This page brings together basic information about the Kayah Li script and its use for the Western Kayah language. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Western Kayah using Unicode.
Kayah Li ( ꤊꤢ꤬ꤛꤢ꤭ꤜꤟꤤ꤬ ꤢ꤬ꤜꤤ꤬ ) is used to write the Eastern and Western Kayah Li languages, spoken by 360,000 and 210,000 people, respectively. Although native to Myanmar, these languages are now also spoken by significant numbers of refugees in Thailand, where the Kayah Li script is taught in schools.
The Kayah Li script was invented in 1962 by Htae Bu Phae (also written Hteh Bu Phe).
Unicode 17 has 1 dedicated Kayah Li block, comprising 48 characters.
The Kayah Li script is an alphabet. Both consonants and vowels are indicated by letters. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for the Western Kayah language.
Kayah Li text runs left to right in horizontal lines. It is a fairly simple and straightforward writing system. Words are separated by spaces, and can be multi-syllabic.
The approach to writing vowels in Kayah Li orthograph is mixed. 4 basic vowel sounds are written as simple letter characters, and 5 more vowel sounds are written using ꤢ and a combining mark.
The combining vowel diacritics can also be used with ꤣ to write 5 diphthongs used in loan words. The one common diphthong, ɯə, is somewhat more complicated, however, and uses different sequences of consonant characters to write breathy and non-breathy forms.
Breathy vowels are indicated by preceding them with ꤟ. There is no nasalisation.
There are no special arrangements for standalone vowels.
Kayah Li has 3 combining tone marks, which are always used in a straightforward way at the end of every syllable to indicate one of 4 tones. One tone is not marked.
Four post-consonant vowel sounds are written using letters, and 5 more are written using ꤢ with a combining mark.
The combining vowel diacritics can also be used with ꤣ to write 5 diphthongs used in loan words. The one common diphthong, ɯə, is somewhat more complicated, however, and uses different sequences of consonant characters to write breathy and non-breathy forms.
Breathy vowels are indicated by preceding them with ꤟ. There is no nasalisation.
Plain vowels
Plain, post-consonant vowels are written as follows.
ꤤ,ꤢꤦ,ꤢꤨ,ꤢꤩ,ꤥ,ꤢꤧ,ꤢꤪ,ꤣ,ꤢ
Five vowels are written using dedicated letters:
ꤤ,ꤢ,ꤥ,ꤣ,ꤢ
eg.
ꤒꤢ꤬ꤊꤜꤤ
The others are written using combining marks above ꤢ:
ꤦ,ꤨ,ꤩ,ꤧ,ꤪ
eg.
ꤏꤢꤦ꤭ꤟꤢꤧ꤭
The combining marks are not applied directly to a consonant letter.
Diphthongs
Diphthongs are mostly represented by a base character and a combining mark. Two diphthongs are represented by a combination of letters. Here is the full set.
ꤣꤧ,ꤣꤦ,ꤣꤨ,ꤣꤩ,ꤣꤪ,ꤛꤣ,ꤟꤌꤣ
The diphthong ɯə is common, and the others are mostly for non-native sounds. ɯə is written as the digraph ꤛꤣ.
eg.
ꤔꤛꤣ
The last item in the list above is a special case of vowels mixed with ꤟ to produce breathiness (see breathiness). See the sequence of characters after the example below. This is the most common use of ꤌ; it is not really used for a native ɡ sound in native Kayah words, and only normally used in the breathy version of this diphthong.
eg.
ꤕꤟꤌꤣ
ꤕ,ꤟ,ꤌ,ꤣ
Breathiness
Apart from the diphthong just mentioned, breathiness of vowels is indicated by immediately preceding the vowel with ꤟ.
eg.
ꤍꤟꤥ
ꤍ,ꤟ,ꤥ
With a medial consonant, such as -w, the HA continues to be used directly before the vowel.
eg.
ꤗꤝꤟꤤ꤬
ꤗ,ꤝ,ꤟ,ꤤ꤬
However, when ꤛ is the second or third consonant in a cluster, the HA is written before the YA.h
eg.
ꤡꤟꤛꤢ
ꤡ,ꤟ,ꤛ,ꤢ
Vowel length
There appears to be no phonemic distinction in vowel length, and no common way to mark different lengths in the orthography.
However, the punctuation mark ꤮ can be used to indicate extended intonation.
eg.
ꤊꤢ꤬ꤔꤟꤥ꤮ ꤒꤥ꤬
Composites
All but 4 basic vowels in Kayah are represented by multipart vowels made up of a base character and a combining mark. Most of the diphthongs are represented in the same way. Two diphthongs are represented by a combination of letters. Here is the full set.
ꤢꤦ,ꤢꤨ,ꤢꤩ,ꤢꤧ,ꤢꤪ,ꤣꤧ,ꤣꤦ,ꤣꤨ,ꤣꤩ,ꤣꤪ,ꤛꤣ,ꤟꤌꤣ
Vowels may also be mixed with ꤟ to produce breathiness (see breathiness). (The last item in the list above is a special case of that.) All vowels may also be associated with a tone mark (see tones).
Standalone vowels
There appear to be no special mechanisms for dealing with standalone vowels. A written vowel is simply placed where needed.
eg.
ꤢ꤬ꤗꤥ꤬ꤢ꤬ꤚꤢ
ꤥ꤬ꤗꤛꤢꤩ
ꤢꤟꤌꤣꤢꤛꤢ
ꤋꤢ꤭ꤢꤨ꤬
Observation: The Wiktionary entries sometimes show a glottal stop before a standalone vowel, and sometimes do not. See the examples just above.
