The Cham script is a descendant of the Brahmi script of India.[3] Cham was one of the first scripts to develop from a script called the Pallava script some time around 200 CE. It came to Southeast Asia as part of the expansion of Hinduism and Buddhism. Hindu stone temples of the Champa civilization contain both Sanskrit and Chamic language stone inscriptions.[4] The earliest inscriptions in Vietnam are found in Mỹ Sơn, a temple complex dated to around 400 CE. The oldest inscription is written in faulty Sanskrit. After this, inscriptions alternate between Sanskrit and the Cham language of the times.[5]
Cham kings studied classical Indian texts such as the Dharmaśāstra and inscriptions make reference to Sanskrit literature. Eventually, while the Cham and Sanskrit languages influenced one another, Cham culture assimilated Hinduism, and Chams were eventually able to adequately express the Hindu religion in their own language.[5] By the 8th century, the Cham script had outgrown Sanskrit and the Cham language was in full use.[6] Most preserved manuscripts focus on religious rituals, epic battles and poems, and myths.[5]
Modern Chamic languages have the Southeast Asian areal features of monosyllabicity, tonality, and glottalized consonants. However, they had reached the Southeast Asia mainland disyllabic and non-tonal. The script needed to be altered to meet these changes.[4]
Variety
The Cham now live in two groups: the Western Cham of Cambodia and the Eastern Cham (Phan Rang Cham) of Vietnam. For the first millennium AD, the Chamic languages were a dialect chain along the Vietnam coast. The breakup of this chain into distinct languages occurred once the Vietnamese pushed south, causing most Cham to move back into the highlands while some like Phan Rang Cham became a part of the lowland society ruled by the Vietnamese. The division of Cham into Western and Phan Rang Cham immediately followed the Vietnamese overthrow of the last Cham polity.[4] The Western Cham people are mostly Muslim[7] and therefore prefer the Arabic script. The Eastern Cham are mostly Hindu and continued to use the Indic script. During French colonial times, both groups had to use the Latin alphabet.[citation needed]
There are two varieties of the Cham script: Akhar Thrah (Eastern Cham) and Akhar Srak (Western Cham). The two are distinct enough to be encoded in separate blocks.[8][9] A standard ALA-LC romanization of both varieties, which is based on EFEO romanization of Cham, is available.[10][11]
Usage
The script is highly valued in Cham culture, but this does not mean that many people are learning it.[12] There have been efforts to simplify the spelling and to promote learning the script, but these have met with limited success.[13][14] 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 to read.[6] The traditional Indic Cham script is still known and used by Vietnam's Eastern Cham but no longer by the Western Cham.[15]
Structure
Similar to other abugidas, the consonants of Cham have the inherent vowel. Dependent vowel diacritics are used to modify the inherent vowel.[3] Since Cham does not have virāma, special characters should be used for pure consonants. This practice is similar to the chillu consonants of the Malayalam script.
The Eastern Cham script. Nasal consonants are shown both unmarked and with the diacritic kai. The vowel diacritics are shown next to a circle, which indicates their position relative to any of the consonants.
Most consonant letters, such as [b], [t], or [p], includes an inherent vowel[a] which does not need to be written. The nasal stops, [m], [n], [ɲ], and [ŋ] (the latter two transliterated ny and ng in the Latin alphabet) are exceptions, and have an inherent vowel [ɨ] (transliterated â). A diacritic called kai, which does not occur with the other consonants, is added below a nasal consonant to write the [a] vowel.[6]
Cham words contain vowel and consonant-vowel (V and CV) syllables, apart from the last, which may also be CVC. There are a few characters for final consonants in the Cham script; other consonants merely extend a longer tail on the right side to indicate the absence of a final vowel.[6]
Consonants
Consonant letters
ka
kha
ga
gha
ngâ
nga
ca
cha
ja
jha
nyâ
nya
ꨆ
ꨇ
ꨈ
ꨉ
ꨊ
ꨋ
ꨌ
ꨍ
ꨎ
ꨏ
ꨐ
ꨑ
nja
ta
tha
da
dha
nâ
na
nda
pa
pa
pha
ba
ꨒ
ꨓ
ꨔ
ꨕ
ꨖ
ꨗ
ꨘ
ꨙ
ꨚ
ꨛ
ꨜ
ꨝ
bha
mâ
ma
mba
ya
ra
la
wa
ṣa
sa
ha
ꨞ
ꨟ
ꨠ
ꨡ
ꨢ
ꨣ
ꨤ
ꨥ
ꨦ
ꨧ
ꨨ
Medial consonants
Medial consonants (Consonant signs)
-ia
-ra
-la
-ua
diacritics
◌ꨳ
◌ꨴ
◌ꨵ
◌ꨶ
examples
ꨆꨳ kia
ꨆꨴ kra
ꨆꨵ kla
ꨆꨶ kua
Final consonants
Cham does not employ a virama to suppress vowels. Final consonants are indicated in one of three ways: an explicit final consonant letter, a combining diacritic mark, or by ꨥ.
