Ahom alphabet
Encyclopedia
The Ahom script is an abugida
that was used to write the Ahom language
, an extinct Tai language spoken by the Ahom people who ruled eastern part of Brahmaputra valley - about one-third of the length of Brahmaputra valley - in the India
n state of Assam
between the 13th and the 18th centuries.
, the root of almost all the Indic and Southeast Asian abugidas. It is probably of South Indic origin.
The Brahmi script spread in a peaceful manor, Indianization, or the spread of Indian learning. It spread naturally to Southeast Asia, at ports on trading routes. At these trading posts, ancient inscriptions have been found in Sanscrit, using scripts that originated in India. Asian varieties of these scripts later developed. At first, inscriptions were found in Indian languages, but later inscriptions of southeast Asian languages were found in scripts derived from Indian scripts. Local varieties of the scripts were developed, that did not originate in India. Later, symbols for sounds in Tai languages were developed, and the Indic style of writing was left behind.
It is believed that the Ahom people adopted the script from either Old Mon, or Old Burmese, before migrating to the Brahmaputra Valley. This is supported based on similar shapes of characters between Ahom and Old Mon and Old Bermese scripts. It is clear, however, that the script and language would have changed during the few hundred years it was in use. A print form of the font was developed to be used in the first ‘’Ahom-Assamese-English Dictionary,’’.
Assamese replaced Ahom during the 17th century.
The Ahom script is no longer used by the Ahom people to read and write in every day life. However, it retains cultural significance and is used for religious chants and to read literature. Ahom’s literary tradition provides a window into the past, of Ahom’s culture.
Samples of writing in the Ahom Script remain stored in Assamese collections.
The attempt to revitalize the Ahom culture has encouraged linguists to take interest again in translating Ahom texts. However, main attempts to translate text into Ahom merely rewrites Assamese into the Ahom script, without care for the underlying grammar. The authors of Tai Ahoms and the Stars believe that to properly revive this script, a Tai language must be chosen, Ahom must be recreated from that, tones must be chosen, based on existing Tai languages, and tones must be expressed in the new writing, or ‘neo-Ahom.’.
s, which can appear above, below, to the left, or to the right of the consonant. The script does not, however, indicate tones used in the language.
The Ahom script has other characteristics typical of Thai scripts, such as:
- Subject Verb Object (SVO) word order
- Monosyllabic roots
- Analytic syntax
When speaking and writing Ahom, much is dependent upon context and the audience interpretation. Multiple parts of the sentence can be left out; verb and adjectives will remain, but other parts of speech, especially pronouns, can be dropped. Verbs do not have tenses, and nouns do not have plurals. Time periods can be identified by adverbs, strings of verbs, or auxiliaries placed before the verb.
The Ahom script is further complicated, as the script does not cover all of Ahom’s tones, and contains inconsistencies; a consonant may be written once in a word, but pronounced twice, common words may be shortened, and consecutive words with the same initial consonant may be contracted.
Abugida
An abugida , also called an alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is obligatory but secondary...
that was used to write the Ahom language
Ahom language
The Ahom language is an extinct Tai language spoken by the Ahom people who ruled the Brahmaputra river valley in the Indian state of Assam between the 13th and the 18th centuries.- Other names :...
, an extinct Tai language spoken by the Ahom people who ruled eastern part of Brahmaputra valley - about one-third of the length of Brahmaputra valley - in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n state of Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
between the 13th and the 18th centuries.
History of the script
The Ahom script was probably derived from the Indic, or Brahmi scriptBrāhmī script
Brāhmī is the modern name given to the oldest members of the Brahmic family of scripts. The best-known Brāhmī inscriptions are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka in north-central India, dated to the 3rd century BCE. These are traditionally considered to be early known examples of Brāhmī writing...
, the root of almost all the Indic and Southeast Asian abugidas. It is probably of South Indic origin.
The Brahmi script spread in a peaceful manor, Indianization, or the spread of Indian learning. It spread naturally to Southeast Asia, at ports on trading routes. At these trading posts, ancient inscriptions have been found in Sanscrit, using scripts that originated in India. Asian varieties of these scripts later developed. At first, inscriptions were found in Indian languages, but later inscriptions of southeast Asian languages were found in scripts derived from Indian scripts. Local varieties of the scripts were developed, that did not originate in India. Later, symbols for sounds in Tai languages were developed, and the Indic style of writing was left behind.
It is believed that the Ahom people adopted the script from either Old Mon, or Old Burmese, before migrating to the Brahmaputra Valley. This is supported based on similar shapes of characters between Ahom and Old Mon and Old Bermese scripts. It is clear, however, that the script and language would have changed during the few hundred years it was in use. A print form of the font was developed to be used in the first ‘’Ahom-Assamese-English Dictionary,’’.
Assamese replaced Ahom during the 17th century.
The Ahom script is no longer used by the Ahom people to read and write in every day life. However, it retains cultural significance and is used for religious chants and to read literature. Ahom’s literary tradition provides a window into the past, of Ahom’s culture.
Samples of writing in the Ahom Script remain stored in Assamese collections.
Translation efforts
Unfortunately, fabricated samples of the Ahom script delayed translation of legitimate Ahom texts. Several publications were created based on the fabricated samples, leading to incorrect grammatical analysis and dictionary resources that acted as a barrier to future researchers. A later translation of Ahom Buranji, a major Ahom script was provided by Golap Chandra Barua, the same man responsible for fabricating samples of translated Ahom script. It was discovered years later, by Professor Prasert na Nagara, that the translation was unreliable. Despite theses difficulties, along with the lack of native speakers and specific text, studies in Ahom have prevailed, and certain available scripts have been translated and transliterated, using known words, characters and context.The attempt to revitalize the Ahom culture has encouraged linguists to take interest again in translating Ahom texts. However, main attempts to translate text into Ahom merely rewrites Assamese into the Ahom script, without care for the underlying grammar. The authors of Tai Ahoms and the Stars believe that to properly revive this script, a Tai language must be chosen, Ahom must be recreated from that, tones must be chosen, based on existing Tai languages, and tones must be expressed in the new writing, or ‘neo-Ahom.’.
Script characteristics
Like most abugidas, each letter has an inherent vowel of /a/. Other vowels are indicated by using diacriticDiacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
s, which can appear above, below, to the left, or to the right of the consonant. The script does not, however, indicate tones used in the language.
The Ahom script has other characteristics typical of Thai scripts, such as:
- Subject Verb Object (SVO) word order
- Monosyllabic roots
- Analytic syntax
When speaking and writing Ahom, much is dependent upon context and the audience interpretation. Multiple parts of the sentence can be left out; verb and adjectives will remain, but other parts of speech, especially pronouns, can be dropped. Verbs do not have tenses, and nouns do not have plurals. Time periods can be identified by adverbs, strings of verbs, or auxiliaries placed before the verb.
The Ahom script is further complicated, as the script does not cover all of Ahom’s tones, and contains inconsistencies; a consonant may be written once in a word, but pronounced twice, common words may be shortened, and consecutive words with the same initial consonant may be contracted.
External links
- Entry on Ahom at Omniglot.com -- A guide to writing systems