Santali Latin alphabet

Paul Olaf Bodding

The Santali Latin alphabet was invented in the 1890s by the Norwegian missionary Paul Olaf Bodding, and is still used by most Santals, in northern Jharkhand,, northern West Bengal, Assam, Bangladesh and Nepal and exclusively used by Santals who have studied in missionary schools. Since the Santals had no alphabet to call their own till 1925 when Pandit Raghunath Murmu invented Ol chiki script, using Brahmi and Odiya alphabets in 1925, they adopted the Latin script, using certain diacritical marks to denote sounds that differ from those these letters have in English. This was done under the influence of Christian missionaries who were the first to take an active interest in the study of the Santali language.

Letters

A

Ã

Ạ

Ạ̃

B

BH

C

CH

Ć

D

DH

Ḍ

ḌH

E

Ẽ

E̠

Ẽ̠

Ẹ

G

GH

H

I

Ĩ

J

JH

K

KH

Ḱ

L

M

N

Ṅ

Ń

Ṇ

NH

O

Õ

O̠

Õ̠

Ọ

P

PH

Ṕ

R

Ṛ

S

T

TH

Ṭ

ṬH

T́

U

V

W

Y

a

ã

ạ

ạ̃

b

bh

c

ch

ć

d

dh

ḍ

ḍh

e

ẽ

e̠

ẽ̠

ẹ

g

gh

h

i

ĩ

j

jh

k

kh

ḱ

l

m

n

ṅ

ń

ṇ

nh

o

õ

o̠

õ̠

ọ

p

ph

ṕ

r

ṛ

s

t

th

ṭ

ṭh

t́

u

v

w

y

Other script

The Santali language is now primarily written using the Ol Chiki script and it is being used in several schools, colleges, universities and government purposes in eastern states of India in Santal domianted regions.

References

• Troisi, J (2000). “Tribal Religion”, Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 27.