Final consonant letters
-k
-ng
-c
-t
-n
-p
-y
-r
-l
-w
-ṣ
ꩀ
ꩂ
ꩄ
ꩅ
ꩆ
ꩇ
ꩈ
ꩉ
ꩊ
ꨥ
ꩋ
Final consonant diacritics
-ng
-m
-h
diacritics
◌ꩃ
◌ꩌ
◌ꩍ
shown withꨌ(ca)
ꨌꩃ
ꨌꩌ
ꨌꩍ
Independent vowels
Six of the initial vowels are represented with unique letters:[16]
Independent Cham vowels
a
i
u
é
ai
o
ꨀ
ꨁ
ꨂ
ꨃ
ꨄ
ꨅ
Dependent vowels
Other initial vowels are represented by adding a diacritic to the letter ꨀ (a).[16] The same diacritics are used with consonants to change their inherent vowel:
^Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography, R. Malatesha Joshi, Catherine McBride(2019),p.29
^ abcCham. In The Unicode Standard, Version 11.0 (p. 661). Mountain View, CA: Unicode Consortium.
^ abcThurgood, Graham. From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects: Two Thousand Years of Language Contact and Change. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999.
^ abcClaude, Jacques. "The Use of Sanskrit in the Khmer and Cham Inscriptions." In Sanskrit Outside India (Vol. 7, pp. 5-12). Leiden: Panels of the VIIth World Sanskrit Conference. 1991.
^ abcdBlood, 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.
^Bruckmayr, Philipp. (2019). The Changing Fates of the Cambodian Islamic Manuscript Tradition. Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, 10(1), 1-23. doi:10.1163/1878464X-01001001
^Rachna, Thim (26 November 2019). "Cambodia's Cham Muslims Fear Loss of Ancient Script and Language". VOA Khmer. Retrieved 2022-05-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^Akbar Husain, Wim Swann Horizons of Spiritual Psychology 2009 - Page 28 "The traditional Cham script, based on an Indian script, is still known and used by the Eastern Cham in Vietnam, but it has been lost by the Western Cham. The Cham language is also non-tonal. Words may contain one, two, or three syllables."
^ abcdEverson, Michael (2006-08-06). "Proposal for encoding the Cham script in the BMP of the UCS" (PDF).
Etienne Aymonier, Antoine Cabaton (1906). Dictionnaire čam-français. Vol. 7 of Publications de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient. E. Leroux. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
Blood, Doris (1980a). Cham literacy: the struggle between old and new (a case study). Notes on Literacy 12, 6-9.
Blood, Doris (1980b). The script as a cohesive factor in Cham society. In Notes from Indochina, Marilyn Gregersen and Dorothy Thomas (eds.), 35-44. Dallas: International Museum of Cultures.
Blood, Doris E. 2008. The ascendancy of the Cham script: how a literacy workshop became the catalyst. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 192:45-56.
Brunelle, Marc. 2008. Diglossia, Bilingualism, and the Revitalization of Written Eastern Cham. Language Documentation & Conservation 2.1: 28-46. (Web based journal)
Moussay, Gerard (1971). Dictionnaire Cam-Vietnamien-Français. Phan Rang: Centre Culturel Cam.
