Changes in Shape to the Myanmar Script

Historically, Burmese was inscribed on stone, a method which lent itself to angular letters, but changes over time led to the current alphabet consisting almost entirely of rounded letters. One theory is that when the script began to be primarily written on palm leaves, the shapes changed. Angular shapes written on palm leaves with a reed pen could easily split the leaves, whereas rounded shapes were less problematic.

This article formerly appeared on ScriptSource.