Tai Lü orthography notes

New Tai Lü vowels are all ordinary spacing letters, including pre-base vowels, which need to be inserted before the consonant in the text stream. However, some fonts incorrectly attempt to reorder those vowels for display. This includes Noto Sans New Tai Lue, and Dai Banna SIL Book/Light. Another SIL font, Nokyung, appears to render the text correctly.

Basic features

The New Tai Lü script is an abugida, ie. consonants carry an inherent vowel sound that is overridden using vowel signs. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for the modern Tai Lü orthography.

The orthography is syllable-based, and the language tonal.

New Tai Lü text runs left to right in horizontal lines. Words are separated by spaces.

❯ consonantSummary

Each basic consonant is one of a pair, denoting either a high or low tonal register for the same phonetic sound. This is very regular – each sound is represented by 2 consonant letters. Tone is indicated by a combination of the consonant class and tone marks.ws

No conjuncts are used for consonant clusters. Although, some clusters in Tai Tham are represented as single characters in New Tai Lü, in particular high tone variants such as ᦜ and ᦖ (ᩉᩖ and ᩉ᩠ᨾ in Tai Tham).

Syllable-initial clusters use 6 dedicated letters (for 3 pairs of consonants). There are no medial consonant letters.

Syllable-final consonant sounds use 7 dedicated letters, which cover all needs.

❯ basicV

The New Tai Lü orthography is an abugida with one inherent vowel, pronounced a. It represents other vowels using 17 ordinary letters (no combining marks), though they are still called vowel signs. Unlike many other SE Asian scripts, New Tai Lü uses a visual encoding model, so vowel signs that appear before the base must also be typed and stored before the base (see prebase).

There are 4 pre-base letters but no circumgraphs. However, this page lists 9 multipart vowels (made from 8 vowel signs), where in 6 cases vowel letters both precede and follow a base consonant. Multipart vowels can involve up to 3 glyphs, and can surround the base consonant(s) on up to 2 sides (left and right only).

All vowels are preceded by a consonant. What may be standalone vowels in other related languages are written after one of the 2 glottal stop consonant letters, and IPA transcriptions include the glottal stop.

Tone is also marked by spacing characters, and only after unchecked syllables. There are 6 tones, which are marked by the onset class, the type of syllable, and where needed one of 2 tone marks.

One distinguishing feature of New Tai Lü is its regularity, and simplicity compared to Tai Tham, which can also be used for the Tai Lü language. Many of the glyphs resemble Tai Tham, but they are also simplified, commonly combining into a single code point what would be multiple characters in Tai Tham. For example, ᦦ, ᦜ, and ᦗ.

Phonology

These are sounds for the Tai Lü language. For more details, see the Phonology pages of the @SIL Dai Lue Dictionary,https://www.webonary.org/dailu/language/phonology/?lang=en

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

Diphthongs

Vowels in open syllables are long, whereas ones in closed syllables are short, except for aː and uː.

All diphthongs are plain vowels followed by i̯.

Consonant sounds

	labial	alveolar	post- alveolar	palatal	velar	glottal
stops	p b	t d			k kʷ	ʔ
aspirated	pʰ	tʰ
affricates		t͡s	t͡ɕ
fricatives	f v	s sʷ	ɕ		x xʷ	h
nasals	m	n			ŋ
approximants	w	l		j

Initials t͡s and s are palatalised before front vowels i, e, ɛ, and become t͡ɕ and ɕ, respectively. For example, t͡síŋ hard and si᷄p ten are pronounced as t͡ɕiŋ˥ and ɕip˧˥, respectively.

Finals

	labial	alveolar	palatal	velar	glottal
stop	p	t		k	ʔ
nasal	m	n		ŋ
approximant	w		j

Tones

Tai Lü has 2 tones in checked syllables, and 6 tones in unchecked syllables. See tones.ws

Structure

The script is syllable-based.

Syllables. A syllable's phonetic structure is C(ʷ)(V)(C) (unchecked) or C(ʷ)(V)C (checked). Unchecked syllables end with a vowel or one of the sonorants m, n, ŋ, w, j. Checked syllables end with one of ʔ, p, t, k.

The onset consonant sequence may be one of kʷ, xʷ, sʷ.

