SIL International is very pleased to announce the availability
of three new font packages for scripts of Asia - SIL Dai Banna,
SIL Tai Dam and SIL Yi.
SIL International is an organization of linguists dedicated to
the study and promotion of the thousands of languages around
the world. As a service to the general academic community, we
are happy to make these packages available at no charge. You
may (and are encouraged to) share this package with your
friends and co-workers, as long as you abide by certain
distribution restrictions detailed on the web pages for each
package.
SIL DAI BANNA
The SIL Dai Banna Fonts are a new rendering of the New Tai Lue
(Xishuangbanna Dai) script. Two font families, differing only
in weight, allow for a wide range of uses. The fonts are
available for both Macintosh and Windows systems and include
keyboard definitions. As the New Tai Lue script is not yet part
of the Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 standards, these fonts use a
custom, 8-bit codepage.
The New Tai Lue script is used by approximately 700,000 people
who speak the Tai Lue language in Yunnan, China. It is a
simplification of the original Lanna script as used for the Tai
Lue language for hundreds of years.
For additional information or to download the SIL Dai Banna
Fonts package, go to
http://www.sil.org/computing/fonts/sildb/
We particularly thank the staff of the Research Center for the
Minority Languages of China for their assistance in developing
this font package. The Research Center for the Minority
Languages is part of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,
Institute for Nationalities Studies located in Beijing, China.
SIL TAI DAM
The SIL Tai Dam Fonts are regular and bold versions of the
traditional Tai Dam script and are closely based on handwritten
letters. The fonts are available for both Macintosh and Windows
systems and include keyboard definitions. As the Tai Dam script
is not yet part of the Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 standards,
these fonts use a custom, 8-bit codepage.
Over half a million Tai Dam people (also known as Black Tai or
Tai Noir) live in northwestern Vietnam and northern Laos. Their
language is a member of the Tai-Kadai language family and is
closely related to Laotian and Standard Thai. The Tai Dam have
a long tradition of literacy in the script rendered by the
TaiHeritage font family. In more recent years, other
orthographies, including romanizations, have come into use as
well.
For additional information or to download the SIL Tai Dam Fonts
package, go to
http://www.sil.org/computing/fonts/siltd/
Special thanks are due to Mr. Faah Baccam, whose drawings have
served as the basis for the development of these fonts. Any
defects in the final digital designs, however, remain our
responsibility. Suggestions for design improvements in any
future edition, especially from Tai Dam users of the fonts, are
welcome.
SIL YI
The SIL Yi Font is a single Unicode font for the standardized
Yi script used by a large ethnic group in southwestern China.
It can be used in certain Windows applications that support
Unicode.
The traditional Yi scripts have been in use for centuries, and
have a tremendous number of local variants. The script was
standardized in the 1970's by the Chinese government. In the
process of standardization, 820 symbols from the traditional
scripts of the Liangshan region were chosen to form a
syllabary. The syllable inventory of a speech variety from Xide
County, Sichuan was used as the phonological basis for
standardization. For the most part there is one symbol per
phonologically-distinct syllable and vice-versa. The direction
of writing and reading was standardized as left-to-right.
Punctuation symbols were borrowed from Chinese, and a diacritic
was incorporated into the system to mark one of the tones.
This font includes a complete set of Yi syllables and radicals
(as defined in The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0), a basic set
of Roman glyphs and various punctuation.
For additional information or to download the SIL Yi Font
package, go to
http://www.sil.org/computing/fonts/silyi/
-- SIL Non-Roman Script Initiative
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