Tai Viet script

The Tai Viet script is a special way of writing used by the Tai Dam people and other Thai people who live in Vietnam and Thailand. It is part of a group of writing systems known as Brahmic scripts, which includes many different scripts used across Asia.

In the Tai Dam language, the script is called "Tai script." In Vietnamese, it is known as Chữ Thái Việt, and in Thai, it is referred to as อักษรไทดำ. This script helps these communities write and share their language and culture.

Today, the Tai Viet script is less commonly used, but it remains important for preserving the traditions and history of the Tai Dam and related groups. For those interested in seeing how this script appears in computers, there is a special set of symbols called the Tai Viet (Unicode block).

History

The Tai Viet script likely comes from old Thai writing used in the kingdom of Sukhotai. Some think the Fakkham script may be the source for several writing systems used by Tai people in Jinping (China), northern Laos, and Vietnam.

Because of differences in sounds across Tai languages and the way these scripts were passed down, many local versions developed. To create one common script, Vietnamese researchers worked with local Tai people. They made a first plan called Thống Nhất (or Unified Alphabet) in 1961, and updated it in 1966. In 2006, with help from UNESCO, they made a new, unified version called "chữ Thái Việt Nam" (or Vietnamese Tai script). This version was later approved for use in Unicode.

Starting in May 2008, this improved script began to be used officially.

Description

The Tai Viet script is a special way of writing used by the Tai Dam people and other Thai groups in Vietnam and Thailand. It has 31 letters for consonants and 14 vowels. Unlike many other writing systems, the consonants do not automatically include a vowel sound. Instead, special marks are added above, below, or around the consonant to show which vowel is used.

The script also uses Latin punctuation and includes five special symbols. One marks a person, another the number “one,” and others show the start or end of a text, or repeat the last word. In the past, words were written without spaces, but now spaces are often used. The script can show different tones, or sounds, in words using special marks added to the letters.

Unicode

Main article: Tai Viet (Unicode block)

People have wanted to add the Tai Viet script to Unicode since 2006. In 2007, a plan to include it was reviewed and accepted. Finally, Tai Viet was added to Unicode in October 2009 with version 5.2.

The Unicode block for Tai Viet is U+AA80–U+AADF.