Pau Cin Hau script

Pau Cin Hau script
Script type	Alphabetic, Ideographic
Time period	1902 — 1950s
Direction	Left-to-right
Languages	Tedim
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Pauc (263), ​Pau Cin Hau
Unicode
Unicode alias	Pau Cin Hau
Unicode range	U+11AC0–U+11AFF Final Accepted Script Proposal

The Pau Cin Hau scripts, known as Pau Cin Hau lai ('Pau Cin Hau script'), or Zo tual lai ('Zo indigenous script') in Zomi, are two scripts, a logographic script and an alphabetic script created by Pau Cin Hau, a Zomi religious leader from Chin State, Burma. The logographic script consists of 1,050 characters, which is a traditionally significant number based on the number of characters appearing in a religious text.^[1][2] The alphabetic script is a simplified script of 57 characters, which is divided into 21 consonants, 7 vowels, 9 final consonants, and 20 tone, length, and glottal marks. The original script was produced in 1902, but it is thought to have undergone at least two revisions, of which the first revision produced the logographic script.^[3]

The logographic script has not been encoded, but the alphabetic script has been encoded in Unicode 7.0.

The characters in the script seem to resemble characters in the Latin script and in the Burmese script in a way similar to the relationship between Pahawh Hmong and both Lao script and Latin script. They are glyphically similar but encode different phonological values.

The script was designed for the Zomi language but is able to transcribe other Zo languages, as there are additional letters and tone marks to represent sounds present in other Chin languages but not present in Zomi. The script also had limited use for Christian literature in the region, as is evidenced by some Baptist documents produced in 1931-32 in Burma.

The script is not only a vehicle for Pau Cin Hau's monotheism. The letters are also used as icons for the religion along portraits of its creator.^[4]