Dongba script

All you want to know about Dongba script

Dongba
Type pictographic
Spoken languages Naxi language
Time period 1000 C.E. to the present
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
This article is currently or was the subject of an 2008 fall semester educational assignment. Further details are available here.

The Dongba, Tomba or Tompa script is a pictographic writing system used by the ²dto¹mba (Bon priests) of the Naxi people. In the Naxi language it is called ²ss ³dgyu 'wood records' or ²lv ³dgyu 'stone records'[1]. Together with the syllabic geba and the Latin alphabet, it is one of the three types of Naxi scripts. Dongba script is about a thousand years old. Although the glyphs look like crude pictographs that only represent simple materialistic objects, they are actually ideograms capable of representing abstract ideas. [2] Dongba writings are sometimes used as a rebus. It is a mnemonic system, and cannot by itself represent the Naxi language; different authors may use the same glyphs with different meanings, and it is often supplemented with the syllabic geba script for clarification.

Facing pages of a Naxi manuscript, displaying both pictographic dongba and smaller syllabic geba.

Contents

Origin and development

The Dongba script is an independently developed ancient writing system. According to Dongba religious fables, the Dongba script was created by the founder of the Bön religious tradition of Tibet, Tönpa Shenrab (Tibetan: ston pa gshen rab) or Shenrab Miwo (Tibetan: gshen rab mi bo)[3]. Unfortunately, there is currently no accurate record of the exact date of Dongba script origin and many suspected that the fables provided only fictional explanation to the foundation of this script. From Chinese historical documents, however, it is certain that Naxi script was used as early as the 7th century during the early Tang Dynasty. By the Song Dynastry in 10th century, Dongba script was widely used by the Naxi people.[4]

After the 1949 Communist Revolution in China, the use of dongba was discouraged. During the Cultural Revolution, thousands of manuscripts were destroyed. Paper and cloth writings were boiled into construction paste for building houses. About half of the dongba manuscripts that survive today had been taken from China to the United States, Germany and Spain.

In 1957, the Chinese government implemented a Latin-based phonographic writing system for Naxi. [5]This new alphabet composes of 36 consonants, 21 vowels, and 4 tones.[6] Today, the dongba script is almost extinct, and the Chinese government is trying to revive it in an attempt to preserve Naxi culture.

1. Consonant
b p bb nb m f
d t dd nd n L
g k gg mg ng h
j q jj nj ni x
z c zz nz s sz
zh ch zr mr sh r
2. Vowels
i ü ei ai a o u v e er ee
iei iai ia ie
uei uai ua ue
üei üai
3. Tones
high dà mà
mid da ma
low bā mā
rising bá má

Usage

In ancient times, the script was used solely as an aid to the interpretation of ritual texts during ceremonies[7]. For inventories, contracts, and letters, the Geba script was used more often than Dongba script.

Today, Dongba script was not in common use anymore. The Ethnologue project claims that dongba is "not practical for everyday use, but is a system of prompt-illustrations for reciting classic texts".[8]. A scholar concludes it is "unlikely that it [the Dongba script] would make the minor developmental leap to becoming a full-blown writing system. It arose a number of centuries ago to serve a particular ritual purpose. As its purpose need not expand to the realm of daily use among non-religious specialists — after all, literate Naxi today, as in the past, write in Mandarin Chinese — at most it will but continue to fulfill the needs of demon exorcism, amusing tourists and the like."[9]

Structure and form

Dongba is pictographic and ideagraphic. There are about a thousand pictographs, but this number is fluid as new glyphs are coined. Priests drew detailed pictures to record informations. Illustrations were simplified and conventionalized, and represent not only materialistic objects but also abstract ideas. Glyphs are often compounded to convey the idea of a particular word. Generally, as a mnemonic, only keywords are written; a single pictograph can be used to recite different phrases or an entire sentence. Dongba is written from left to right and top to bottom. [10]

Examples of dongba rebus include using a picture of two eyes (myə3) to represent fate (myə3), a rice bowl for both xa2 'food' and xa2 'sleep', and a picture of a goral (se3) stands in for an aspectual particle.

Writing media and tools

The Naxi name of the script, 'wood and stone records', testifies that dongba was once carved on stone and wood. Nowadays it is written on handmade paper, typically from the trees Daphne tangutica and D. retusa.[11] The sheets are typically 28 by 14 cm, and are sewn together at the left edge, forming a book. The pages are ruled into four horizontal lines. [12]Pictographs are written from left to right. Vertical lines are used to divide sentences, and each row should have four vertical lines. Writing utensils include bamboo pens and black ink made from ash.

References

  1. ^ He, 292
  2. ^ He, 2008, p.146
  3. ^ He, 144
  4. ^ He, 144
  5. ^ He, 313
  6. ^ He, 142
  7. ^ Yang, 118
  8. ^ Naxi at the Ethnologue
  9. ^ Seaver Johnson Milnor, "A Comparison Between the Development of the Chinese Writing System and Dongba Pictographs"
  10. ^ He, 292
  11. ^ Yang, p.138
  12. ^ Yang, p.140

Yang, Zhengwen (2008). Zhengwen Naxi Study Collection. Beijing: Culture Publisher. ISBN 978-7-105-08499-9. 

Fang, Guoyu (2008). Guoyu Naxi Study Collection. Beijing: Culture Publisher. ISBN 978-7-105-08271-1. 

He, Zhiwu (2008). Zhiwu Naxi Study Collection. Beijing: Culture Publisher. ISBN 978-7-105-09099-0. 

Crampton, Thomas (Feb. 12), "Hieroglyphic Script Fights for Life", International Herald Tribune, http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=10381 


External links

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tomba Script Character
This article is currently or was the subject of an 2008 fall semester educational assignment. Further details are available here.

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