The Mon–Burmese script is an abugida that derives from the Pallava Grantha script of southern India and later of Southeast Asia. It is the basis of the alphabets used for modern Burmese, Mon, Shan, Rakhine, Jingpho, and Karen.
The Mon-Burmese script is distinguished from Khmer-derived scripts (e.g., Khmer and Thai) by its basis on Pali orthography (they traditionally lack Sanskrit letters representing the sibilants <ś> and <ṣ> and the vocalic sonorants <ṛ> and <ḷ>), the use of a virāma, and the round shape of letters.