Cham script 

Cham
Type Abugida
Spoken languages Cham
Time period 3rd century–present
Parent systems Proto-Canaanite alphabet
 → Phoenician alphabet
  → Aramaic alphabet
   → Brāhmī
    → Cham
Unicode range U+AA00–U+AA5F
ISO 15924 Cham
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Eastern (Vietnamese) Cham Writing Script

The Cham script is an abugida used to write Cham, an Austronesian language spoken by the Cham people in Vietnam and Cambodia. Cham has about 230,000 speakers. The dynamic development of the script is intertwined with the development of the Chamic culture and language as well as the influence of outside languages and scripts during the script's migration from India.

The Austronesian languages and scripts are descendants of the Brahmi languages and scripts that originated in India. These migrations to the Vietnam and Cambodia regions were coupled with the migration of Indian religions as well. Hence, the ruins of stone temples of Indian gods of the Chamic civilizations dispersed throughout Southeast Asia contain both Sanskrit and Chamic writing stone inscriptions. The zenith of the Chamic civilization was from the sixth to the seventh century BCE. Eventually, as these two languages influenced one another, Cham culture became very assimilated to Indian deity worship unlike the neighboring Khmer culture, and as a result could adequately express themselves religiously in Cham. The more recent inscriptions and manuscripts do not incorporate Sanskrit. Interestingly, most preserved manuscripts focus on religious rituals, epic battles and poems, and myths.

The Cham script is one of the first scripts to develop from the latter southern Brahmi alphabet called Vatteluttu of South India, beginning by 200 AD. It is written horizontally, and left to right, as in English. There are numerous spelling rules that make learning to use the script daunting (Blood 2008). The current languages demonstrate Southeast Asian features of monosyllabicity, tonality, and glottalized consonants. Curiously, the languages reached the Southeast Asia mainland as disyllabic and nontonal. Clearly, the abugida format of the Brahmi Indian writing system needed to be slightly altered to meet these changes.

The Cham now live in two isolated groups: Western Cham in Cambodia, and Eastern Cham in Vietnam. Each uses a distinct variety of the script, although the former are mostly Muslim (Trankell & Ovesen 2004) and now prefer to use the Arabic alphabet. The latter are mostly Hindu, and still use their own script. During French colonial times, both groups had to use the Latin alphabet.

The script is highly valued in Cham culture, but this does not mean that many people are learning it. There have been efforts to simplify the spelling and to promote learning the script, but these have met with limited success (Blood 1980a,b, 2008, Brunelle 2008). Traditionally, boys learned the script around the age of twelve when they were old and strong enough to tend to the water buffalo. However, women and girls did not typically learn the script. 1

Contents

Cham in Unicode

The Unicode range for Cham is U+AA00 .. U+AA5F. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points.

Cham
Unicode.org chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+AA0x ꨀ ꨁ ꨂ ꨃ ꨄ ꨅ ꨆ ꨇ ꨈ ꨉ ꨊ ꨋ ꨌ ꨍ ꨎ ꨏ
U+AA1x ꨐ ꨑ ꨒ ꨓ ꨔ ꨕ ꨖ ꨗ ꨘ ꨙ ꨚ ꨛ ꨜ ꨝ ꨞ ꨟ
U+AA2x ꨠ ꨡ ꨢ ꨣ ꨤ ꨥ ꨦ ꨧ ꨨ ꨩ ꨪ ꨫ ꨬ ꨭ ꨮ ꨯ
U+AA3x ꨰ ꨱ ꨲ ꨳ ꨴ ꨵ ꨶ                  
U+AA4x ꩀ ꩁ ꩂ ꩃ ꩄ ꩅ ꩆ ꩇ ꩈ ꩉ ꩊ ꩋ ꩌ ꩍ    
U+AA5x ꩐ ꩑ ꩒ ꩓ ꩔ ꩕ ꩖ ꩗ ꩘ ꩙     ꩜ ꩝ ꩞ ꩟


Published sources

References

  1. ^ Blood, Doris E. "The Script as a Cohesive Factor in Cham Society". In Notes from Indochina on ethnic minority cultures. Ed. Marilyn Gregerson. 1980 p35-44.


External links


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