Tonal Notation of Indic scripts in Mainland Southeast Asia

treated as rhymes with a final consonant cluster. However, Mon script
provided no device for it, because there has been no final cluster in Mon.
Mon script utilizes the vowel killer obligatorily to transcribe final
consonants 11 . Therefore, the existance of a vowel killer implies that
the syllable is ‘closed’ there. Burmese seems to have taken over the
implication coupled with the obligatory use of the vowel killer, because
Burmese did not use two concatenated consonant letters with a vowel
killer each to achive the ‘graphical final cluster’. Instead, they achieved
it by the combination of a vowel killer with a ligature.
Most of Indic scripts have a set of ligatures, i.e. combinations of
consonantal glyphs transcribing a consonant cluster. In Indic scripts of
Southeast Asia, consonantal glyphs in a combination are usually distinct
from each other, 12 and stacked vertically. 13 The inherent vowel of a letter,
so to speak, is ‘killed’ by the addition of a subscript letter. Ligatures
are used to transcribe intersyllabic clusters of Sanskrit/Pāli loanwords,
and the intrasyllabic clusters.
Old Mon script also has the device of ligatures to transcribe consonant
clusters. 14 Some combinations are the innovation of Mon script
to transcribe clusters unique to the language, not found in Sanskrit/Pāli
loanwords.
(17) l N im¸ {l=ngim’} ‘thousand’ (Rajakumar: 2.)
sťát˘ {s=cu ti} ‘die’ (hypothetical form) (Rajakumar: 11.)
cÁAm¸ {c=naam’} ‘year’ (Rajakumar: 2.)
kÆin’
{k=min’} ‘rule’ (Rajakumar: 10.)
m ân’ {m=Suun’} ‘five’ (Shwezigon A: 31.)
•
k a im¸ {k=@im’} ‘smile’ (Shwezigon A: 20, 21.)
ec a N¸ {c=@eng’} ‘other’ (Rajakumar: 31.)
es a Ar’ {s=@or’} ‘cause’ (hypothetical form) (Shwezigon B: 52.)
As seen in the above examples, a vowel symbol attached to a ligature
always modifies the lower glyph of it. The same thing must apply to a
vowel killer. When a vowel killer {-’} attached to a ligature containing
a subscript {@}, the inherent vowel of upper consonant letter is ‘killed’
by the addition of the subscript, and the inherent vowel of subscript is
‘killed’ by {-’}. As a result we get a ‘graphical final cluster’. Compare
the below examples from OM and OB.
(18)
12