Editing Ahom script (section)

== History ==
It is believed that the Ahom people adopted their script from either [[Mon–Burmese script|Old Mon or Old Burmese]], in [[Upper Myanmar]] before migrating to the Brahmaputra Valley in the 13th century. This is supported based on similar shapes of characters between Ahom and Old Mon and Old Burmese scripts. It is clear, however, that the script and language would have changed during the few hundred years it was in use.<ref name="Stars"/> The Lik Tai script featured on a 1407 [[Ming dynasty]] scroll exhibits many features of the Burmese script, including fourteen of the nineteen consonants, three medial diacritics and the high tone marker. According to the scholar Daniels, this shows that the Tai borrowed from the Burmese script to create their own script; the Lik Tai script was derived from the Burmese script, as it could only have been created by someone proficient in Burmese. Daniels also argues that, unlike previously thought, the [[Lik Tho Ngok]] script is not the origin of the other Lik Tai scripts, as the 1407 Lik Tai script shows greater similarity to the Ahom script, which has been attested earlier than the Lik Tho Ngok script.{{Sfn|Daniels|2012|p=170-171}} Other "Lik" scripts are used for the [[Khamti language|Khamti]], [[Phake language|Phake]], [[Aiton language|Aiton]] and [[Tai Nuea language]]s, as well as for other Tai languages across Northern Myanmar and [[Assam]], in Northeast India. The Lik scripts have a limited inventory of 16 to 18 consonant symbols compared to the Tai Tham script, which possibly indicates that the scripts were not developed for writing Pali.<ref name="Manuscripts">{{cite journal |last1=Hundius |first1=Harald |last2=Wharton |first2=David |title=The Digital Library of Lao Manuscripts |date=2010}}</ref> 

The earliest coins minted in the Ahom script and language were made during the reign of [[Subinphaa]] (1281-1293 AD).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hazarika |first1=Chow Nagen |title=Ahom language: its typology, language contact and historical implications in South-East Asian languages |date=2004 |url=http://www.sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/hazarika2004ahom.pdf |access-date=10 September 2021}}</ref> Samples of writing in the Ahom Script ([[Buranji|Buranji's]]) remain stored in Assamese collections. The manuscripts were reportedly traditionally produced on paper prepared from [[agarwood]] (locally known as ''sachi'') bark.<ref name="Stars" /> Assamese replaced Ahom during the 17th century.<ref name="Columbia">Assam. (2008). In ''Columbia Encyclopedia'' Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/8256016/.</ref>

The various Burmese scripts that the Ahom script itself is derived from, was likely derived from the Indic, or [[Brahmi script]],<ref name="Diller" /> and possibly of South Indic origin.<ref name="French">French, M. A. (1994). Tai Languages. In ''The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics'' (Vol. 4, pp. 4520-4521). New York, NY: Pergamon Press Press.</ref> The Brahmic Script gradually spread to Southeast Asia (from the more western and/or northern regions of South Asia), through ports on trading routes.<ref name="Court">Court, C. (1996). Introduction. In P. T. Daniels & W. Bright (Eds.) ''The World's Writing Systems'' (pp. 443). Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref> At these trading posts, ancient inscriptions have been found in Sanskrit, using scripts like the Brahmic Script, among others. At first, inscriptions were made in Sanskrit, Pali or various other Prakirts, but later the scripts were used to write the local Southeast Asian languages along with local varieties of the scripts being developed. By the 8th century, the scripts had diverged and separated into regional scripts.<ref name="Spread">Court, C. (1996). The spread of Brahmi Script into Southeast Asia. In P. T. Daniels & W. Bright (Eds.) ''The World's Writing Systems'' (pp. 445-449). Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref> 

The Ahom script is no longer used by the Ahom people to read and write in everyday life. However, it retains cultural significance and is used for religious chants and to read literature.<ref name="Diller" /> Ahom's literary tradition provides a window into the past, of Ahom's culture.<ref name="Hongladarom">Hongladarom, K. (2005). Thai and Tai Languages. In ''Encyclopedia of linguistics'' (Vol. 2, pp. 1098-1101). New York, NY: Fitzroy Dearborn.</ref> A printed form of the font was developed in 1920, to be used in the first "Ahom-Assamese-English Dictionary".<ref name="Stars">Terwiel, B. J., & Wichasin, R. (eds.), (1992). ''Tai Ahoms and the stars: three ritual texts to ward off danger''. Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program.</ref>

<gallery>
File:The Ahom script.png|The Ahom script
File:Tai Script of Ahom Kingdom.jpg|An Ahom manuscript preserved in the Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Pan Bazaar, Guwahati.
File:Siu-nyut-pha coin.jpg|Coin of Ahom king [[Sunyatphaa]] in Ahom script
</gallery>