Santali

Santali alphabet (Ol Cemet’/Ol Chiki)   Ol Cemet'

Origin

The Santali alphabet, which is also known as Ol Cemet’, Ol Ciki
or simply Ol, was created in the 1920s by Pandit Raghunath Murmu as
part of his efforts to promote Santali culture. Every other major language
in India had its own alphabet, so he thought Santali should as well.

Until the invention of this alphabet, Santali was either not written
at all, or was written with the Bengali
or Oriya alphabets. Christian
missionaries prefer to write Santali with the Latin
alphabet.

Used to write:

Santali or Santhali, a Munda language
spoken by about 5.8 million people in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.
The alphabet was designed for a southern dialect of Santali spoken in
the Mayurbhanj district of the Indian state of Orissa.

Santali is also written with the Oriya,
Bengali, Devanagari
and Latin alphabets.

Santali alphabet and numerals

Sample text

Sample text in Santali in the Ol Chiki alphabet

Source: http://wesanthals.tripod.com/Disomk05/DK0361a.html

Links

Information about the Ol Cemet’ script (includes a free Ol Cemet’ font)
http://www.wesanthals.org

Information about the Munda languages
http://www.livingtongues.org/moremunda.html

  • Post category:Languages
  • Reading time:2 mins read