษ–
 

๐‘„“

ษ–สฐ
 

๐‘„”

k
 

๐‘„‡

๐‘„‡๐‘„‹๐‘„ข

kสฐ
 

๐‘„ˆ

๐‘„ˆ๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด

ษก
 

๐‘„‰

๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„–๐‘„ด

ษกสฐ
 

๐‘„Š

๐‘„Š๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด

v
 

๐‘…‡ Used for words in Pali.

s
 

๐‘„ฅ

๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ง๐‘„š

z
 

๐‘„ก

๐‘„ก๐‘„ ๐‘„ข๐‘„ง๐‘„–๐‘„ด

h
 

๐‘„ฆ

๐‘„ฆ๐‘„จ๐‘„ ๐‘„ง๐‘„

๐‘„‚

m
 

๐‘„Ÿ

๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด

n
 

๐‘„š

๐‘„ข๐‘„š๐‘„ด

ษณ
 

๐‘„•

ษฒ
 

๐‘„

ล‹
 

๐‘„‹

๐‘„‡๐‘„‹๐‘„ข

๐‘„

๐‘„‡๐‘„จ๐‘„ ๐‘„ฎ๐‘„

w
 

๐‘„ค

๐‘„ค๐‘„‡๐‘„ด

r
 

๐‘„ข

๐‘„ข๐‘„š๐‘„ด

l
 

๐‘„ฃ

๐‘„ฃ๐‘„‹๐‘„ด

lสฐ
 

๐‘…„ Used by the Baarah Maatraa orthography.

j
 

๐‘„ 

๐‘„ฆ๐‘„จ๐‘„ ๐‘„ง๐‘„

๐‘„ก (This needs to be confirmed!)

๐‘„ก๐‘„–๐‘„ณ๐‘„ข๐‘„ด

Encoding choices

This section offers advice about characters or character sequences to avoid, and what to use instead. It takes into account the relevance of Unicode Normalisation Form D (NFD) and Unicode Normalisation Form C (NFC)..

Although usage is recommended here, content authors may well be unaware of such recommendations. Therefore, applications should look out for the non-recommended approach and treat it the same as the recommended approach wherever possible.

Canonically equivalent encodings

Two letters can be represented as an atomic character (the norm), or as a sequence of combining marks. The parts are separated in Unicode Normalisation Form D (NFD), and atomic in Unicode Normalisation Form C (NFC), so both approaches should be treated as canonically equivalent.

Atomic (recommended) Decomposed ( NOT recommended )
๐‘„ฎ 11131 11127
๐‘„ฏ 11132 11127

Normally, text will use the atomic form, and this is generally recommended by the Unicode Standard.

False friends

The following atomic characters look as if they could be composed of parts, but in fact there is no equivalence during normalisation, and so the atomic characters only should be used.

Atomic Sequence ( DO NOT use! )
๐‘„ฐ 1112D 11127
๐‘„ฎ 11127 11133 11124
๐‘„ซ 1112A 1112A
๐‘„‚ 11101 11101

Codepoint order

Combining marks always follow the based character.

Where present, characters in an orthographic syllable should always occur in the following order.

  1. A consonant or independent vowel.
  2. ๐‘„ด
  3. ๐‘„ณC followed by another consonant.
  4. One of ๐‘„ฑ or ๐‘„ฒ (in decomposed text only!).
  5. A dependent vowel.
  6. ๐‘„, or ๐‘„‚.
  7. ๐‘„€.

Adjacent maayyaa and virama

A number of words contain both ๐‘„ด and ๐‘„ณ in the same consonant cluster. It is possible to find both of the following sequences of characters in online text:

C๐‘„ณC๐‘„ด

C๐‘„ด๐‘„ณC

The Noto and RibengUni fonts support either ordering, with no difference in the rendered result.

Everson and the Unicode Standard (whose text is derived from Everson's proposal) seem to assume that both the virama and the maayyaa are present to kill a vowel, and they have text to indicate that there is no justification for having both combining marks side by side in storage. However, since the maayyaa doesn't have the role of killing the vowel here, but instead indicates gemination of the initial character in the cluster, it is logical to use the order:

C๐‘„ด๐‘„ณC

The second consonant is usually ๐‘„  or ๐‘„ฆ. The following are examples found in a single page.

  1. With YA: ๐‘„†๐‘„™๐‘„ฎ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ ๐‘„š๐‘„ด โ€ข ๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„–๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„  โ€ข ๐‘„๐‘„š๐‘„ฌ๐‘„๐‘„–๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„  โ€ข ๐‘„ž๐‘„ฃ๐‘„ง๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„š๐‘„จ โ€ข ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ง๐‘„–๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„  โ€ข ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ง๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ 
  2. With HA: ๐‘„†๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„š๐‘„ด โ€ข ๐‘„‡๐‘„ง๐‘„™๐‘„ž๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„š๐‘„จ โ€ข ๐‘„‡๐‘„ง๐‘„™๐‘„ž๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„š๐‘„ด โ€ข ๐‘„‡๐‘„ฉ๐‘„๐‘„ฎ๐‘„–๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„š๐‘„ด โ€ข ๐‘„‘๐‘„ฌ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„š๐‘„ด

It is worth noting that the maayyaa is rendered over the initial letter in the conjunct, regardless of the code point sequence in memory.

