Srak (Western Cham). The two are distinct enough to be encoded in separate blocks. A standard ALA-LC romanization of both varieties, which is based on EFEO romanization of Cham, is available. Usage The script is highly valued in Cham culture, but this does not mean that many people are learning it. There have been efforts to simplify the spelling and to promote learning the script, but these have met with limited success. Traditionally, boys learned the script around the age of twelve when they were old and strong enough to tend to the water buffalo. However, women and girls did not typically learn to read. The traditional Indic Cham script is still known and used by Vietnam's Eastern Cham but no longer by the Western Cham. Structure Similar to other abugidas, the consonants of Cham have the inherent vowel. Dependent vowel diacritics are used to modify the inherent vowel. Since Cham does not have virāma, special characters should be used for pure consonants. This practice is similar to the chillu consonants of the Malayalam script. Most consonant letters, such as , , or , includes an inherent vowel which does not need to be written. The nasal stops, , , , and (the latter two transliterated ny and ng in the Latin alphabet) are exceptions, and have an inherent vowel (transliterated â). A diacritic called kai, which does not occur with the other consonants, is added below a nasal consonant to write the vowel. Cham words contain vowel and consonant-vowel (V and CV) syllables, apart from the last, which may also be CVC. There are a few characters for final consonants in the Cham script; other consonants merely extend a longer tail on the right side to indicate the absence of a final vowel. Consonants Medial consonants Final consonants Cham does not employ a virama to suppress vowels. Final consonants are indicated in one of three ways: an explicit final consonant letter, a combining diacritic mark, or by . Independent vowels Six of the initial vowels are represented with unique letters: Dependent vowels Other initial vowels are represented by adding a diacritic to the letter (a). The same diacritics are used with consonants to change their inherent vowel: Numerals Cham has a distinctive set of digits: Other symbols Unicode Cham script was added to the Unicode Standard in April, 2008 with the release of version 5.1. The Unicode block for