Trankell, Ing-Britt and Jan Ovesen (2004). Muslim minorities in Cambodia. NIASnytt 4, 22-24. (Also on Web)
R. Malatesha Joshi, Catherine McBride(2019). Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography
External links
Media related to Cham script at Wikimedia Commons
Omniglot Entry on Cham
more info on Cham alphabet (in Spanish)
Brunelle's article
Conservation of Cham language and script on Lauthara.org
cham, script, brahmic, abugida, used, write, cham, austronesian, language, spoken, some, chams, vietnam, cambodia, written, horizontally, left, right, just, like, other, brahmic, abugidas, akhar, camꨀꨇꩉ, script, typeabugidatime, period4th, century, present, di. The Cham script is a Brahmic abugida used to write Cham an Austronesian language spoken by some 245 000 Chams in Vietnam and Cambodia 3 It is written horizontally left to right just like other Brahmic abugidas Cham scriptAkhar Camꨀꨇꩉ ꨌ Script typeAbugidaTime period4th century present 1 Directionleft to right LanguagesCham SanskritRelated scriptsParent systemsProto Sinaitic script a Phoenician alphabet a Aramaic alphabet a Brahmi scriptTamil BrahmiPallava script 2 Cham scriptSister systemsKhmer Kawi Old Mon Grantha TamilISO 15924ISO 15924Cham 358 ChamUnicodeUnicode aliasChamUnicode rangeU AA00 U AA5F a The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet IPA For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA For the distinction between and see IPA Brackets and transcription delimiters You may need rendering support to display the uncommon Unicode characters in this article correctly Closeup of the inscription on the Po Nagar stele 965 The stele describes feats by the Champa kings A Champa manuscript recounting the social culture of the Cham community of the early 18th century Contents 1 History 2 Variety 3 Usage 4 Structure 4 1 Consonants 4 2 Medial consonants 4 3 Final consonants 4 4 Independent vowels 4 5 Dependent vowels 5 Numerals 6 Other symbols 7 Unicode 8 Notes 9 References 10 Bibliography 11 External linksHistory EditThe Cham script is a descendant of the Brahmi script of India 3 Cham was one of the first scripts to develop from a script called the Pallava script some time around 200 CE It came to Southeast Asia as part of the expansion of Hinduism and Buddhism Hindu stone temples of the Champa civilization contain both Sanskrit and Chamic language stone inscriptions 4 The earliest inscriptions in Vietnam are found in Mỹ Sơn a temple complex dated to around 400 CE The oldest inscription is written in faulty Sanskrit After this inscriptions alternate between Sanskrit and the Cham language of the times 5 Cham kings studied classical Indian texts such as the Dharmasastra and inscriptions make reference to Sanskrit literature Eventually while the Cham and Sanskrit languages influenced one another Cham culture assimilated Hinduism and Chams were eventually able to adequately express the Hindu religion in their own language 5 By the 8th century the Cham script had outgrown Sanskrit and the Cham language was in full use 6 Most preserved manuscripts focus on religious rituals epic battles and poems and myths 5 Modern Chamic languages have the Southeast Asian areal features of monosyllabicity tonality and glottalized consonants However they had reached the Southeast Asia mainland disyllabic and non tonal The script needed to be altered to meet these changes 4 Variety EditThe Cham now live in two groups the Western Cham of Cambodia and the Eastern Cham Phan Rang Cham of Vietnam For the first millennium AD the Chamic languages were a dialect chain along the Vietnam coast The breakup of this chain into distinct languages occurred once the Vietnamese pushed south causing most Cham to move back into the highlands while some like Phan Rang Cham became a part of the lowland society ruled by the Vietnamese The