Category Archives: Rating: 4 “Huh, interesting!”

Varang Chiti — 1963 AD?, India

The Ho language is a minority language in northeastern India, but in India, minority languages can have a large number of speakers: there are over a million Ho speakers. At some point in the 20th century, a gentleman named Lako … Continue reading

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Ol Chiki — 1925 AD, India

The Santali spoken language is not an Indo-European language, while  the majority spoken languages in northern India are Indo-Europeean.  (Santali is an Austro-Asiatic language, and hence more closely related to Vietnamese than to Sanskrit.)  The Indic writing systems designed for … Continue reading

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Zolai — 1952 AD, India

There is a small ethnic group on the border of India and Burma with many names.  They are called the Zo, Zou, Jo, Chin, and several other names. They speak a language that is in the same language family as … Continue reading

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Pau Cin Hau alphabet — 1931 AD, Mayanmar

The Pau Cin Hau logographic script was reformed in 1931 AD, moving from a logographic language to an alphabet.  While it is not unusual for a phonetic writing system to evolve from a logographic writing system, it is very rare … Continue reading

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Tikamuli — 2005, Nepal

As I mentioned in the Jenticha post, there is a language called Sunuwar which is spoken in both India and Nepal, and has been written in Jenticha in both Nepal and northern India. In 2005, Tikaram Mulicha developed the Tikamuli … Continue reading

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Jenticha — 1942 AD, Nepal

In Northern India and southern Nepal, there is a language called Sunuwar, alternatively Kõits-Lo, Mukhiya, Kiranti-Kõits, Koinch, Koincha, and Koints.  In 1942, Karna Jenticha developed a script for this language. There have been two versions of Jenticha: the first was … Continue reading

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Meitei Mayek — 1100 AD, India

The Meitei Mayek script — also sometimes called Meithei Mayek, Meitei Mayek, or Manipuri — looks very different from the the Bengali/Assamese script that is now used in Manipur and its Indian/Bangladeshi neighbours.  It also looks very different from the … Continue reading

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Assamese — 1200 AD, India

Assamese is interesting because it is so very close to Bengali script.  There are only two characters which are different. Frequently, writing systems differ by a few characters because a writing system was adapted for spoken language B from a … Continue reading

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Mithilakshar — 1300 AD, India

Mithilakshar — also called Maithili, Mithilaksara, and Tirahut — has been used since the 14th century in the northeast part of India, although it has limited use now.  It is very similar to Bengali, so much so that early 20th … Continue reading

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Bengali — 1100 AD, Bangladesh

Bengali script, sometimes called Bangla, evolved gradually from Nagari, which makes giving it a starting point difficult.  Certainly Bengali was a separate script by 1778, when the first metal type was cut for it, but the date sources say it … Continue reading

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