Lepcha Language and Script

- Róngríng

ᰊᰫᰍᰪᰰᰜᰦ ᰀᰦᰚᰫᰮ ᰊᰌᰨᰠᰦ ᰣᰦᰛᰧᰶᰵ ᰕᰈᰩᰭᰚᰴ ᰜᰧᰋᰨ ᰕᰉᰧᰶᰰ ᰕ᰿ ᰣᰦᰛᰬᰛᰬ ᰀᰦᰚᰫᰌᰨ ᰃᰪᰮ ᰊᰫᰍᰪᰰᰛᰬ ᰊᰌᰨ ᰕᰫᰛᰧᰶᰵ ᰛᰩᰵ ᰣᰦᰛᰧᰶᰵᰛᰬᰮ ᰍᰩᰵᰊᰨ ᰕᰦᰳᰋᰨ ᰕᰉᰧᰶᰰ ᰕ᰿ ᰌᰧ ᰆᰦᰜᰩᰵᰜᰦ ᰊᰗᰶᰳ ᰉᰧ ᰀᰦᰚᰫ ᰃᰪᰰ ᰇᰩᰍᰪ ᰊᰌᰨ ᰣᰦᰕᰫᰛᰧᰶᰵᰛᰬᰮ ᰡᰦᰱᰇᰧ ᰕᰦᰳᰜᰪᰵ ᰣᰨᰛᰬᰌᰨᰮ ᰌᰪᰰᰋᰦᰱᰜᰪᰵ ᰕᰦᰚᰬᰯ ᰣᰦᰕᰫᰠᰦ ᰊᰦᰲᰢᰶᰳ ᰕᰦᰳᰀᰦ᰿ ᰀᰦᰚᰫᰍᰪ ᰠᰊᰬᰳ ᰀᰦᰚᰫᰠᰦ ᰣᰦᰛᰧᰶᰵᰀᰦ ᰈᰩᰭᰂᰪᰳ ᰣᰨᰊᰬᰳ ᰀᰦᰚᰫᰠᰦ ᰃᰨᰵ ᰣᰦᰊᰧᰶᰮ ᰅᰫᰰ ᰡᰨ ᰣᰦᰛᰧᰶᰵ ᰣᰦᰛᰬ ᰀᰦᰚᰫ ᰕᰫᰊᰪᰰᰆᰧᰶ ᰊᰤᰶᰵ ᰃᰪᰰᰍᰪ ᰊᰌᰨ ᰣᰦᰚᰩᰵᰀᰦ ᰓᰪᰰᰃᰦᰳ ᰕ᰿ ᰊᰫᰍᰪᰛᰬ ᰆᰦᰜᰩᰵ ᰠᰩᰵᰊᰬᰳ ᰊᰌᰨ ᰣᰦᰛᰧᰶᰵ ᰕᰚᰶᰰ ᰚᰦᰵ ᰍᰩᰵᰊᰩ ᰕᰦᰳᰋᰨ ᰕᰉᰧᰶᰰ ᰝᰪᰚᰫᰍᰪᰜᰦ ᰕᰜᰦᰭ ᰞᰦᰱᰈᰩᰵ ᰕᰦᰳ ᰃᰦᰳ ᰕ᰿ ᰕᰦᰚᰬᰯ ᰜᰤᰦᰵᰀᰦ ᰃᰬᰭᰍᰪ ᰕᰦᰚᰬᰯᰕᰫ ᰣᰦᰛᰧᰶᰵ ᰕᰚᰶᰰᰃᰴ ᰣᰦᰋᰶᰵᰀᰦ ᰝᰪᰚᰫᰍᰪ ᰊᰌᰨᰮᰌᰨ ᰕᰋᰤᰦᰭᰓᰫ ᰃᰪᰮ᰿

Translation:

It is important to understand, that no one forced us to stop speaking our language. We are the ones not speaking our mother tongue and neglecting our Rong-A-Ring. Let us join, go ahead and contribute to the movement in Mayel Lyang keeping our language alive. The more we speak in our mother tongue, the more we will be able to establish our identity. All those who neglected their mother tongue need to learn and improve. Someone born in Mayel Lyang but not knowing the language of the land will merely exist and eventually perish but never discover his or her true identity.

