The Fraser or Old Lisu script is an artificial abugida created around 1915 for the Lisu language by Sara Ba Thaw and improved by missionary James O. Fraser. This unicameral alphabet uses modified Latin script letters to represent consonants, vowels, tones, and nasalization, with the vowel [a] unmarked. Besides Lisu, it was used for the Naxi language and Zaiwa. Since 1992, the Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture officially recognizes it as the official script for Lisu, though other regions use the New Lisu Latin script.
Consonants
Note: You may need to download a Lisu-capable Unicode font if not all characters display.
Fraser consonants| Labial | Alveolar | Alveolarsibilant | Post-alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | Tenuis | ꓑ [p] | ꓔ [t] | ꓝ [ts] | ꓚ [tʃ] | ꓗ [k] | ꓮ [ʔ]1 |
| Aspirate | ꓒ [pʰ] | ꓕ [tʰ] | ꓞ [tsʰ] | ꓛ [tʃʰ] | ꓘ [kʰ] | ||
| Voiced | ꓐ [b] | ꓓ [d] | ꓜ [dz] | ꓙ [dʒ] | ꓖ [ɡ] | ꓨ [ɦ]3 4 | |
| Fricative | Voiceless | ꓩ [f]4 | ꓢ [s] | ꓫ [ʃ] | ꓧ [x] | ||
| Voiced | ꓤ [z]4 | ꓣ [ʒ] | ꓭ [ɯ]?, [ɣ]2 | ||||
| Nasal | ꓟ [m] | ꓠ [n] | ꓠꓬ [ȵ] | ꓥ [ŋ] | ꓦ [h̃]3 | ||
| Approximant | Tenuis | ꓪ [w], [u̯]2 | ꓡ [l] | ꓬ [ʝ], [i̯]2 | |||
| Aspirate | 𑾰 [ʝʰ], [i̯ʰ]2 5 | ||||||
- Initial glottal stop is only written when the inherent vowel [ɑ] follows, and just like all consonants, the inherent vowel suffix ˍ must not be written as that would indicate another [ɑ] follows (ʔɑɑ instead of ʔɑ). It is automatic before all initial vowels but [ɯ] and [ə].
- ꓭ represents a "vowel" in the Naxi language, presumably a medial [ɯ], and a consonant [ɣ] in the Lisu language. ꓪ, ꓬ and 𑾰 are likewise ambiguous.
- ꓨ only occurs in an imperative particle. It is an allophone of ꓦ [h̃], which causes nasalization to the syllable.
- ꓤ, ꓨ and ꓩ are used only in Lisu language.
- 𑾰 is used only in Naxi language.
Vowels
Fraser vowels| Front | Central/back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | ꓲ [i] | ꓵ [y] | ꓶ [ɯ] | ꓴ [u] | ||
| Mid | ꓰ [e] | ꓱ [ø] | ꓬꓱ [i̯ø] | ꓷ [ə] | ꓳ [ʊ] | ꓮꓳ [ɑw]/[ɔ] |
| Low | ꓯ [ɛ] | ˍ** [ɑ] | ꓪ [wɑ] | ꓬ [i̯ɑ] | ||
For example, ⟨ꓗ⟩ is [kɑ̄], while ⟨ꓗꓲ⟩ is [kī].
When consonant ꓠꓬ, ꓬ is used with vowel ꓬꓱ, ꓬ, without being ambiguous only one ꓬ is written.
When transcribing diphthongs and nasal codas, letters ꓮ and ꓬ can work like vowels just like English letter Y, making Fraser script behave like an abjadic alphabet like the Roman instead of an abugida like Tibetan; meanwhile space works like a delimiter like a Tibetan tseg, making a final consonant (such as ꓠ) possible without necessity of a halanta sign: 凉粉 ꓡꓬꓮꓳ ꓩꓷꓠ reads as /li̯ɛw fən/ rather than as ꓡꓬ ꓮ ꓳ ꓩꓷ ꓠ /li̯ɑ ʔɑ ʔʊ fə nɑ/.2
Tones
Tones are written with standard punctuation. Lisu punctuation therefore differs from international norms: the comma is ⟨꓾⟩ (hyphen period) and the full stop is ⟨꓿⟩ (equal sign).
Diacritics on the syllable ꓝ [tsɑ]| ꓝ [tsɑ̄] | ꓝꓸ [tsɑ́] | ꓝꓹ [tsɑ̌] |
| ꓝꓻ [tsɑ̄ˀ]* | ꓝꓺ [tsɑ̄ˀ] | ꓝʼ [tsɑ̄̃] |
| ꓝꓼ [tsàˀ] | ꓝꓽ [tsà] | ꓝˍ [tsɑ̄à] |
The tones ⟨ꓸ⟩, ⟨ꓹ⟩, ⟨ꓺ⟩, ⟨ꓻ⟩ may be combined with ⟨ꓼ⟩ and ⟨ꓽ⟩ as compound tones. However, the only compound tone still in common use is ⟨ꓹꓼ⟩.
The apostrophe indicates nasalization. It is combined with tone marks.
The low macron indicates the Lisu "A glide", a contraction of [à] without an intervening glottal stop. The tone is not always falling, depending on the environment, but is written ⟨ˍ⟩ regardless.
Letter forms
Although Fraser published a serif form of the script,3 almost all typesetting today is done in a sans-serif typeface.
Unicode
Main articles: Lisu (Unicode block) and Lisu Supplement (Unicode block)
The Fraser script was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 2009 with the release of version 5.2.
The Unicode block for the Fraser script, called 'Lisu', is U+A4D0–U+A4FF:
| Lisu[1]Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+A4Dx | ꓐ | ꓑ | ꓒ | ꓓ | ꓔ | ꓕ | ꓖ | ꓗ | ꓘ | ꓙ | ꓚ | ꓛ | ꓜ | ꓝ | ꓞ | ꓟ |
| U+A4Ex | ꓠ | ꓡ | ꓢ | ꓣ | ꓤ | ꓥ | ꓦ | ꓧ | ꓨ | ꓩ | ꓪ | ꓫ | ꓬ | ꓭ | ꓮ | ꓯ |
| U+A4Fx | ꓰ | ꓱ | ꓲ | ꓳ | ꓴ | ꓵ | ꓶ | ꓷ | ꓸ | ꓹ | ꓺ | ꓻ | ꓼ | ꓽ | ꓾ | ꓿ |
| Notes1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0 | ||||||||||||||||
An additional character, the inverted Y used in the Naxi language, was added to the Unicode Standard in March, 2020 with the release of version 13.0. It is in the Lisu Supplement block (U+11FB0–U+11FBF):
| Lisu Supplement[1][2]Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+11FBx | 𑾰 | |||||||||||||||
| Notes1.^ As of Unicode version 16.02.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points | ||||||||||||||||
See also
External links
- Omniglot entry on Fraser script
- Proposal for encoding the Old Lisu script in the BMP of the UCS Archived 2017-08-08 at the Wayback Machine
- Lisu Unicode, Open source font for users of the Lisu script
- Issues in orthography development and reform by David Bradley
- Sample text from Michael Everson's website
References
"Naxi Gospel of Mark 1932". Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2017-12-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20171201234029/https://socidoc.com/queue/m-ko-te-dna-hsi-mark-1932-_5a02b933d64ab2e82e1e3176_pdf?queue_id=5a1b047ed64ab2e8253d9734 ↩
Bradley. Southern Lisu dictionary. ↩
James Fraser (1922) Handbook of the Lisu (Yawyin) language. Superintendent, Government printing, Rangoon ↩