Learn Ahom
Diphthongs
Aside from 11 pure vowels, we also have something called mฤe kรกp sรขwn or dipthongs, that are formed by combining two vowels
(or placing them on top of one another as word sรขwn means).
We have twelve of these diphthongs which we read with โ๐โ
| Diphthong | |
|---|---|
 |
A] (au) |
|
Aw (ao) |
|
A,w (aao) |
|
Aj (ai) |
|
A,j (aai) |
|
AuNq (ui) |
|
AUNq (oei) |
|
Aoj (oi) |
|
AENq (ei) |
|
Aiw (iu) |
|
ACw (eu) |
|
AVw (aeu) |
Special use of ๐ and ๐
I mentioned it in the last lecture, that ๐ 'nya' and ๐ ''wa' works as a dipthong when in the final position. So ๐๐๐ซ is not kav or kab, but โจkaoโฉ or /kaw/ and similarly ๐๐๐ซ is just โจkaiโฉ or /kaj/ and not 'knya'. So ๐๐ฉ ๐๐๐ซ and ๐๐ฉ๐จ ๐๐จ๐๐ซ both are just synonymical pairs. You can write it either way
Signkiller and Shorthand
We learned about signkiller in last lesson but let's revise again. Now in all abugidas, every consonant has an inherent vowel. In Thai and Assamese it is [ษ] while in Ahom and other Shan languages it is [a]. To kill this inherent vowel, we use a sign killer, so ๐๐ is pronounced as raka while ๐๐๐ซ is pronounced as rak.In Ahom manuscripts sometimes the sign-killer is not used perhaps for artistic reasons but they are absolutely compulsory in modern Dai Ahom for clear reading. Also the shorthand -๐ช basically appends the -am phoneme to the consonant below it. It is just a shorthand of -๐๐ซ and not a vowel like some people mistakenly call it.
Exercise
1.
What does ๐๐ฆ๐ก ๐๐ฅ๐๐ซ read?
2.
How will you write 'Kaw Rak Mau' in Ahom script?
3.
What does ๐๐ฅ๐๐ซ ๐๐ฃ ๐๐ฉ๐จ ๐๐ก read?
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