อักษรธรรมล้านนาที่ประดิษฐ์ขึ้นเพิ่มเติมเพื่อใช้เขียนภาษาสันสกฤต

The Inventive Dhamma Lanna Script for Writing in Sanskrit

Abstract

This research article aimed to study in 4 aspects: 1) To study the number and format of Dhamma Lanna script created by Lanna scholars for writing in Sanskrit, 2) To study the orthography of the Dhamma Lanna script for writing in Sanskrit, 3) To study the origin of Sanskrit language usage in the Lanna Kingdom, and 4) To study the creation concept of Dhamma Lanna script for writing in Sanskrit.

The results showed that, Lanna scholars have created an additional 9 letters for writing in Sanskrit in addition to the existing Dhamma Lanna script, consisted of 4 consonants: <ś> (palatal fricative), <ṣ> (retroflex fricative), Ro Repha, and Rohan; 3 vowels: <ṛ> (rue), <ai>, and <au>; 2 diacritics: Visarga and Virama. The newly invented letters in addition to the existing consonants of Dhamma Lanna script are <ś>, <ṣ>, <ṛ> and Virama. The existing letters that have new functions are Ro Repha (written like Ra Ham), Rohan (written like 2 <r> consonant alphabets), <ai> (written like <ae>), <au> (written like a combination of <e> and <ā>), and Visarga (written like <a>).

For the orthography of the Dhamma Lanna script for writing in Sanskrit, it is found that the letters that can act as initial consonants include <ś> and <ṣ> positioned at the beginning of the word or syllable. The 4 letters that can act as final consonants include <ś>, <ṣ>, Ro Repha, and Rohan, with the <ṣ> and <ṣ> subjoined consonants positioned under the consonant or the vowel, Ro Repha positioned above the consonant, and Rohan positioned behind the initial consonant of the spelled word.

For the orthography of the vowel, it is found that the vowel <ṛ> can be both independent and dependent. When acting as an independent vowel, it always appears at the beginning of a word or syllable. When acting as a dependent vowel, it is positioned after the initial consonant of the spelled word. <ai> will always appear in front of the consonant, while the mixed vowel <au> appears before and after the initial consonant of the spelled word. For the orthography of the diacritics, it is found that the Visarga will always appear at the end of the word, while the Virama appears above the final consonant of the spelled word.

For the origin of Sanskrit language usage in the Lanna Kingdom, there are evidences that Lanna monks have derived the script from Brahman scriptures used in Bagan City around BE 19^th-21^st century. The script was translated into Lanna language and some letters and orthography were invented to suit for writing in Sanskrit. As for the creation of Lanna script for writing in Sanskrit, the origin is not clear whether it was influenced from one of these scripts: Devanagari script, Burmese script, or Khom-Thai script. It is found that the letters in Dhamma Lanna script created for writing in Sanskrit are a mix of the same and different letters from the mentioned scripts. It is possible that the Lanna scholars have obtained the idea of script creation from many sets of letters. Moreover, it is found that some orthographical rules in Sanskrit writing have also influenced Lanna writing.

Keywords: The Dhamma Lanna Script, Sansakrit, Palaeography, Orthography