Some of the languages of Burma include ways to represent reduplication. This means that the syllable should be read/spoken twice.
In Burmese language, reduplication is indicated with a superscript 2 (Burmese numeral ၂) immediately following the syllable. (A Unicode proposal is probably worth compiling if enough examples can be found.)
Modern orthography prefers to use the reduplication sign A9E6 ꧦ after a syllable to show reduplication. Older texts repeat the vowel sign to indicate the syllable is doubled.
Any doubled vowel signs need to appear before any tonemarks. The following table shows all possible combinations of doubled vowel mark with tonemarks, on the Shan letter Ka (ၵ)
Note depending on your browser and system fonts, the doubled signs may sit directly on top of each other and render as a single mark, or otherwise display incorrectly. This is a font problem, not a Unicode problem! Once these combinations are confirmed, I will create an image to show how they should look.
| Vowel | Sign | [no tone mark] | ႇ | ႈ | း | ႉ | ႊ | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -aa | ႃႃ | ၵႃႃ | ၵႃႃႇ | ၵႃႃႈ | ၵႃႃး | ၵႃႃႉ | ၵႃႃႊ | Doubled long -aa presents no problems |
| -i | ိိ | ၵိိ | ၵိိႇ | ၵိိႈ | ၵိိး | ၵိိႉ | ၵိိႊ | Doubled -i should sit side by side, or with second vertically offset |
| -ii | ီီ | ၵီီ | ၵီီႇ | ၵီီႈ | ၵီီး | ၵီီႉ | ၵီီႊ | Doubled -ii should sit side by side, or with second vertically offset |
| -u | ုု | ၵုု | ၵုုႇ | ၵုုႈ | ၵုုး | ၵုုႉ | ၵုုႊ | Handling of doubled -u is uncertain, attestations needed |
| -uu | ူူ | ၵူူ | ၵူူႇ | ၵူူႈ | ၵူူး | ၵူူႉ | ၵူူႊ | Handling of doubled -uu is uncertain, attestations needed |
| -e | ေေ | ၵေေ | ၵေေႇ | ၵေေႈ | ၵေေး | ၵေေႉ | ၵေေႊ | Handling of doubled -e is uncertain, attestations needed |
| -ae | ႄႄ | ၵႄႄ | ၵႄႄႇ | ၵႄႄႈ | ၵႄႄး | ၵႄႄႉ | ၵႄႄႊ | Handling of doubled -ae is uncertain, attestations needed |
| -ai | ႆႆ | ၵႆႆ | ၵႆႆႇ | ၵႆႆႈ | ၵႆႆး | ၵႆႆႉ | ၵႆႆႊ | Doubled -ai should sit side by side, or with second vertically offset |
| -am | ံံ | ၵံံ | ၵံံႇ | ၵံံႈ | ၵံံး | ၵံံႉ | ၵံံႊ | Doubled anusvara should sit side by side, or with second vertically offset |
| [final consonant] | ်် | ၵ်် | ၵ််ႇ | ၵ််ႈ | ၵ််း | ၵ််ႉ | ၵ််ႊ | Doubled asat should sit side by side, or with second vertically offset |
I'm not yet certain how reduplication is indicated if there's more than one vowel component. If the syllable has ◌ေႃ် or ◌ၢႆ or ◌်ံ for example, which bits should be doubled?
To follow.