View source for Social:Marchen script

{{Short description|Script for the Zhangzhung language}}
{{Infobox writing system
|name=Marchen script
|altname=
|type=Abugida
|sample=Supposed seal of the last kings of Zhangzhung.jpg
|caption=Supposed seal of the last kings of [[History:Zhangzhung|Zhangzhung]]
|languages=Zhangzhung language
|fam1=[[Social:Egyptian hieroglyphs|Egyptian]]
|fam2=Proto-Sinaitic
|fam3=[[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]]
|fam4=[[Social:Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]]
|fam5=[[Social:Brahmi script|Brahmi]]
|fam6=Gupta
|fam7=Tibetan<ref name="masica">{{cite book |last1=Masica |first1=Colin |title=The Indo-Aryan languages |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J3RSHWePhXwC |date=1993 |page=143|isbn=9780521299442 }}</ref>
|children=
|sisters=Meitei, Lepcha, Khema, Phagspa
|time=7th–10th century CE
|unicode={{ublist |class=nowrap |[https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U11C70.pdf U+11C70&ndash;U+11CBF] Marchen}}
|iso15924=Marc
|note=none
|qid=Q72403709
|footnotes=The theorised Semitic origins of the Brahmi script are not universally agreed upon.
}}
The '''Marchen script''' was a Brahmic abugida which was used for writing the extinct Zhangzhung language. It was derived from the Tibetan script.

==Script==
As per McKay (2003), Zhang-zhung script has been modelled after Thonmi Sambhota's Tibetan script:
<blockquote>"There is also a Zhang-zhung alphabet, but despite its rather unusual appearance to anyone who is unfamiliar with the Indo-Tibetan ornate style of lettering known as lan-tsha, one observes that it is modeled letter by letter upon Thon-mi Sambhota's alphabet of thirty letters."<ref>McKay, Alex (2003). ''The history of Tibet, Volume 1. Volume 9 of International Institute of Administrative Sciences monographs The History of Tibet.'' Source: [https://books.google.com/books?id=DVZ0gdBp6u0C&dq=Zhangzhung+lantsha&pg=PA447] (accessed: Sunday November 1, 2009), p.447</ref></blockquote>

A number of scripts are recorded as being used for writing the Zhang-Zhung language:<ref name=west-2011>{{cite web |last=West |first=Andrew |title=N4032: Proposal to encode the Marchen script in the SMP of the UCS |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2011/11140-n4032-marchen.pdf |date=30 April 2011 }}</ref>

* Marchen or Greater Mar script ({{bo|t=སྨར་ཆེན་|w=smar chen}})<ref name="N4491">{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2013/13197-marchen.pdf|title=N4491: Final proposal to encode the Marchen script in the SMP of the UCS|date=2013-10-22|first=Andrew|last=West}}</ref>
* Marchung or Lesser Mar script ({{bo|t=སྨར་ཆུང་|w=smar chung}})
* Pungchen or Greater Pung script ({{bo|t=སྤུངས་ཆེན་|w=spungs chen}})
* Pungchung or Lesser Pung script ({{bo|t=སྤུངས་ཆུང་|w=spungs chung}})
* Drusha script ({{bo|t=བྲུ་ཤ་|w=bru sha}})

These scripts have mostly been observed in calligraphy manuals. One extant document, a seal originally held at Tsurpu monastery, is written in the Marchen script.<ref>{{Cite web | last=West | first=Andrew | title=Zhang Zhung Royal Seal | url=http://babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2008/01/zhang-zhung-royal-seal.html | date=1 January 2008 }}</ref>

==Description==
The Marchen scripts has some similarities with the Tibetan scripts and Lantsa but at the same time differs considerably from these. It also differs from other writing systems in the Bon tradition, such as Marchung, Pungchen, Pungchung and Drusha. A feature the Marchen script shares with Tibetan script and Lantsa are the special subjoined variants of the letters ''wa'', ''ya'' and ''ra''. The vowel diacritics are most similar to those of Drusha. A distinguishing feature of the Marchen script is the presence of a left-facing [[Swastika|swastika]], a symbol of the Bon religion, which is used both to write the letter ''nya'' and as a punctuation mark.<ref name="west-2011"/>

