| Kirat Rai Rai Khambu Rai Rai Barṇamālā Kirat Khambu Rai | |
|---|---|
| Script type | |
Period | 1920 – present |
| Direction | Left-to-right  |
| Languages | Bantawa |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Krai(396), Kirat Rai |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Kirat Rai |
| U+16D40–U+16D7F | |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
Kirat Rai (also calledKhambu Rai,Rai Barṇamālā andKirat Khambu Rai) is a left-to-rightabugida (a type of segmentalwriting system), based on the Sumhung Lipi of 1920s, used to write theBantawa language in theIndian state ofSikkim.[1] Kirat Rai is composed of 31 primary characters, including seven vowels (and seven related vowel diacritics), one of which (/a/) is inherent in all consonants, 31 consonants, avirama to cancel the inherent vowel, and a vowel carrier to be used in combination with the vowel diacritics for writing word-initial vowels.[2]
Khambu Rai is part of theBrahmic family of scripts fromIndia,Nepal,Tibet andSoutheast Asia. Smriti Rai mentions that theKhambu Rai people, speakers of theBantawa language used to write with the Khambu Rai script developed by Late Kripasalyan Rai in 1981-1982 from theDevnagari script. The Khambu-Rai language (Bantawa language) is taught in schools up to the primary level ever since the Khambu-Rai language was recognized as one of the official languages ofSikkim in 1997.[3] The origin of the Kirat Rai script goes as far back as the 1920s, when theSumhung Lipi script was created by Tika Ram Rai for writing a religious book calledSumhung. In 1981-82 Kripasalyan Rai ofGyalshing district reintroduced[4] and promoted Sumhung Lipi script as "Kripasalyan Lipi" through his bookRāī Akṣarko Barṇamālā.[1]
Kirat Rai was added to theUnicode Standard in September, 2024 with the release of version 16.0. As of that date, there was a single Unicode font, put out bySIL.[5]
The Unicode block for Kirat Rai is U+16D40–U+16D7F:
| Kirat Rai[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+16D4x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+16D5x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+16D6x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+16D7x | | | | | | | | | | | ||||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
