is unknown when, where and how the Lik Tho Ngok script first emerged, and it has only been attested after the 18th century. Broadly speaking, only Lik Tho Ngok and Lik To Mon ('round' or 'circular' script), used in Shan State, are still in use today. Government-led reforms of the main Tai Nuea traditional scripts began in Dehong the 1950s. Between 1952 and 1988 the Dehong script went through four reforms, initially adding a consonant, vowel symbols and tone markers, then in 1956 changing many graphemes and tone markers. A third reform was proposed in 1964, again adding and changing graphemes and making further changes to tone markers, and a fourth reform took place in 1988. Characteristics In common with other Lik orthographies, Lik Tho Ngok is an alphasyllabary, but not fully an abugida, since occurrence of an inherent vowel is restricted to medial position, where it may take either /-a-/ or /-aa-/. In Mueng Sing today, the smaller glyphs are not used and two main styles of Lik Tho Ngok are recognised by local scribes: To Lem ( ‘edged letters,’) which have straighter edges and more pointed angles, and To Mon ( ‘rounded letters’) without sharp angles. There are 21 initial consonant graphemes in the Lik Tho Ngok script used in Mueang Sing, representing 15 phonemes in the spoken dialect plus two rarer phonemes (/d/ and /b/). Variants and usage The script used by the Tai Dehong and Tai Mao has consonant and vowel glyphs similar to the reformed Tai Le script, while the script used by the Tai Nuea differs somewhat from the other scripts. However, the scripts used by the Tai Nuea, Tai Dehong and Tai Mao are all considered Lik Tho Ngok. In Muang Sing, Laos, the Lik Tho Ngok script is used for secular purposes, while the Tham script is used for Buddhist manuscripts. In Yunnan, China, Lik Tho Ngok is still used in the Jinggu Dai and Yi Autonomous County, the Menglian Dai, Lahu and Va Autonomous County, and the Gengma Dai and Va Autonomous County. Lik Tho Ngok and the reformed Tai Le script are used in the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, as well as Lik To Mon and the reformed Shan script (in areas near the Myanmar border). Tai Nuea areas that use the reformed Tai Le script have seen a decline in the knowledge and use of the traditional