The Marchen script consists of 30 consonant letters, four vowel diacritics, a vowel length marker '' -a '' and two diacritics for nasalization (corresponding to ''candrabindu'' and ''anusvara''). Each consonant has an accompanying vowel ''a'' which can be modified with the four vowel diacritics. Consonant clusters are written just like in Tibetan script by stacking two or more consonants on top of each other vertically. Just as in Tibetan script, there are simplified forms for medial ''w'', ''y'' and ''r''. However, there is no simplified form of initial ''r''. Unlike in Tibetan script, there is no sign to mark syllable boundaries, which means that ambiguities can sometimes arise.<ref name="west-2011"/>

The Marchen script can be written in two different styles: one with thick angular letters and one with thin rounded ones.<ref name="west-2011"/>

==Alphabet==
===Vowels===

{| class="wikitable nounderlines Unicode" style="border-collapse:collapse;background:#FFFFFF;text-align:center"
|+ {{nowrap|Marchen vowels}}
|-
! a !! ā
|-
| {{script|Marc|𑲏}} || {{script|Marc|𑲈}}
|}

{| class="wikitable nounderlines Unicode" style="border-collapse:collapse;background:#FFFFFF;text-align:center"
|+ {{nowrap|Marchen dependent vowel diacritics}}
|-
! a !! ā !! i !! u !! e !! o
|-
|{{script|Marc| 𑲯}} ||{{script|Marc| 𑲰}} ||{{script|Marc| 𑲱}} ||{{script|Marc| 𑲲}} ||{{script|Marc| 𑲳}} ||{{script|Marc| 𑲴}}
|}

===Consonants===

{| class="wikitable nounderlines Unicode" style="border-collapse:collapse;background:#FFFFFF;text-align:center"
|+ {{nowrap|Marchen consonants}}
|-
! ka !! kha !! ga !! ṅa
|-
| 𑱲 || 𑱳 || 𑱴 || 𑱵
|-
! ca !! cha !! ja !! ña
|-
| 𑱶 || 𑱷‎ || 𑱸 || 𑱹
|-
! ta !! tha !! da !! na
|-
| 𑱺‎ || 𑱻‎ || 𑱼‎ || 𑱽
|-
! pa !! pha !! ba !! ma
|-
| 𑱾‎	|| 𑱿 || 𑲀 || ‎𑲁
|-
! ya !! ra !! la !! wa
|-
| 𑲉‎ || 𑲊‎ || 𑲋 || 𑲅
|-
! śa !! sa !! ha
|-
| 𑲌‎	|| 𑲍‎ || 𑲎
|-
! tsa !! tśa !! dza
|-
| 𑲂‎	|| 𑲃‎ || 𑲄
|-
! zha !! za 
|-
| 𑲆‎	|| 𑲇
|}

{| class="wikitable nounderlines Unicode" style="border-collapse:collapse;background:#FFFFFF;text-align:center"
|+ {{nowrap|Marchen subjoined letters}}
|-
! ka !! kha !! ga !! ṅa
|-
| 𑲒 || 𑲓 || 𑲔 || 𑲕
|-
! ca !! cha !! ja !! ña
|-
| 𑲖 || 𑲗 || 𑲘 || 𑲙
|-
! ta !! tha !! da !! na
|-
| 𑲚 || 𑲛 || 𑲜 || 𑲝
|-
! pa !! pha !! ba !! ma
|-
| 𑲞 || 𑲟 || 𑲠 || 𑲡
|-
! ya !! ra !! la !! wa
|-
| 𑲩 || 𑲪 || 𑲫 || 𑲥
|-
! śa !! sa !! ha
|-
| 𑲬 || 𑲭 || 𑲮
|-
! tsa !! tśa !! dza
|-
| 𑲢 || 𑲣 || 𑲤
|-
! zha !! za 
|-
| 𑲦 || 𑲧
|}

==Signs==

{| class="wikitable"
| Anusvara ||{{script|Marc| 𑲵}}
|-
| Chandrabindu ||{{script|Marc| 𑲶}}
|-
| Head mark || {{script|Marc|𑱰}}
|-
| Shad ||{{script|Marc|𑱱}} 
|-
| Om || {{script|Marc|𑲏𑲴𑲶}}
|}

==Unicode==
Marchen script was added to the Unicode Standard in June, 2016 with the release of version 9.0.

The Unicode block for Marchen is U+11C70–U+11CBF:

==References==
{{Reflist}}


[[Category:Obsolete writing systems]]

{{Sourceattribution|Marchen script}}