Chakma script

History

The Chakma script is an abugida that belongs to the Brahmic family of scripts. Chakma evolved from the Burmese script, which was ultimately derived from Pallava. Proto Chakma developed around the 6th century CE. Old Chakma developed in the 8th century CE. Classical Literary Chakma was used in the 11th to 15th centuries and the current Standard Chakma was developed and revived in the 20th century.

The script, along with the Chakma language, has been introduced to non-government schools in Bangladesh, and as well as schools in Mizoram.

Structure

Chakma is of the Brahmic type: the consonant letters contain an inherent vowel. Unusually for Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, the inherent vowel in Chakma is a long 'ā' (a) as opposed to short 'a' (ɔ). Consonant clusters are written with conjunct characters, and a visible vowel killer shows the deletion of the inherent vowel when there is no conjunct.

Independent vowels

Four independent vowels exist:

Other vowels in initial position are formed by adding the vowel sign to ā, as in ī, ū, ai, oi. Some modern writers are generalizing this spelling in i, u, and e.

Dependent vowels

One of the interesting features of Chakma writing is that candrabindu 𑄀 (cānaphudā) can be used together with anusvara 𑄁 (ekaphudā) and visarga 𑄂 (dviphudā):

aḥṃ = ā +

aṃṃ = ā +

uṃṃ = u +

muṃ = mā +

Consonants

Vowel-killer

Like other Brahmic scripts, Chakma makes use of the maayyaa (killer) to invoke conjoined consonants. In the past, practice was much more common than it is today. Like the Myanmar script, Chakma is encoded with two vowel-killing characters in order to conform to modern user expectations. As shown above, most letters have their vowels killed with the use of the explicit maayyaa:

𑄇𑄴 k = 𑄇 kā + 𑄴 MAAYYAA

Conjucts

In 2001 an orthographic reform was recommended in the book Cāṅmā pattham pāt which would limit the standard repertoire of conjuncts to those composed with the five letters 𑄠 yā, 𑄢 rā, 𑄣 lā, 𑄤 wā, and 𑄚 nā. The four here are the most widely accepted repertoire of conjuncts. No separate conjunct forms of subjoined full-form -yā or -rā appear to exist. The fifth of these conjuncts, the -na conjunct, is exemplary of the orthographic shift which has taken place in the Chakma language.

While some writers would indeed write ccp (in ligating style) as 𑄇𑄇𑄳𑄚 or (in subjoining style) as 𑄇𑄇𑄳𑄚, most now would probably expect it to be written as 𑄇𑄇𑄴𑄚. The ligating style of glyphs is now considered old-fashioned. Thus, taking the letter 𑄟 mā as the second element, while the glyph shapes 𑄇𑄳𑄟 kmā, 𑄖𑄳𑄟 tmā, 𑄚𑄳𑄟 nmā, 𑄝𑄳𑄝 bbā, 𑄟𑄳𑄟 mmā, 𑄣𑄳𑄣 llā, 𑄥𑄳𑄟 smā, and 𑄦𑄳𑄟 hmā are attested, most users now prefer the glyph shapes 𑄇𑄳𑄟 kmā, 𑄖𑄳𑄟 tmā, 𑄚𑄳𑄟 nmā, 𑄝𑄳𑄝 bbā, 𑄟𑄳𑄟 mmā, 𑄣𑄳𑄣 llā, 𑄥𑄳𑄟 smā, and 𑄦𑄳𑄟 hmā. Again, this distinction is stylistic and not orthographic.

The 2004 book Phadagaṅ shows examples of the five conjuncts above together alongside conjuncts formed with 𑄝 bā, 𑄟 mā, and 𑄦 hā. These are all formed by simple subjoining.

In the 1982 book Cāṅmār āg pudhi a much wider range of conjunct pairs is shown, some of them with fairly complicated glyphs:

Letter names and punctuation

Chakma letters have a descriptive name followed by a traditional Brahmic consonant. These are given in annotations to the character names. Alongside a single (𑅁) and double (𑅂) danda punctuation, Chakma has a unique question mark (𑅃), and a section sign, Phulacihna. There is some variation in the glyphs for the Phulacihna (𑅀), some looking like flowers or leaves.

Numerals

The Chakma script contains its own set of numerals, although Bengali numerals are also used.

Unicode

Main article: Chakma (Unicode block)

Chakma script was added to the Unicode Standard in January 2012 with the release of version 6.1.

The Unicode block for Chakma script is U+11100–U+1114F. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points:

Educational Institutions

The Chakma language is taught in numerous government and private schools across India (in Tripura, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh) and Bangladesh. In 2004, the Government of Tripura's Directorate of Kokborok & Other Minority Languages officially introduced Chakma in primary schools using the Bengali script. Since 2013, it has been taught using the Chakma script. Currently, 87 schools offer Chakma language instruction.

References

References

1. Scheuren, Zachary. (2019-04-22). "Proposal to encode CHAKMA LETTER VAA for Pali".
2. (2019). "Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography".
3. (2010). "Genesis of Indigenous Chakma Buddhists and Their Pulverization Worldwide". Gyan Publishing House.
4. (11 November 2013). "Mru: Hill People on the Border of Bangladesh". Birkhäuser.
5. (2009-07-28). "Proposal for encoding the Chakma script in the UCS".
6. "Chakma block chart". The Unicode Consortium.
7. (2014). "Language Endangerment and Preservation in South Asia". University of Hawai'i Press.
8. (2012-01-31). "Unicode 6.1.0".
9. "Chakma Language".