Pittayawat Pittayaporn
Department of Linguistics, and the Southeast Asian Linguistics Research Unit
Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University
Although tradition suggests that the Ahom writing system dates back to before the 13th century (Phukan 2006, Terwiel 1992: 11-14), the origin of Ahom writing is still a mystery since the oldest surviving Ahom text, the Snake Pillar inscription, dates back only to the 15th century (Hosken and Morey 2012). This paper investigates how the Ahom writing system came into existence by examining how Proto-Shan (10th-11th centuries) and Old Shan phonemes (13th century) are represented in the Ahom orthography. In general agreement with Ferlus (1988), Pain (2017) and Daniels (2012), it can be argued that the Ahom writing system was modified from the Shan writing system that had been adapted from the Old Burmese writing system in the 13th or 14th century. Crucially, the Ahom script (Wichasin 1986; Gogoi et al., to appear) represents a language that is almost identical to Old Shan, reconstructed on the basis of comparative data from modern Shan varieties, as well as the 15th century Baiyi Yiyu [白衣譯語]. For example, Ahom had lost the contrast between Proto-Southwestern Tai (PSWT) voiced and voiceless sonorants, e.g., Ahom n- for both PSWT *ʰnaːA “thick” and *naːA “rice field”. Moreover, the Ahom writing system displays some orthographical peculiarities reminiscent of the post-12th century Burmese writing system. Firstly, the use of medial –wa– to represent Old Shan *ɔ points to an orthographical alternation in later Old Burmese, e.g., kwang “heap” for *kɔŋA1 “heap”. Some Old Burmese –o– in closed syllables started to be consistently spelled –wa– only at the end of the 12th century (Hills 2013; Nishi 1998). Secondly, the use of final -ny to represent Old Shan *-j also reflects a sub-phonemic alternation between /aɲ /and /aj/ in the Burmese of the 13th century (Pain 2017; Nishi 1998, Sawada 2013). As a conclusion, a historical scenario can be proposed in which the Ahom adopted the Old Shan writing system after they first arrived in Assam in the early 13th century.
(Presented in the 2020 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum : Thai-Tai Language and Culture, 20 July 2020, The St.Regis Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Department of Thai, Department of Linguistics, Southeast Asian Linguistics Research Unit, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University)