According to traditional histories, the Limbu script was first invented in the late 9th century by King Sirijunga Hang, then fell out of use, to be reintroduced in the 18th century by Te-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe during the time, teaching of the limbu script was outlawed by the monarchy in Sikkim, as it posed a threat to the Monarchy.
Accounts with Sirijunga
The Limbu language is one of the fewSino-Tibetan languages of the Central Himalayas to possess their own scripts., tells us that the Limbu or Kirat Sirijunga script was devised during the period of Buddhist expansion in Sikkim in the early 18th century when Limbuwan still constituted part of Sikkimese territory. The Limbu script was probably composed at roughly the same time as the Lepcha script which was created by the third King of Sikkim, Chakdor Namgyal. The Kirat Sirijunga script is ascribed to the Limbu hero, Te-ongsi Sirijunga who was killed by the Tasong monks in conspiracy with the king of Sikkim at the time when Simah Pratap Shah was King of Nepal.
Structure
As an abugida, a basic letter represents both a consonant and an inherent, or default, vowel. In Limbu, the inherent vowel is.
Transcription
ko
kho
go
gho
ngo
co
cho
jo
to
tho
do
dho
no
po
pho
bo
bho
mo
yo
ro
lo
vo
sho
so
ho
IPA
Letter
To change the inherent vowel, a diacritic is added:
Transcription
-a
-i
-u
-ee
-ai
-oo
-au
-e
-o
IPA
/a/
/i/
/u/
/e/
/ai/
/o/
/au/
/ɛ/
/ɔ/
Diacritic
Example using
/ka/
/ki/
/ku/
/ke/
/kai/
/ko/
/kau/
/kɛ/
/kɔ/
/kɔ/ represents the same syllable as /kɔ/. Some writers avoid the diacritic, considering it redundant. Syllable-initial vowels use the vowel-carrier with the appropriate dependent vowel sign. Used by itself, represents syllable-initial /ɔ/. Initial consonant clusters are written with small marks following the main consonant:
Transcription
-y-
-r-
-w-
IPA
/j/
/r/
/w/
Diacritic
Example using
/kjɔ/
/krɔ/
/kwɔ/
Final consonants after short vowels are written with another set of marks, except for some final consonants occurring only in loanwords. They follow the marks for consonant clusters, if any.
Transcription
-k
-ng
-t
-n
-p
-m
-r
-l
IPA
/k/
/ŋ/
/t/
/n/
/p/
/m/
/r/
/l/
Diacritic
Example using
/kɔk/
/kɔŋ/
/kɔt/
/kɔn/
/kɔp/
/kɔm/
/kɔr/
/kɔl/
Long vowels without a following final consonant are written with a diacritic called kemphreng. For example, /kɔː/. There are two methods for writing long vowels with syllable-final consonants:
Use the kemphreng diacritic and the final consonant, such as /kɔːk/.
Replace the final consonant with the corresponding full consonant and add an underscore-like diacritic mark. This indicates that the consonant is final and that the preceding vowel is lengthened. For example: /kɔːk/. This same diacritic may be used to mark final consonants in loanwords that do not have final forms in Limbu, regardless of the length of the vowel.
The first method is widely used in Sikkim; the second method is advocated by certain writers in Nepal. Glottalization is marked by a sign called mukphreng. For example, /kɔʔ/.
Three additional letters were used in early versions of the modern script:
/ɟʱɔ/
/ɲɔ/
/ʂɔ/
Two ligatures were used for Nepali consonant conjuncts:
jña
tra
Nineteenth-century texts used a small anusvara to mark nasalization. This was used interchangeably with /ŋ/. The sign was used for the exclamatory particle .
