Lisu is a

Unicode block A Unicode block is one of several contiguous ranges of numeric character codes (code points) of the Unicode character set that are defined by the Unicode Consortium for administrative and documentation purposes. Typically, proposals such as the ...

containing characters of the

Fraser alphabet The Fraser or Old Lisu script is an artificial abugida for the Lisu language invented around 1915 by Sara Ba Thaw, a Karen preacher from Myanmar, and improved by the missionary James O. Fraser. It is a single-case (unicameral) alphabet. It was ...

, which is used to write the

Lisu language Lisu ( Fraser alphabet: , or ; Latin: ; Lisu syllabary: ; zh, c=傈僳语, p=Lìsùyǔ; , ) is a tonal Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Yunnan (Southwestern China), Northern Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand and a small part of India. Along with ...

. This alphabet (and by extension the block) consists of glyphs resembling capital letters in the basic

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

in their standard form and turned. The addition of the block was subject to significant debate as to whether allocating a new block was necessary for the alphabet or if the turned letters not already in Unicode could instead be added to an existing block for the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

. However, since the Lisu letters only visually resemble their Latin counterparts and are semantically different, the former approach was ultimately taken. This block is supported by a few fonts including Noto Sans Lisu, Lisu Unicode,

DejaVu Sans The DejaVu fonts are a superfamily of fonts designed for broad coverage of the Unicode Universal Character Set. The fonts are derived from Bitstream Vera (sans-serif) and Bitstream Charter (serif), two fonts released by Bitstream under a free ...

, Horta, Montagel, Quivira,

Segoe UI Segoe ( ) is a typeface, or family of fonts, that is best known for its use by Microsoft. The company uses Segoe in its online and printed marketing materials, including recent logos for a number of products. Additionally, the Segoe UI font su ...

(since Windows 8), and

Highway Gothic The Standard Alphabets For Traffic Control Devices, (also known as the FHWA Series fonts and unofficially as Highway Gothic), is a sans-serif typeface developed by the United States Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The font is used for road ...

(Wide, version 2.0.3). In Unicode 13.0, a new block was also assigned for a single supplementary Lisu character used for the

Naxi language Naxi (), also known as ''Nakhi'', ''Nasi'', ''Lomi'', ''Moso'', or ''Mo-su'', is a Sino-Tibetan language or group of languages spoken by approximately 310,000 Nakhi people, most of whom live in or around Yulong Naxi Autonomous County in the pr ...

Lisu Supplement Lisu Supplement is a Unicode block containing supplementary characters of the Fraser alphabet, which is used to write the Lisu language. This is a supplement to the main Lisu block, with currently only a single character used for the Naxi langu ...

History

The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Lisu block:

References

{{reflist Unicode blocks