The appeal of Azuk Tamsangmoo Lepcha for the preservation of the language of Lepchaland provides an excellent sample for a brief overview of word processing and a demonstration of the use of Lepcha script in a web page. After all, the Róng do not only have reason to be proud of their past, they do, as well, not have to fear the future. The script created by the native scholar Thikung Mensalong in the 17th century is slowly going digital.

The potential significance of digitalisation for the continuity of the linguistic heritage was perceived at an early stage but implemented rather hesitatingly. The onset of the new millennium came along with an initial step towards electronic text processing for Róngríng, the release of the first TrueType fonts:

Shipmoo, designed and developed by Ren Ugen Shipmoo, released in April 2001
JG Lepcha, designed and developed by Jason Glavy, released in November 2001

Due to their custom encoding, these legacy fonts form a closed system, however. A text written in one of them can only be displayed in the same font again. Input is somewhat peculiar as it has to be done in the order of glyphs from left to right, which more often than not differs drastically from the spelling. The term róngkup, for example, has to be typed ng - ó - r - k - p - u.

State of the art fonts for non-latin scripts are usually in Unicode. Unicode is an international encoding standard for a correct reproduction of any script on any device. Unicode is cross-platform and makes it possible to distinctly recognize and handle characters by unique numbers: The block comprising the code numbers 1C00 to 1C4F was assigned exclusively to the Lepcha characters in 2008. Input of characters in Unicode is done according to spelling. Hence, Unicode fonts are interchangeable. A Lepcha text written in one of them can be restyled with an other one on the fly.

First considerations for the inclusion of Róng (Lepcha) in Unicode were made in 1992, a detailed and well-founded application submitted in 2002. Hence, the first implementation of the Lepcha script in Unicode, the Lepcha Language Kit for OS X released by Xenotype Technologies in 2003, represented true spirit of avant-garde and required - the other side of the coin - slight adjustments after the adoption of the standard, five years later. The software by XTT is no longer available, unfortunately. Upon the demise of developer Ka'onohi (Daniel J.) Kai, XTT closed down business activities. Kai's typographic legacy is feared lost.

The initial lines of this page are displayed in Mainwaring Róng, a Unicode compliant OpenType font covering some 7500 glyphs and ligatures, developed by Blinkenlichten and published by the Sikkim Bhutia Lepcha Apex Committee (SIBLAC). The look of Mainwaring Róng is inspired by the types cast at the Baptist Mission Press in Calcutta around 1850 and used for the publication of Christian canonical books as well as for G. B. Mainwaring's Grammar of the Róng (Lepcha) Language.

The creation of Unicode fonts for Róngríng has, for some time, been underway. Apart from the typefaces presented here, there are two available fonts marked under development. They yet have some shortcomings in regard to input and output and have had casual updates only:

Mingzat is being developed by SIL International. The glyphs are Jason Glavy's. Mingzat is distributed free of charge under the SIL Open Font License and available at the SIL Computer & Writing Systems page (font last updated September 2013).
Noto Sans Lepcha is freely available under the SIL Open Font License at the Google Noto Fonts website (font last updated November 2015). The modern look of the glyphs designed by Toshi Omagari, in fact, reverts to characters found in older Lepcha manuscripts.

Below, the appeal of Azuk Tamsangmoo is reproduced again, in the distinct appearance of another font from the release by SIBLAC. Dawa Lepcha represents a linear and highly abstracted interpretation of the traditional Róngríng characters. The overall impression can not deny considerable stylistic influence obtained from the Shipmoo legacy font.

The two fonts reproduced here are part of the Róng Kít available for download at the Sikkim Bhutia Lepcha Apex Committee. Apart from the fonts Mainwaring Róng and Dawa Lepcha, the kit includes keyboard files for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux as well as detailed informations and instructions. While commercial and governmental agencies are liable to licensing, the publisher provides the software free of charge for unrestricted personal and NGO use.

The use of uncommon alphabets in websites has been made possible with the latest recommendations of revised specifications for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) which offer tools facilitating the display of fonts not installed on a specific device. The code savvy will require a mere look into the source code of the present page to realize how the wind blows.