division of Cham into Western and Phan Rang Cham immediately followed the Vietnamese overthrow of the last Cham polity 4 The Western Cham people are mostly Muslim 7 and therefore prefer the Arabic script The Eastern Cham are mostly Hindu and continued to use the Indic script During French colonial times both groups had to use the Latin alphabet citation needed There are two varieties of the Cham script Akhar Thrah Eastern Cham and Akhar Srak Western Cham The two are distinct enough to be encoded in separate blocks 8 9 A standard ALA LC romanization of both varieties which is based on EFEO romanization of Cham is available 10 11 Usage EditThe script is highly valued in Cham culture but this does not mean that many people are learning it 12 There have been efforts to simplify the spelling and to promote learning the script but these have met with limited success 13 14 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 to read 6 The traditional Indic Cham script is still known and used by Vietnam s Eastern Cham but no longer by the Western Cham 15 Structure EditSimilar to other abugidas the consonants of Cham have the inherent vowel Dependent vowel diacritics are used to modify the inherent vowel 3 Since Cham does not have virama special characters should be used for pure consonants This practice is similar to the chillu consonants of the Malayalam script The Eastern Cham script Nasal consonants are shown both unmarked and with the diacritic kai The vowel diacritics are shown next to a circle which indicates their position relative to any of the consonants Most consonant letters such as b t or p includes an inherent vowel a which does not need to be written The nasal stops m n ɲ and ŋ the latter two transliterated ny and ng in the Latin alphabet are exceptions and have an inherent vowel ɨ transliterated a A diacritic called kai which does not occur with the other consonants is added below a nasal consonant to write the a vowel 6 Cham words contain vowel and consonant vowel V and CV syllables apart from the last which may also be CVC There are a few characters for final consonants in the Cham script other consonants merely extend a longer tail on the right side to indicate the absence of a final vowel 6 Consonants Edit Consonant letters ka kha ga gha nga nga ca cha ja jha nya nyaꨆ ꨇ ꨈ ꨉ ꨊ ꨋ ꨌ ꨍ ꨎ ꨏ ꨐ ꨑnja ta tha da dha na na nda pa pa pha baꨒ ꨓ ꨔ ꨕ ꨖ ꨗ ꨘ ꨙ ꨚ ꨛ ꨜ ꨝbha ma ma mba ya ra la wa ṣa sa haꨞ ꨟ ꨠ ꨡ ꨢ ꨣ ꨤ ꨥ ꨦ ꨧ ꨨMedial consonants Edit Medial consonants Consonant signs ia ra la uadiacritics examples ꨆ kia ꨆ kra ꨆ kla ꨆ kuaFinal consonants Edit Cham does not employ a virama to suppress vowels Final consonants are indicated in one of three ways an explicit final consonant letter a combining diacritic mark or by ꨥ Final consonant letters k ng c t n p y r l w ṣꩀ ꩂ ꩄ ꩅ ꩆ ꩇ ꩈ ꩉ ꩊ ꨥ ꩋFinal consonant diacritics ng m hdiacritics shown with ꨌ ca ꨌ ꨌ ꨌ Independent vowels Edit Six of the initial vowels are represented with unique letters 16 Independent Cham vowels a i u e ai oꨀ ꨁ ꨂ ꨃ ꨄ ꨅDependent vowels Edit Other initial vowels are represented by adding a diacritic to the letter ꨀ a 16 The same diacritics are used with consonants to change their inherent vowel Dependent Cham vowels a i i ei u u e ediacritics shown with ꨆ ka ꨆ ꨆ ꨆ ꨆ ꨆ ꨆ ꨆ ꨆ e e o ō ai ao a a audiacritics shown with ꨆ ka ꨆ ꨆ ꨆ ꨆ ꨆ ꨆ ꨆ ꨆ ꨆ Numerals EditCham has a distinctive set of digits 16 Arabic numerals 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9Cham numerals ꩐ ꩑ ꩒ ꩓ ꩔ ꩕ ꩖ ꩗ ꩘ ꩙Names thaohꨔ saꨧ duaꨕ klauꨆ pakꨚꩀ limaꨤ ꨟ namꨗ tajuhꨓꨎ dalapanꨕꨤꨚꩆ salapanꨧꨤꨚꩆOther symbols Edit Cham Homkar Om symbol a Punctuation Symbol Name Function Spiral Mark the beginning of a section Danda Text break Double Danda Text break with progressive values of finality Triple Danda Text break with progressive values of finalityUnicode EditMain