By the 17th century three styles of Assamese alphabets could be identified (baminiya, kaitheli and garhgaya)[4] that converged to the standard script following typesetting required for printing.

Later, Sankardev used it in the 15th and 16th centuries to compose his oeuvre in Assamese and Brajavali dialect, the literary language of the bhakti poems (borgeets) and dramas.

The Ahom king Supangmung (1663–1670) was the first ruler who started issuing Assamese coins for his kingdom.

Some similar scripts with minor differences are used to write Maithili, Bengali, Meithei and Sylheti.

Rock and copper plate inscriptions from then onwards, and Xaansi bark manuscripts right up to the 18th–19th centuries show a steady development of the Assamese alphabet.

In the 18th and 19th century, the Assamese script could be divided into three varieties: Kaitheli (also called Lakhari in Kamrup region, used by non-Brahmins), Bamuniya (used by Brahmins, for Sanskrit) and Garhgaya (used by state officials of the Ahom kingdom)—among which the Kaitheli style was the most popular, with medieval books (like the Hastir-vidyrnava) and sattras using this style.

Some letters that have lost their distinctive pronunciation in Modern Assamese are called by a more elaborate name.

For example, since the consonant phoneme /n/ can be written ন, ণ, or ঞ (depending on the spelling of the particular word), these letters are not simply called no; instead, they are called ন dontyo no ("dental n"), ণ murdhoinnyo no ("retroflex n"), and ঞ inyo.

Similarly, the phoneme /x/ can be written as শ taloibbyo xo ("palatal x"), ষ murdhoinnyo xo ("retroflex x"), or স dontyo xo ("dental x"), the phoneme /s/ can be written using চ prothom sô ("first s") or ছ dwitio so ("second s"), and the phoneme /z/ can be written using জ borgio zo ("row z" = "the z included in the five rows of stop consonants") or য ontohstho zo ("z situated between" = "the z that comes between the five rows of stop consonants and the row of sibilants"), depending on the standard spelling of the particular word.

Some letters have lost their distinctive pronunciation in modern Assamese are called by a more elaborate name.

For example, since the consonant phoneme /n/ can be written ন, ণ, or ঞ (depending on the spelling of the particular word), these letters are not simply called no; instead, they are called ন dointo no ("dental n"), ণ murdhoinyo no ("cerebral n"), and ঞ nio.