This page brings together basic information about the Sunuwar (Kõits brese) script and its use for the Kiranti-Kõits language. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Kiranti-Kõits using Unicode.
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This page brings together basic information about the Sunuwar (Kõits brese) script and its use for the Kiranti-Kõits (Mukhia) language. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Kiranti-Kõits using Unicode.
Spelling in Kiranti-Kõits in not standardised, and at least two different approaches can be found in contemporary publications. Throughout the page we will compare and contrast the orthographies used for the Hamso magazine and the Sikkim Herald. The former follows recent conventions promoted by the Sunuwar Welfare Society in Nepal, and the latter applies reforms advocated by Lal Shyakarelu Rapacha around the turn of the century. Both publications are still published following their respective orthographies.
The modern form of the Sunuwar script was developed by Krishna Bahadur Jentich in 1942, to write the Sunwar language, The Sunwar language is spoken by around 40,000 people in Nepal and Sikkim (India)@Ethnologue,https://www.ethnologue.com/language/suz/, however the speakers usually write in Nepali using the Devanagari script. It is hoped that the inclusion of Sunuwar in the Unicode Standard, and help from UNESCO may begin to change that.
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Since 1996 Sunuwar has been one of the official languages of Sikkim, where it is known as Mukhia. The script has been used in newspapers, government records, and other publications. In 2021 the Sikkim government mandated that state-run schools should offer instruction in both the primary language of the state and in a local language, which is likely to include Sunuwar.a
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Since 1996 Kiranti-Kõits has been one of the official languages of Sikkim, where it is known as Mukhia. The script has been used in newspapers, government records, and other publications. In 2021 the Sikkim government mandated that state-run schools should offer instruction in both the primary language of the state and in a local language, which is likely to include Sunuwar.a
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̃
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(Nepal)̃
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(Sikkim)̐ ̭
Various additions and improvements have been made to the script, particularly around the turn of the century, and additional changes to the orthography were proposed as recently as the early 2020s. While there is no formal standard for the orthography, the Sunwar Welfare Society of Nepal promotes a repertoire that may be considered a de facto standard.a A slightly different set of orthographic rules are (still) used in the publication of the Sikkim Herald, originating from changes proposed by Lal Shyakarelu Rapacha, who created some of the first fonts for Sunuwar.
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-␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣
+␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣
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Alphabets
Phonology
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The following represents the general repertoire of the Sunwar language.
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The following represents the general repertoire of the Kiranti-Kõits language.
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Plain vowels
ẽeːe
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+ ə
+ ə
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ooːõ
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Diphthongs
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The sound a may produced phonetically as ə. It is placed in the chart in a position that indicates the general area of production. Other allophones include y and ɛ.
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The sound a may be produced phonetically as ə. It is placed in the chart in a position that indicates the general area of production. Other allophones include y and ɛ.
In Nepal, no distinction is made between letters to represent standalone vowels and other vowel usage.
In the Sikkim Herald a word-initial ə tends to be represented by . When the same sound occurs within a word it is treated as the inherent vowel in Sikkim, and is therefore not written.
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Standalone vowels
Vowel length
:
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The script made no distinction between short vs. long vowels until around the turn of the century, when Rapacha introduced a mark called laissi that looks identical to a colon. This mark is represented in Unicode using the ASCII 003A after a vowel letter, and is widely used in Sikkim and Nepal.
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The script made no distinction between short vs. long vowels until around the turn of the century, when Rapacha introduced a mark called laissi that looks identical to a colon. This mark is represented in Unicode using the ASCII 003A after a vowel letter, and is widely used in Sikkim and Nepal.
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: goːm tənaːtən
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̃:
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̃:
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In some sources the vowel lengthener has been surrounded by parentheses, in order to distinguish it from an actual colon, but this is not mainstream.
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Because 003A is sometimes also used as a punctuation mark, if it follows a vowel letter the colon is typically preceded by a space, to make it clear that it is not a vowel lengthener. Note the different usage in the following extract:
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Because 003A is sometimes also used as a punctuation mark, if it follows a vowel letter the colon is typically preceded by a space, to make it clear that it is not a vowel lengthener.
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̐ : ̐ :…
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In some sources the vowel lengthener has been surrounded by parentheses, in order to distinguish it from an actual colon, but this is not mainstream.
The letter was also added to the script in the early 2000s, ostensibly as a long aː vowel, contrasting with the letter , which was used for the short vowel.
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Nasalisation
Tones
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Although the Sunuwar language has 4 tones (see tone), they have not been marked in Sunuwar orthography until recently, when Sunuwar experts in Nepal recommended the use of 3 new tone diacritics. The code points come from outside the Sunuwar block.
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Although the Sunuwar language has 4 tones (see tone), they have not been marked in Sunuwar orthography until recently, when Sunuwar experts in Nepal recommended the use of 3 new tone diacritics. The code points come from outside the Sunuwar block. The fourth tone is unmarked.
̍␣́␣̀
The first is described as a stress mark, and the other 2 as high and low tone marks, respectively. Over dipthongs the tone mark tends to appear over the first vowel, and the nasalisation mark over the second, avoiding the need for stacked glyphs.
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+Examples of tone marks in Nepalese Sunuwar.
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+show composition
̍̃ ́…
The following examples show contrasting use for words:
Observation: It's not totally clear how those map to the tones described by Jentich, but presumably the unmarked tone is the flat, long mid tone; the stress tone is initially low and low but turns upwards to the normal pitch at the end; the high tone rises quickly from mid to high register; and the low tone is the short, low drop.
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In Nepal
In Sikkim
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In Sikkim, onset clusters involving a medial -j are written using the virama-like ̱ (see sikkim_clusters).
A special combining mark, 032D (called sangrums) may also be used below an initial consonant to represent a medial -r.
