Mon script
| Mon |
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|---|---|
mranma akkha.ra (Burmese alphabet) in Mon script
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| Type | |
| Languages | languages of Myanmar |
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Time period
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6th century to present |
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Parent systems
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Child systems
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Burmese?, Tai Tham |
| Direction | Left-to-right |
| ISO 15924 | Mymr, 350 |
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Unicode alias
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Myanmar |
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The Mon script is a Brahmi-derived alphabet used to write Mon, and may be the source script of the writing systems of Burmese and Shan languages, as well as for other languages of Burma such as S'gaw, Eastern and Western Pwo, Geba, Palaung, and Red Karen languages, although it is not the only script that has been used for these languages. The Mon script is also used for the liturgical languages of Pali and Sanskrit. Support for all modern forms is included in the Unicode standard.
The Old Mon language may have been written in at least two scripts. The Old Mon script of Dvaravati (present-day central Thailand), derived from Grantha (Pallava), has conjecturally been dated to the 6th to 8th centuries CE. The second Old Mon script was used in what is now Lower Burma (Lower Myanmar), and is believed to have been derived from Kadamba or Grantha. According to mainstream colonial period scholarship, the Dvaravati script was the parent of Burma Mon, which in turn was the parent of the Old Burmese script, and the Old Mon script of Haripunjaya (present-day northern Thailand). However, no archaeological evidence or any other kind of proof that the Dvaravati and Burma Mon scripts are related exists. The extant evidence shows only that Burma Mon was derived from the Old Burmese script, not Dvaravati. (The earliest evidence of the Old Burmese script is securely dated to 1035, while an 18th-century casting of an old Pagan era stone inscription points to 984. The earliest securely dated Burma Mon script is 1093 at Prome while two other "assigned" dates of Old Burma Mon are 1049 and 1086.)
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Wikipedia