This page brings together basic information about the Lisu (Fraser) script and its use for the Lisu language. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Lisu using Unicode.
The Lisu language has numerous dialects, spread across 3 countries. The sources are not always clear which dialect they are describing or whether a feature is common to all dialects. In this page we try to point out descriptions that may or may not apply generally, but the page attempts to provide a general idea of how Lisu works in the absence of a specific standard orthography.
According to ScriptSource, "there are 630,000 Lisu people in China, mainly in the regions of Nujiang, Diqing, Lijiang, Dehong, Baoshan, Kunming and Chuxiong in the Yunnan Province. Another 350,000 Lisu live in Myanmar, Thailand and India. Other user communities are mostly Christians from the Dulong, the Nu and the Bai nationalities in China."
The Chinese government recognized the alphabet in 1992 as the official script for writing in Lisu.
Around 200,000 Lisu in China use the Lisu script and about 160,000 in the other countries are literate in it. The Lisu script is widely used in China in education, publishing, the media and religion, and various schools and universities at the national, provincial and prefectural levels have been offering Lisu courses for many years. Globally, the script is also widely used in a variety of Lisu literature.
ꓡꓲ-ꓢꓴli-suLisu
The script was invented around 1815 by a Karen preacher from Myanmar, Sara Ba Thaw, and revised by the missionary James Fraser.
Because there are newer, Latin-based orthographies for writing the Lisu language, this is sometimes called the Old Lisu script.
The script is an abugida: consonants carry an inherent vowel. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for the modern Lisu orthography.
The script is based on a fairly simple syllabic structure. Many Lisu characters look like Latin capital letters, but they are not unified.
Lisu text is written horizontally, from left to right. There is no case distinction.
Generally, syllables are separated by spaces, whether or not they are part of a multisyllabic word, and text is wrapped at spaces regardless of word boundaries. Syllables in proper nouns, however, are separated by hyphens.
Lisu has 30 basic consonant letters. They don't join or interact with each other. Many of the consonants are the same as Latin uppercase consonants, but rotated versions of those letters are used to represent additional sounds in the Lisu language. The rotated letters are separate and fully equal letters in the alphabet.
Standalone vowels are written using just the vowel letter, although in pronunciation this is often preceded by an unwritten glottal stop.
Lisu is tonal and has 6 tone marks (which resemble Latin punctuation). Tones are written at the end of the syllable, using what look like western punctuation marks.
Punctuation mixes western and Chinese characters with a couple of Lisu-only characters. Lisu uses ASCII digits.
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.
Consonant sounds
labial
alveolar
post-
alveolar
palatal
velar
glottal
stops
pb
td
kɡ
aspirated
pʰ
tʰ
kʰ
affricates
t͡sd͡z
t͡ɕd͡ʑ
aspirated
t͡sʰ
t͡ɕʰ
fricatives
f
sz
ʃʒ
ɕ
xɣ
hɦ
nasals
m
n
ɲ
ŋ
approximants
w
l
j
Tone
Lisu has 6 phonological tones, 2 of which are 'abrupt'. The following is an interpretation of Fraser's description of Lisu tones.
Name
IPA
Accent
Lisu
Digit
High
˥˥
é
ꓸ
¹
Abrupt rising
˦˥ˀ
ě
ꓹ
²
Mid
˧˧
ē
ꓺ
³
Low mid
˨˨
ḛ
ꓻ
⁴
Low
˩
è
ꓽ
⁵
Low abrupt
˧˩ˀ
e᷆
ꓼ
⁶
See the Wikipedia description of tones
Wikipedia gives the following description of Lisu tones.wf,#Tones
ꓝ
tsɑ̄˧
ꓝꓸ
tsɑ́˥˥
ꓝꓹ
tsɑ̌xxx
ꓝꓻ
tsɑ̄ˀ˧
ꓝꓺ
tsɑ̄ˀxxx
ꓝʼ
tsɑ̄̃xxx
ꓝꓼ
tsɑ̂ˀxxx
ꓝꓽ
tsɑ̂xxx
ꓝˍ
tsɑ̄ɑ̂xxx
It also has the following, but it's not clear how they match.
