Updated 28 August, 2025
This page brings together basic information about the Sora Sompeng script and its use for the Sora language. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Sora Sompeng using Unicode.
Richard Ishida, Sora Sompeng Orthography Notes, 28-Aug-2025, https://r12a.github.io/scripts/sora/srb
𑃦𑃨𑃙𑃤𑃝𑃦𑃔𑃨𑃠𑃖 𑃦𑃨𑃙𑃥𑃑𑃛𑃢𑃔𑃨𑃖 𑃦𑃨𑃙𑃥𑃓𑃓𑃠𑃣𑃔𑃨𑃖 𑃦𑃨𑃐𑃠𑃢𑃐𑃠𑃚𑃑𑃖 . 𑃦𑃨𑃙𑃣𑃟𑃢𑃝𑃑𑃠𑃖 𑃦𑃨𑃙𑃢𑃙𑃢𑃝𑃑𑃠𑃖 𑃦𑃨𑃙𑃢𑃕𑃖𑃖 𑃦𑃨𑃙𑃤𑃝𑃕𑃖𑃖 .. 𑃜𑃞 𑃛𑃝𑃑𑃤𑃑𑃜𑃐𑃖𑃥𑃑𑃛𑃢𑃔𑃨𑃖 𑃛𑃝𑃛𑃡𑃓𑃦𑃛𑃐𑃠𑃖𑃖 𑃐𑃠𑃤𑃚𑃖 . 𑃔𑃨𑃣𑃐𑃠𑃜𑃢𑃖𑃢𑃐 𑃐𑃖𑃒𑃥𑃔𑃨𑃔𑃨𑃠𑃐𑃑𑃖 𑃚𑃙𑃔𑃨𑃣 𑃚𑃔𑃨𑃑𑃢𑃖 𑃚𑃝𑃖 ..
Source: Aksharamukha: Script Converter
Origins of the Sora Sompeng script, 1936 – today.
An original invention.
Sora Sompeng is used to write the Sora language as an alternative to the Telugu or Oriya scripts. The Sora language is endangered, and may be spoken by 2-400,000 people, although the percentage of those who are literate, and know the Sora Sompeng orthography may be quite low.wl Sora Sompeng is used in a variety of written materials, and especially in religious contexts.ume
𑃐𑃚𑃝
Sora Sompeng was invented in 1936 by Mangei Gomango to provide the Sora language with its own script, and to support a new religious movement called Mattar Banom Damri. The letters are named after 24 gods in the Sora Pantheon.z
More information: Everson • Zide • ScriptSource
The Sora Sompeng 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 Sora Sompeng orthography.
Observation: Some people describe the script as an alphabet, but i don't find the arguments for that persuasive, based on the evidence to hand.
Sora text runs left-to-right in horizontal lines. There is no case distinction. Words are separated by spaces.
Sora sompeng represents native consonant sounds using 18 letters.
A special letter, 𑃨, can be used to represent sounds from neighbouring languages that are not assimilated into the Sora phonology.
When consonant clusters occur, there is nothing to indicate suppression of the inherent vowel, leading to some ambiguity in detecting clusters that can only be resolved by relying on the reader's knowledge of words.
❯ basicV
Sora sompeng consonants have an inherent vowel pronounced ə. Nine more post-consonant vowel sounds are written using 6 non-combining letters. There are no combining marks, and there are no pre-base vowels or circumgraphs. There appears to be no way to indicate vowel nasalisation.
Standalone vowels are written using the same vowel letters as post-consonant vowels.
Sora Sompeng has a set of native digits, designed for base-10 (rather than the base-12 used in the language). It uses ASCII punctuation marks.
The following represents the repertoire of the Sora 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 Zide.
labial | alveolar | post- alveolar |
retroflex | palatal | velar | glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
stop | p b | t | ɖ | k ɡ | ʔ | ||
affricate | t͡ʃ d͡ʒ | ||||||
fricative | s | ||||||
nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
approximant | w | l | j | ||||
trill/flap | r | ɽ | |||||
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There is no phonemic aspiration, although it may occur in dialectal pronunciations or transliterations of neigbouring languages.z
Sora is not a tonal language.
tbd
This table summarises basic vowel to character assignments.
ⓘ represents the inherent vowel.
Simple: | |
---|---|
For additional details see vowel_mappings.
𑃟 kə U+110DF LETTER KAH
Sora Sompeng consonants carry an inherent vowel ə, so kə is written by simply using the consonant letter, eg.
𑃢𑃖𑃙
𑃢␣𑃖␣𑃙 |
Sora Sompeng has no means of indicating a consonant that is not followed by a vowel.u This leads to ambiguity when clusters of consonant letters occur, and the reader simply has to know when to omit the inherent vowel and when not to.
Sora Sompeng has no combining marks. All vowels that follow consonants are written using one of 6 independent letters.