Observation: The IPA transcriptions for some words found in the Learning Kayah PDF have silent initial vowels, eg. ꤢꤛꤢ꤭ꤞꤤ꤭.
Tones
Kayah Li has four tones, although the high tone is rarely seen. Each syllable is marked for tone, unless it has the mid-high tone. They are written as follows:
low
˨
◌̀
¹
A92C
high
˥
◌̋
²
A92B
mid
˧
◌̄
³
A92D
mid-high
˦
◌́
-
not written
The following code points are used.
꤬,꤭,꤫
The tone marks all combine below the base (whereas vowel diacritics combine above).r
eg.
ꤞꤢꤨ꤬ꤞꤢꤨ꤭ꤞꤢꤨ
The tone mark is normally written as the last component of a syllable, ie. after the vowel.e (Some fonts will correctly display the sequence vowel_base+tone+vowel_diacritic, but in that case the application must be relied upon to treat both orders the same for comparisons.)
This section maps Western Kayah vowel sounds to common graphemes in the Kayah Li orthography.
Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc. Light coloured characters occur infrequently.
Plain vowels
i
vowelꤤ
ɯ
vowelꤢꤦ
u
vowelꤢꤨ
e
vowelꤢꤩ
o
vowelꤥ
ə
vowelꤣ
ɛ
vowelꤢꤧ
ɔ
vowelꤢꤪ
a
vowelꤢ
Diphthongs
ɯə
ꤛꤣNon-breathy diphthong.
ɯ̤ə
ꤟꤌꤣBreathy diphthong.
ɯɛ
diphthongꤣꤧ
əɯ
diphthongꤣꤦ
əu
diphthongꤣꤨ
əe
diphthongꤣꤩ
əɔ
diphthongꤣꤪ
Tones
˨
low꤬
˧
mid꤭
˥
high꤫Rare.
Vowel absence
Vowel absence principally occurs either when a consonant is a syllable coda, or when a consonant is part of a consonant cluster.
Kayah Li syllables have no codas, and the consonant clusters in Kayah are all syllable-initial. Kayah onsets include medial consonants -j- and -w-. When breathiness is introduced to the mix some combinations are a little special. See onsets.
Consonants
Consonant summary table
This table summarises only basic consonant to character assignments. Click on the phonetic transcriptions for more detail.
Breathy vowels add another consonant, ꤟ, to these groups. It usually occurs immediately after the cluster.
eg.
ꤗꤝꤟꤤ꤬
ꤗ,ꤝ,ꤟꤤ꤬
ꤊꤜꤛꤢꤩ꤬ꤕꤜꤟꤢꤧ
But when the cluster contains j in second or third position ꤟ occurs before that.h
eg.
ꤢ꤬ꤕꤟꤛꤢ
ꤢ꤬,ꤕ,ꤟꤛꤢ
ꤞꤥ꤬ꤕꤜꤟꤛꤢꤩ꤬
Consonant sounds to characters
This section maps Western Kayah consonant sounds to common graphemes in the Kayah Li orthography.
Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc. Light coloured characters occur infrequently.
p
consonantꤕ
pʰ
aspirated consonantꤖ
b
consonantꤙ
t
consonantꤒ
tʰ
aspirated consonantꤓ
d
consonantꤘ
d͡ʒ
consonantꤡ
k
consonantꤊ
kʰ
consonantꤋ
ɡ
consonantꤌOnly used for this sound in loan words. (Normally only used to indicate a breathy diphthong.)
v
consonantꤠ
θ
consonantꤞoccasionally, in some sources.
s
consonantꤎGenerally, only used in loan words.
sʰ
aspirated consonantꤏ
z
consonantꤐ
ʂ
consonantꤞ
ʃ
aspirated consonantꤏbefore j or i.
x
consonantꤟSometimes, in the combination hɯ̤.
h
consonantꤟ
m
consonantꤗ
n
consonantꤔ
ɲ
consonantꤑ
ŋ
consonantꤍ
w
consonantꤝOccurs most often medially, as well as an initial onset.
r
consonantꤚOccurs medially, as well as an initial onset.
l
consonantꤜOccurs medially, as well as an initial onset.
j
consonantꤛOccurs medially, as well as an initial onset.
Encoding choices
Visually, two diacritics look as it they could be composed of smaller parts. This section gives guidance on which approach is best.
It is possible that someone may occasionally try to use 2 characters rather than the single character which is canonical. Doing so produces text that will not match correctly encoded text for search, spell-checking, and so on, and so should be avoided. The list below shows the characters in question.
Use
Do not use
A92A
A926 A929
A92D
A92B A92C
This also reflects usage in didactic materials produced by the Kayah Li user community.u
Numbers
Digits
Kayah Li has a set of native digits
꤁,꤂,꤃,꤄,꤅,꤆,꤇,꤈,꤉,꤀
Text direction
Kayah Li text runs left to right in horizontal lines.
Kayah letters don't interact with each other, so no special shaping is needed for that.
Base characters may carry one or two combining marks, and the font needs to correctly shape and position these relative to the base. However, if there are two combining marks, one will appear above and the other below the base, so they won't interfere with each other.
Typographic units
Word boundaries
Words are separated by spaces.
Graphemes
tbd
Punctuation & inline features
Phrase & section boundaries
Kayah punctuation is mostly ASCII, however ꤯ is used as a phrase/sentence delimiter.u
phrase
,
;
:
sentence
꤯
?
!
Bracketed text
Kayah commonly uses ASCII parentheses to insert parenthetical information into text.
start
end
standard
(
)
Quotations & citations
Kayah texts use quotation marks. Of course, due to keyboard design, quotations may also be surrounded by ASCII double and single quote marks.