Tai Lü has 6 tones in unchecked syllables. In checked syllables there are two tones.ws

The characters used to represent the phonetics follow the model
(pV) C (V) (VS) (Fs|Fp) (T)
where: pV is a pre-base vowel, VS is the vowel shortener ᦰ, Fs is one of the set of final sonorants, Fp is one of the set of final plosives, and T is a tone marker.

There are no medial consonant letters. Single characters are available for the onset sequences.

An onset consonant may represent a high or low register. Every consonant sound is represented by a pair of letters.

Syllable-final consonants are one of a small set of dedicated letters.

There are two tone marks, which combine with the register of the onset consonant to determine one of the 6 tone values.

Words. Many words are single syllables, but also many are composed of multiple syllables. Multi-syllabic words may have one or more 'minor' syllables, which have the form CV and can only have one of the following short vowels: a, i, or u. All CV syllables in the following examples are minor syllables.@SIL Dai Lue Dictionary,https://www.webonary.org/dailu/language/phonology/?lang=en

ᦔᦞᦎᦲᦰ

ᦉᦳᦟᦱ

ᦗᧃᦒᦓᧂ

There are also many compound words. The following words are, respectively, compounds of thing:eat, and word:think.@SIL Dai Lue Dictionary,https://www.webonary.org/dailu/language/phonology/?lang=en

ᦃᦸᧂᦂᦲᧃ

ᦅᧄᦅᦹᧆ

Vowels

Vowel summary table

The following table summarises the main vowel to character assigments.

ⓘ represents the inherent vowel. Consonant locations are indicated by -.

Simple	-ᦲ-␣-ᦲᦰ␣-ᦲ␣ ␣-ᦹ-␣-ᦹᦰ␣-ᦹ␣ ␣-ᦳ␣-ᦴ
	ᦵ--␣ᦵ-ᦰ␣ᦵ-␣ ␣ᦵ-ᦲ-␣ᦵ-ᦲᦰ␣ᦵ-ᦲ␣ ␣ᦷ--␣ᦷ-ᦰ␣ᦷ-
	ᦶ–-␣ᦶ–ᦰ␣ᦶ–␣ ␣-ᦸ-␣-ᦸᦰ␣-ᦸ
	ⓘ␣-ᦰ␣-ᦱ
Diphthongs	ᦿ␣ ␣ᦼ
	ᦽ
	ᧀ
	᧟␣ ␣ᦵ-ᧀ␣ ␣ᦾ
	ᦺ␣ᦻ

For additional details see vowel_mappings.

Below is the full set of characters needed to represent the vowels of the Tai Lü language.

ᦀ␣ᦁ␣ᦰ␣ᦱ␣ᦲ␣ᦳ␣ᦴ␣ᦵ␣ᦶ␣ᦷ␣ᦸ␣ᦹ␣ᦺ␣ᦻ␣ᦼ␣ᦽ␣ᦾ␣ᦿ␣ᧀ␣ᧈ␣ᧉ

Inherent vowel

ᦂ ka U+1982 NEW TAI LUE LETTER HIGH KA

a following a consonant is not written, but is seen as an inherent part of the consonant letter, so ka is written by simply using the consonant letter.

Post-consonant vowels

Vowel letters

ᦂᦲ ki U+1982 NEW TAI LUE LETTER HIGH KA + U+19B2 NEW TAI LUE VOWEL SIGN II

New Tai Lue uses the following vowel signs. They may be used on their own, or in combination with others (see compositeV).

ᦲ␣ᦹ␣ᦳ␣ᦴ␣ᦵ␣ᦷ␣ᦶ␣ᦸ␣ᦰ␣ᦱ␣ ␣ᦺ␣ᦻ␣ᦿ␣ᦼ␣ᦽ␣ᦾ␣ᧀ

In closed syllables, long vowels are usually pronounced short except for ᦱ and ᦴ.ws

The typical use of ᦰ is to produce a short open a vowel, however it is also used to indicate shortness for the vowel sign combinations described in the next section, in which case it represents just the glottal stop. It is also sometimes used to distinguish homonyms or for onomatopoeia.ws

Six of these single character vowel signs represent diphthongs that combine the basic vowel sound with i̯. (There is another in the list of pre-base vowel signs. and one more in the list of multipart vowels.)

Multipart vowels

ᦵᦂᦲᦰ koː U+19B5 VOWEL SIGN E + U+1982 LETTER HIGH KA + U+19B2 VOWEL SIGN II + U+19B0 VOWEL SIGN SHORTENER

All vowels represented by combinations of the above characters. Most, but not all, of these involve the use of the vowel-shortening letter, ᦰ.