article Cham Unicode block Cham script was added to the Unicode Standard in April 2008 with the release of version 5 1 16 The Unicode block for Cham is U AA00 U AA5F Cham 1 2 Official Unicode Consortium code chart PDF 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E FU AA0x ꨀ ꨁ ꨂ ꨃ ꨄ ꨅ ꨆ ꨇ ꨈ ꨉ ꨊ ꨋ ꨌ ꨍ ꨎ ꨏU AA1x ꨐ ꨑ ꨒ ꨓ ꨔ ꨕ ꨖ ꨗ ꨘ ꨙ ꨚ ꨛ ꨜ ꨝ ꨞ ꨟU 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 Notes 1 As of Unicode version 15 0 2 Grey areas indicate non assigned code pointsNotes Edit ꨀ U AA00 amp U AA2F amp U AA31 amp U AA4C References Edit Marrison 1975 pp 52 59 Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography R Malatesha Joshi Catherine McBride 2019 p 29 a b c Cham In The Unicode Standard Version 11 0 p 661 Mountain View CA Unicode Consortium a b c Thurgood Graham From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects Two Thousand Years of Language Contact and Change Honolulu University of Hawaii Press 1999 a b c Claude Jacques The Use of Sanskrit in the Khmer and Cham Inscriptions In Sanskrit Outside India Vol 7 pp 5 12 Leiden Panels of the VIIth World Sanskrit Conference 1991 a b c d 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 Trankell amp Ovesen 2004 Hosken Martin 2019 L2 19 217 Proposal to encode Western Cham in the UCS Everson M amp Cunningham A 2016 L2 16 198 Proposal to encode Western Cham in the SMP of the UCS ALA LC Cham romanization Cham Alphabet kauthara org 2015 Retrieved 2020 07 20 Bruckmayr Philipp 2019 The Changing Fates of the Cambodian Islamic Manuscript Tradition Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 10 1 1 23 doi 10 1163 1878464X 01001001 Blood 1980a 1980b 2008 Brunelle 2008 Rachna Thim 26 November 2019 Cambodia s Cham Muslims Fear Loss of Ancient Script and Language VOA Khmer Retrieved 2022 05 18 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Akbar Husain Wim Swann Horizons of Spiritual Psychology 2009 Page 28 The traditional Cham script based on an Indian script is still known and used by the Eastern Cham in Vietnam but it has been lost by the Western Cham The Cham language is also non tonal Words may contain one two or three syllables a b c d Everson Michael 2006 08 06 Proposal for encoding the Cham script in the BMP of the UCS PDF Bibliography EditMarrison Geoffrey Edward 1975 The Early Cham language and its relation to Malay Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 48 2 228 52 59 JSTOR 41492110 Etienne Aymonier Antoine Cabaton 1906 Dictionnaire cam francais Vol 7 of Publications de l Ecole francaise d Extreme Orient E Leroux Retrieved 2011 05 15 Blood Doris 1980a Cham literacy the struggle between old and new a case study Notes on Literacy 12 6 9 Blood Doris 1980b The script as a cohesive factor in Cham society In Notes from Indochina Marilyn Gregersen and Dorothy Thomas eds 35 44 Dallas International Museum of Cultures Blood Doris E 2008 The ascendancy of the Cham script how a literacy workshop became the catalyst International Journal of the Sociology of Language 192 45 56 Brunelle Marc 2008 Diglossia Bilingualism and the Revitalization of Written Eastern Cham Language Documentation amp Conservation 2 1 28 46 Web based journal Moussay Gerard 1971 Dictionnaire Cam Vietnamien Francais Phan Rang Centre Culturel Cam Trankell Ing Britt and Jan Ovesen 2004 Muslim minorities in Cambodia NIASnytt 4 22 24 Also on Web R Malatesha Joshi Catherine McBride 2019 Handbook of Literacy in Akshara OrthographyExternal links Edit Media related to Cham script at Wikimedia Commons Omniglot Entry on Cham more info on Cham alphabet in Spanish Brunelle s article Conservation of Cham language and script on Lauthara org https www unicode org L2 L2022 22095 western cham pdf Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cham script amp oldid 1104906958, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
