Lepcha

Overview Properties List Table

Lepcha (also known as Rong or Rong-Ring) is a Unicode block containing characters for writing the Lepcha language of Sikkim and West Bengal, India.

The specific feature of this alphabet is that it's an abugida (consonant alphabet, where the vowels depend a lot on the consonants). However, it's a bit unusual for abugidas that the syllabic endings of the words in Lepcha are written with the Diacritical marks.

The Lepcha script comes from the Tibetan script, possibly with some influence from the . The tradition suggests that the script was devised at the beginning of the 18th century by prince Chakdor Namgyal of the Namgyal dynasty of Sikkim, or by scholar Thikúng Men Salóng in the 17th century. The early Lecha manuscripts were written vertically, apparently, under Chinese influence. However, later they switched to horizontal writing, but the letters kept their orientation, rotated 90 degrees from their Tibetan prototypes. This was reflected in the unusual way of writing final consonants. As for the rotation, it must have happened in the XVIII century.

The Lepcha script used to be in action long before now, and a lot of books were published in this writing. At the end of XIX and the beginning of XX centuries it was really blooming, but for a short period of time. It is believed that nowadays it's no longer in use.

Properties

Range	1C00–1C4F
Characters	80

List of Characters

Table of Characters

1BC0–1BFF Batak 1C50–1C7F Ol Chiki

0: Basic Multilingual Plane

1: Supplementary Multilingual Plane

2: Supplementary Ideographic Plane

3: Tertiary Ideographic Plane

4-13: Not Used

14: Supplementary Special-purpose Plane

15: Supplementary Private Use Area Plane – A

16: Supplementary Private Use Area Plane – B

Lepcha

Properties

List of Characters

Consonants

Subjoined consonants

Dependent vowels

Consonant signs

Various signs

Punctuation

Digits

Additional letters