-ᦲᦰ␣-ᦹᦰ␣ᦵ-ᦰ␣ᦵ-ᦲᦰ␣ᦵ-ᦲ␣ᦷ-ᦰ␣ᦶ-ᦰ␣-ᦸᦰ␣ ␣ᦵ-ᧀ

show composition

ᦵᦄᦲᧅ

Characters that don't appear in the combinations:

ᦱ␣ᦳ␣ᦴ␣ᦺ␣ᦻ␣ᦼ␣ᦽ␣ᦾ␣ᦿ

Show which combinations contain a given character:

ᦲ	-ᦲᦰ␣ᦵ-ᦲᦰ␣ᦵ-ᦲ
ᦹ	-ᦹᦰ
ᦸ	-ᦸᦰ
ᦰ	-ᦲᦰ␣-ᦹᦰ␣ᦵ-ᦰ␣ᦵ-ᦲᦰ␣ᦷ-ᦰ␣ᦶ-ᦰ␣-ᦸᦰ
ᦵ	ᦵ-ᦰ␣ᦵ-ᦲᦰ␣ᦵ-ᦲ␣ᦵ-ᧀ
ᦷ	ᦷ-ᦰ
ᦶ	ᦶ-ᦰ
ᧀ	ᦵ-ᧀ

Show details about glyph positioning

The following list summarises where vowel signs are positioned around a base consonant to produce vowels, and how many instances of that pattern there are. Numbers after the + sign represent combinations of vowel signs.

4 pre-base, eg. ᦵᦂ e͕k (ke)
13 post-base, eg. ᦂᦱ kā
+3 post+post-base, eg. ᦂᦲᦰ kiʔ
+4 pre+post-base, eg. ᦵᦂᦲ e͕ki (ke͕i)
+1 pre+post+post-base, eg. ᦵᦂᦲᦰ e͕kiʔ (ke͕iʔ)

Vowel-signs only appear to the left and/or right of a consonant.

Pre-base vowel signs

ᦷᦂ koː U+19B7 NEW TAI LUE VOWEL SIGN O + U+1982 NEW TAI LUE LETTER HIGH KA

Four vowel signs appear to the left of the base consonant letter or cluster, eg. မေး.

ᦵ␣ᦷ␣ᦶ␣ ␣ᦺ

Because New Tai Lü uses a fully visual encoding model (since Unicode 8.0)u, the 4 vowel signs that appear to the left of the consonant are typed and stored before the consonant, even though they are pronounced after.

show composition

ᦒᦰᦵᦟ

Note that ᦶ should not be typed as two successive ᦵ characters.u

Standalone vowels

All vowels are preceded by a consonant. What may be standalone vowels in other related languages are written after one of the 2 glottal stop consonant letters, ᦀ and ᦁ, and IPA transcriptions include a glottal stop.

ᦀᦱᧇ

ᦶᦀᧅ

ᦵᦁᦲᧁᧈᦵᦋᦲᧁᧈ

Tones

New Tai Lü has two tone marks, which are written at the end of an unchecked syllable. Because consonants come in pairs to denote two tonal registers, the two tone marks allow for representation of six specific tones.ws

The tone marks are ordinary spacing characters.

ᧈ␣ᧉ

Tai Lü has 2 tones in checked syllables, and 6 tones in unchecked syllables.ws

Register	Checked?	Mark	Description	Example
High	checked	-	˧˥ high-rising	ᦜᧅ ᦜᦱᧅ
	unchecked	-	˥ high	ᦂᦱ
		ᧈ	˧˥ high-rising	ᦂᦱᧈ
		ᧉ	˩˧ low-rising	ᦂᦱᧉ
Low	checked	-	˧ mid	ᦟᧅ ᦟᦱᧅ
	unchecked	-	˥˩ falling	ᦅᦱ
		ᧈ	˧ mid	ᦅᦱᧈ
		ᧉ	˩ low	ᦅᦱᧉ

Consonants with no following vowel

tbd

Vowel sounds mapped to characters

This section maps Tai Lü vowel sounds to common graphemes in the New Tai Lü orthography, where o indicates an open syllable, c a closed syllable, and s a standalone vowel. 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.

Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc.