Pali in Thai Script

[Theppitak Karoonboonyanan]

On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 4:48 AM, Christopher Fynn <chris.fynn at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 28/03/2014, Ed Trager <ed.trager at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> * Modern phonetically-based Lao lacks some of the traditional letters that
>> are still preserved in Thai and other scripts.
>
> Are there old Lao characters (once) used for writing Pāḷi?

Historically no. But there was once an attempt to devise such characters
by Lao Royal Institute before being dismissed by the communist
revolution later. The writing principle was to use PHINTU in the same
manner as Thai script, and the missing characters were borrowed
from Tham script.

See some sample text here:

  http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/saixelamphao/16569530/7323/7323_original.jpg

( Source: http://saixelamphao.livejournal.com/1326.html )

The upper part is written in Tham script, and the lower part is in the
extended Lao script.

The writing system was in use during 1932-1948. And some
North-Eastern Thai scholars are trying to revive it at present.

The full character chart, demonstrated by a font created by a Thai
scholar (Facebook login is needed, sorry):

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10201049297248857

Regards,
-- 
Theppitak Karoonboonyanan
http://linux.thai.net/~thep/