Numbers

Digits

Chakma has a set of native digits.

๐‘„ถโฃ๐‘„ทโฃ๐‘„ธโฃ๐‘„นโฃ๐‘„บโฃ๐‘„ปโฃ๐‘„ผโฃ๐‘„ฝโฃ๐‘„พโฃ๐‘„ฟ

Bengali digits may also be used.

เงฆโฃเงงโฃเงจโฃเงฉโฃเงชโฃเงซโฃเงฌโฃเงญโฃเงฎโฃเงฏ

Myanmar digits are used when the Chakma script is used to write the Tanchangya language.mh,6

Text direction

Chakma text runs left to right in horizontal lines.

Show default bidi_class properties for characters in the Chakma orthography described here.

Glyph shaping & positioning

Experiment with examples using the Chakma character app.

Context-based shaping & positioning

The glyphs used for Chakma in India and Bangladesh differ slightly in roundness (similar to variation in the Tai Tham script as used in Northern Thai and Tai Khรผn).mh,1

Base characters can carry multiple combining marks. For example, in addition to a vowel sign a base consonant may carry one or more of the following diacritics: ๐‘„ด, ๐‘„, ๐‘„‚, ๐‘„€. In some cases the glyphs for multiple combining marks need to be positioned side by side or carefully positioned relative to each other, as shown in the examples just below.

๐‘„‡๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„ญ

๐‘„‡๐‘„จ๐‘„ ๐‘„ฎ๐‘„

Generally speaking, there is no interaction between consonant characters, but where consonant characters are stacked or ligated then it becomes necessary for the font to apply the needed shaping and placement of glyphs.

๐‘„Œ๐‘„‹๐‘„ด๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ

See a list of all conjuncts.

Most subjoined letters are just smaller versions of the original consonant letter, but significantly different shapes are used for subjoined r and y. Compare the following:

components rendered

๐‘„‡๐‘„ณ๐‘„ข

๐‘„‡๐‘„ณ๐‘„ข

๐‘„‡๐‘„ณ๐‘„ 

๐‘„‡๐‘„ณ๐‘„ 

For example:

๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ณ๐‘„ข๐‘„จ๐‘„–๐‘„ด๐‘„จ๐‘„‡

Typographic units

Word boundaries

Words are separated by spaces.

Some words are hyphenated. For example:

๐‘„ข๐‘„ง๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ด-๐‘„‡๐‘„ง๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ด rษ”s-kษ”s

Graphemes

tbd

Punctuation & inline features

Phrase & section boundaries

,โฃ;โฃ๐‘…โฃ๐‘…ƒโฃ๐‘…‚โฃ๐‘…€

Chakma uses a mixture of ASCII and native punctuation.

phrase

,

;
sentence

๐‘…

๐‘…ƒ

๐‘…‚
section

๐‘…€

The shape of ๐‘…€ can vary, including some shapes that look like flowers or leaves.mh,6

Observation: Other punctuation marks may be in use, especially things such as colon and exclamation mark. Further research is needed to establish the complete set.

Bracketed text

See type samples.

(โฃ)

Chakma commonly uses ASCII parentheses to insert parenthetical information into text.

  start end
standard

(

)

Line & paragraph layout

Line breaking & hyphenation

Lines are generally broken between words.

Line-edge rules

As in almost all writing systems, certain punctuation characters should not appear at the end or the start of a line. The Unicode line-break properties help applications decide whether a character should appear at the start or end of a line.

Show line-breaking properties for characters in the modern Chakma orthography.

The following list gives examples of typical behaviours for certain characters. Context may affect the behaviour of some of these.

Click/tap on the characters to show what they are.

  • โ€œ โ€˜ (   should not be the last character on a line.
  • โ€ โ€™ ) . , ; ๐‘…€ ๐‘… ๐‘…‚ ๐‘…ƒ   should not begin a new line.

Line breaking should not split any combining mark from its base character, either.

Counters, lists, etc.

See type samples.

Chakma has a native numeric style. Follow the type samples link above for a real world example.

Numeric

The chakma numeric style is decimal-based and uses these digits.

๐‘„ถโฃ๐‘„ทโฃ๐‘„ธโฃ๐‘„นโฃ๐‘„บโฃ๐‘„ปโฃ๐‘„ผโฃ๐‘„ฝโฃ๐‘„พโฃ๐‘„ฟ

Examples:

๐‘„ทโฃ๐‘„ธโฃ๐‘„นโฃ๐‘„บโฃ๐‘„ท๐‘„ทโฃ๐‘„ธ๐‘„ธโฃ๐‘„น๐‘„นโฃ๐‘„บ๐‘„บโฃ๐‘„ท๐‘„ท๐‘„ทโฃ๐‘„ธ๐‘„ธ๐‘„ธโฃ๐‘„น๐‘„น๐‘„นโฃ๐‘„บ๐‘„บ๐‘„บ

Prefixes and suffixes

Generally, Chakma lists use a full stop plus a space as a suffix.

Examples:

๐‘„ท. ๐‘„ธ. ๐‘„น. ๐‘„บ. ๐‘„ป.
Separator for Chakma list counters: full stop + space.

Page & book layout

Online resources

  1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
  2. The Bible in Assyrian Neo-Aramaic

References