Tai Tham alphabet

The Lanna script ( also Tai Tham, Tai Yuan or Dhamma font; nordthailändisch: ᨲ ᩠ ᩅ ᩫ ᨾ ᩮ ᩬ ᩥ ᨦ, dai tam, Thai: อักษร ธรรม ล้าน นา, Lao: ອັກ ສອນ ທໍາ ລ້ານ ນາ, Akson tham Lanna, " Lanna Dharma font " ) is an abugida, which (among other writing systems ) for the posting of the Kam - Tai languages ​​Tai Lü and Khuen is used ( in Burma ) especially (mainly spoken in southern China ). In the time of the northern Thai kingdom Lan Na the same language written in this script, now the Lanna language is, however, mainly written in Thai script.

The writing is a descendant of the Brahmi script and has corresponding properties: All consonants have an inherent vowel a, by vowel signs can change the vowel. However, the Lanna script has many more vowels than their neighbor writing systems. Similar to the Khmer script consecutive consonants are found each other. Lanna also contains Konsonantzeichen that are used in some cases, and tone marks to change the sound.

The term, Tai Tham ' or Dhamma scripture is because the writing system was used primarily for recording religious texts. The alphabet is very similar to the writing of the Shan.

As part of National Unification ( Thaiisierung ), the Thai government outlawed under Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram from 1939 the use of the Lanna script for the case of northern Thai dialects. Although Nowadays you can only read the Lanna writing a small minority of the inhabitants of northern Thailand, but it will be back occasionally captions added in this alphabet to emphasize a regional cultural identity.