Lisu has six tones: high [˥], mid creaky [˦ˀ], mid [˧], low [˨˩], rising [˧˥] and low checked [˨˩ʔ] (that is, [tá ta̰ ta tà tǎ tàʔ]). In some dialects the creaky tone is higher than mid tone, in others they are equal. The rising tone is infrequent, but common in baby talk (which has a stereotypical disyllabic low–rising pattern); both high and rising tone are uncommon after voiced consonants.wl,#Tones
Structure
Lisu syllables generally conform to the following pattern:
(C (M)) V (V)
Legend
C
Consonant.
V
Vowel.
M
Medial.
Lisu syllables have no coda, however they may be nasalised. Diphthongs are not especially common, but they do occur.
Syllables may have a medial consonant in the onset (one of w or j).
A Lisu syllable may start with a vowel, but most standalone vowels are preceded by a glottal stop.
Vowels
Vowel summary table
The following table summarises the main vowel to character assigments.
Below is the full set of characters needed to represent the vowels of the Lisu language.
ʼ␣ˍ␣ꓪ␣ꓬ␣ꓭ␣ꓮ␣ꓯ␣ꓰ␣ꓱ␣ꓲ␣ꓳ␣ꓴ␣ꓵ␣ꓶ␣ꓷ␣ꓸ␣ꓹ␣ꓺ␣ꓻ␣ꓼ␣ꓽ
Inherent vowel
ꓗ
kaU+A4D7 LISU LETTER KA
ɑ following a consonant is not written, but is seen as an inherent part of the consonant letter, so kɑ is written by simply using the consonant letter.
Vowel basics
Dedicated vowel letters
ꓗꓲ
kiU+A4D7 LISU LETTER KA + U+A4F2 LISU LETTER I
Non-inherent vowel sounds that follow a consonant can be represented by following the consonant with a vowel letter. No combining marks are used to represent vowels.
Lisu is unusual for an abugida. Normally, abugidas produce a different vowel than the inherent one by attaching vowel signs to the base consonant. Lisu instead uses ordinary spacing letters after the consonant to represent vowels, so it looks very much like an alphabet except where the inherent vowel is used.
ˍ marks various aspects of verbal forms. It is pronounced a with a falling 31 tone, and is written at the end of a syllable.p,4 It introduces a second vowel to the syllable, but there is no glottal stop before it.ws
ꓠꓴ ꓙꓰꓻˍ ꓥꓳꓻ
ꓖꓳꓻ ꓡꓱꓻ ꓮˍ ꓟꓲ
Diphthongs
Most syllable nuclei are monophthongs, but diphthongs do also occur. The following is a set of syllables containing diphthongs found during a search of a few sample pages from the Bible.is site.
According to Wikipedia, 3 consonants are sometimes used as vowels for the Naxi language, but are consonants when writing Lisu.
ꓪ␣ꓬ␣ꓭ
ꓬ and ꓪ often occur as medial consonants in an onset, and some people refer to such as rhymes composed of diphthongs.
Nasalisation
ʼ
ʼ is used to indicate nasalisation. It may occur after the onset consonant or after the vowel nucleus, but either way produces the same result; the nasalisation of the vowel.f,3
Fraser writes that, with the exception of ɑ and ɯ, standalone vowels are always nasalised (although the nasalisation marker doesn't appear to be used in many texts). On the other hand vowels following a written consonant are normally never nasalised in pure Lisu words. Exceptions arise for words beginning with ꓦ, and some words adapted from Chinese where nasalisation replaces the Chinese -n or -ŋ codas.f,3
Standalone vowels
Syllable-initial vowels usually occur after an unwritten glotttal stop. For example:
ꓮꓸ ꓭꓸ
ꓳ
ꓵ
Cheuk et al. indicate that the sounds ɯ and ə are exceptions to this rule.p,2
Fraser writes that, with the exception of ɑ and ɯ, standalone vowels are always nasalisedf,3.
Tones
Lisu uses the following signs, which look like western punctuation, to represent the tone of a syllable. The Unicode Standard says that they may use the same fixed-width spacing as the letters.
ꓸ␣ꓹ␣ꓺ␣ꓻ␣ꓼ␣ꓽ
The expected typing and storage position for tone marks is after all other elements in a syllable.
The first four tone letters can be used in combination with the last two to represent certain combination tones. The Unicode Standard says that, of the various possibilities, only ꓹꓼ is still in use and the rest are now rarely seen in China.u
However, examining a random selection of pages in Bible.is, the following syllables were found, each of which has a different combination of doubled tone marks.
ꓐꓲꓺꓼbī᷆ꓚꓸꓼt͡ɕ́᷆ꓔꓱꓹꓼtø̌᷆ꓠꓯꓸꓼnɛ́᷆ꓦꓵꓻꓼhy̰᷆
Consonants with no following vowel
Consonant clusters don't normally occur in Lisu, since syllables generally have the structure CV. There are no special mechanisms for showing consonant clusters, and no conjuncts, etc.
Vowel sounds to characters
This section maps Lisu vowel sounds to common graphemes in the Lisu orthography.
Click on a grapheme to find other mentions on this page (links appear at the bottom of the page). Click on the character name to see examples and for detailed descriptions of the character(s) shown.
Plain vowels
i
ꓲ
ꓢꓲꓹ ꓜꓲ
y
ꓵ
ꓐꓵꓼ ꓟꓴ
ɯ
ꓶ
ꓟꓶꓽ ꓡꓶꓹ
u
ꓴ
ꓐꓴꓽ ꓡꓴꓻ
e
ꓰ
ꓒꓰꓽ ꓷꓻ
ø
ꓱ
ꓡ ꓛꓱ
o
ꓳ
ꓪꓴꓸ ꓖꓳꓽ ꓡꓳ
ə
ꓷ
ꓒꓰꓽ ꓷꓻ
ɛ
ꓯ
ꓡꓯꓽ ꓒꓯꓹ
ɑ
Inherent vowel
ꓘꓪꓽ ꓢꓱ
ꓮ
ꓮꓸ ꓬꓲꓼ
ˍ
ꓠꓴ ꓙꓰꓻˍ ꓥꓳꓻ
Consonants
Consonant summary table
The following table summarises the main consonant to character assigments.
Stops
ꓑ␣ꓐ␣ꓔ␣ꓓ␣ꓗ␣ꓖ␣ ␣ꓒ␣ꓕ␣ꓘ
Affricates
ꓝ␣ꓜ␣ꓚ␣ꓙ␣ ␣ꓞ␣ꓛ
Fricatives
ꓩ␣ꓢ␣ꓤ␣ꓫ␣ꓣ␣ꓧ␣ꓭ␣ꓦ␣ꓨ
Nasals
ꓟ␣ꓠ␣ꓠꓬ␣ꓥ
Other
ꓪ␣ꓡ␣ꓬ
Consonant letters
Whereas the table just above takes you from sounds to letters, the following simply lists the basic consonant letters used (however, since the orthography is highly phonetic there is no actual difference in letters or ordering).
ꓬ and ꓪ occur as medial consonants in an onset. There is no shaping involved; just a sequence of consonants.
ꓠꓬꓲ ꓤꓽ
ꓥꓪꓸ
Finals
There are no syllable-final consonants in pure Lisu. Fraser writes that words of Chinese origin ending in a nasal coda and others simply nasalise the vowel.f
However, the Wikipedia article provides an example of a Chinese loan word 凉粉 which includes both a final -w and final -n sound, both of which are written.
ꓡꓬꓮꓳ ꓩꓷꓠ
Consonant sounds to characters
This section maps Lisu consonant sounds to common graphemes in the Fraser orthography. Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc.
The right-hand column shows xxxx
Click on a grapheme to find other mentions on this page (links appear at the bottom of the page). Click on the character name to see examples and for detailed descriptions of the character(s) shown.
p
ꓑ
ꓑꓽ ꓡꓰꓹ
pʰ
ꓒ
ꓡꓯꓽ ꓒꓯꓹ
b
ꓐ
ꓐꓴꓽ ꓡꓴꓻ
t
ꓔ
ꓔꓲꓹ
tʰ
ꓕ
ꓕꓳꓼ ꓡ
t͡s
ꓝ
ꓗꓶꓸ ꓝꓲꓸ
ʦʰ
ꓞ
ꓞꓲ
t͡ɕ
ꓚ
ꓚꓳ
t͡ɕʰ
ꓛ
ꓡ ꓛꓱ
d
ꓓ
ꓪꓴꓸ ꓓꓴ
d͡z
ꓜ
ꓢꓲꓹ ꓜꓲ
d͡ʑ
ꓙ
ꓙꓲꓽ
k
ꓗ
ꓗꓶꓸ ꓝꓲꓸ
kʰ
ꓘ
ꓘꓪꓽ ꓢꓱ
ɡ
ꓖ
ꓪꓴꓸ ꓖꓳꓽ ꓡꓳ
f
ꓩ
ꓩꓴꓹ ꓣꓼ
s
ꓢ
ꓢ ꓡꓽ
z
ꓤ
ꓤꓽ ꓟꓶꓼ
ʃ
ꓫ
ꓫꓵꓼ
ʒ
ꓣ
ꓣꓼ ꓟꓶʼꓻ ꓨꓪ
x
ꓧ
ɣ
ꓭ
ꓮꓸ ꓭꓸ
h
ꓦ
ɦ
ꓨ
m
ꓟ
ꓟꓶꓽ ꓡꓶꓹ
n
ꓠ
ꓠꓲꓹ M
ɲ
ꓠꓬ
ꓠꓬꓲ
ŋ
ꓥ
ꓥꓪꓸ
w
ꓪ
ꓪꓴꓸ ꓓꓴ
l
ꓡ
ꓡꓲꓸ
j
ꓬ
ꓮꓸ ꓬꓲꓼ
Numbers
Lisu uses ASCII digits.
The thousands and decimal separators are the same as those used in English.
Lisu letters don't interact, so no special shaping is needed.
There are no combining marks, so combining mark positioning is not an issue.
Typographic units
Word boundaries
Syllables are separated by spaces, however where syllables combine to form a proper noun, a hyphen is used to bind the syllables together.u,754
For multi-syllable words the inter-syllable space is still used. Because of difficulties determining which syllable sequences correspond to multi-syllablic words, except when dealing with proper nouns, the syllable is normally taken to be the basic unit for text processing.u,754
Hyphens.As just mentioned, - is used between the syllables that compose a proper noun. The Unicode Standard suggests the use of 2010 instead, as its semantics are less ambiguous.
ꓬꓰ‐ꓢꓴ
Graphemes
Since there are no combining marks or decompositions, graphemes correspond to individual characters.
Unicode grapheme clusters can be applied to Lisu without problems. There are no special issues related to operations that use grapheme clusters as their basic unit of text.
Punctuation & inline features
Phrase & section boundaries
tbd
꓾␣:␣;␣꓿␣!␣?
Lisu uses a mixture of ASCII and native punctuation.
phrase
꓾
sentence
꓿
?
!
A lesser and greater degree of finality are represented by ꓾ and ꓿, respectively.
Chapter and verse in biblical texts tend to be separated by the ASCII colon and semicolon. The numeric context helps distinguish these separators from the Lisu tone marks.
Lisu also uses the ASCII characters ? and ! for question and exclamation marks. The question mark replaces the A4FA A4FD A4FF sequence of characters which was used in older texts.
Bracketed text
(␣)
Lisu commonly uses ASCII parentheses to insert parenthetical information into text.
start
end
standard
(
)
Quotations & citations
Book titles
《␣》
These fullwidth characters are used to identify book titles.
start
end
standard
《
》
Abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition
…
Ellipsis is written using ….
In Chinese texts this is always doubled, ie.
……
Line & paragraph layout
Line breaking & hyphenation
Syllables are separated by spaces (see word), and the space between syllables provides the primary break opportunity for wrapping text, even where that occurs in the middle of a multi-syllable word.u,754
Line breaks are not allowed inside a syllable, or before a punctuation mark (even if that is separated from the previous syllable by a space).u,753
A multi-syllable proper noun, where syllables are separated by a hyphen, can be wrapped after the hyphen.u,754
Since syllables are not split during line wrapping, and there are spaces or hyphens between syllables, there is no need for automatic hyphenation.u,754
Baselines, line height, etc.
Lisu uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.