There are no pre-base vowels or circumgraphs.
The following letters are used to write vowels.
Three letters, 𑃤, 𑃥 and 𑃦, each represent more than one sound, though it's not made clear whether these are phonemically distinct.
e is distinguished from ɛ in writing, but there is no similar distinction between o and ɔ.
Nasalisation exists in the Sora language, but doesn't appear to be marked in the Sora Sompeng orthography.z,206
Standalone vowels are apparently written using the normal vowel letters, with no special additional mechanisms, eg.
𑃢𑃖𑃙
This section maps Sora vowel sounds to common graphemes in the Sora Sompeng orthography.
vowel 𑃤
vowel 𑃥
vowel 𑃣
vowel 𑃦
inherent vowel eg. 𑃐𑃚𑃝
vowel 𑃧
vowel 𑃦
vowel 𑃢
This table summarises basic consonant to character assignments.
Onsets | |
---|---|
For additional details see consonant_mappings.
Basic consonant sounds in Sora are written using the following letters.
Click on each letter for more details and for examples of usage.
The sound ɽ is written as the digraph 𑃨𑃝.
The glottal stop is written using 𑃞, but appears only between like vowelsme,2. This leads to a shortcut in transcriptions: for example, the vowel whose name is aʔa is typically transcribed ah.me,2 Sora free-standing nouns must have two syllables, and this is often achieved by breaking the vowel of a word into two with a glottal stop.me,2
Observation: In Daniels, it is implied that the names of consonants end with aʔ, rather than aʔa.
Zide writesz,205 that sounds of Oriya or Telugu loan words tend to be adapted to fit the Sora phonology. However, he indicates that some non-native sounds can be described using 𑃨 or 𑃜. The former is used to fill gaps such as retroflexes, while the latter is used to indicate aspiration. See the examples below.
Consonant clusters can be found in the pronunciation of Sora words, but they are simply written using sequences of separate consonant lettersz,206; there are no conjunct forms or any other way of indicating the lack of intervening inherent vowels. This, of course, means that the reader has to decide whether an inherent vowel should be pronounced between adjacent consonants or not. It is not clear from the written text.
This section maps Sora consonant sounds to common graphemes in the Sora Sompeng orthography.
consonant 𑃛
consonant 𑃒
consonant 𑃑
consonant 𑃓
consonant 𑃠
consonant 𑃔
consonant 𑃟
consonant 𑃕
consonant 𑃞
consonant 𑃐
consonant 𑃖
consonant 𑃙
consonant 𑃡
consonant 𑃗
consonant 𑃚
consonant 𑃝
consonant 𑃨𑃝
consonant 𑃘
consonant 𑃜
Sora Sompeng has a set of native digits
Sora Sompeng text runs left to right in horizontal lines.
Experiment with examples using the Sora Sompeng character app.
Sora Sompeng letters don't interact, and there are no combining marks, so no special shaping or positioning is needed.
Words are separated by spaces.
Graphemes in Sora Sompeng consist of single letters. This means that text can be segmented into typographic units using grapheme clusters.
Phrase, sentence, and section delimiters are described in phrase.
The following ASCII punctuation marks have been observed in Sora Sompeng text or mentioned in the sources.
phrase |
, ; : |
Examples 𑃖𑃤𑃝𑃙: 𑃕𑃤𑃝𑃙, 𑃖𑃙𑃤𑃑𑃤𑃠 𑃠𑃤 𑃕𑃤𑃙? 𑃢𑃑𑃘𑃢𑃖𑃙𑃢 𑃘𑃣 𑃢𑃑𑃠𑃦𑃦𑃜𑃣 𑃢 𑃠𑃦𑃗 𑃠𑃥𑃖𑃘𑃣 𑃙𑃢 𑃖𑃣𑃣𑃗 𑃘𑃒𑃤. |
---|---|---|
sentence |
. ? ! |
The uses of the colon are not completely clear. See the following example.pv,6
𑃐𑃝 𑃐𑃝𑃤𑃙𑃣𑃐:𑃛𑃤: 𑃖𑃢𑃡𑃕𑃧𑃕𑃖 𑃖𑃝𑃓𑃤𑃕𑃥𑃔𑃢
See type samples.
Sora Sompeng commonly uses ASCII parentheses to insert parenthetical information into text.
start | end | |
---|---|---|
standard | ( |
) |
The following punctuation marks around quotations have been observed in Sora Sompeng texts. Of course, due to keyboard design, quotations may also be surrounded by ASCII double and single quote marks.pv,7
start | end | |
---|---|---|
initial |
“ |
” |
For example:
𑃦𑃖 𑃙𑃢𑃖𑃢 “𑃟𑃘𑃤𑃖” 𑃦𑃖 𑃙𑃢𑃖𑃢 𑃙𑃢𑃙𑃖𑃢.
Lines are generally broken between words.
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 Sora Sompeng 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.