Language/Manipuri/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

Alphabet

Manipuri has been written with the Manipuri alphabet, or Meetei Mayek, with the Bengali alphabet, and with the Latin alphabet.

The Manipuri alphabet developed sometime during the 11th century and was used until the 18th century. It origins are uncertain as many historical documents were destroyed at the beginning of the 18th century during the reign of King Pamheiba.

Between 1709 and the middle of the 20th century, the Manipuri language was written with the Bengali alphabet. During the 1940s and 50s, Manipuri scholars began campaigning to bring back the old Manipuri alphabet. In 1976 at a writers conference all the scholars agreed on a new version of the alphabet containing a number of additional letters to represent sounds not present in the language when the script was first developed. The current Manipuri script is a reconstruction of the ancient Manipuri script.

Since the early 1980s a modernized version of the Manipuri alphabet as been taught in schools in Manipur, and education through Manipuri is available in schools and universities in Manipur.

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Letter names

One of the unique features of this script is the use of body parts in naming the letters. Every letter is named after a human body part in the Meitei language. For example, the first letter "kok" means "head"; the second letter "sam" means "hair"; the third letter "lai" means "forehead", and so on.

Letters

Letter	Name	Latin	IPA
ꯀ	kok	K	/k/
ꯁ	sam	S	/s/
ꯂ	lai	L	/l/
ꯃ	mit	M	/m/
ꯄ	pa	P	/p/
ꯅ	na	N	/n/
ꯆ	chil	Ch	/t͡ʃ/
ꯇ	til	T	/t/
ꯈ	khou	Kh	/kʰ/
ꯉ	ngou	Ng	/ŋ/
ꯊ	thou	Th	/tʰ/
ꯋ	wai	W	/w/
ꯌ	yang	Y	/j/
ꯍ	huk	H	/h/
ꯎ	un	U	/u(ː)/
ꯏ	ee	I or E	/i(ː)/
ꯐ	pham	F or Ph	/pʰ/
ꯑ	atiya	A	/ɐ/
ꯒ	gok	G	/g/
ꯓ	jham	Jh	/d͡ʒʱ/
ꯔ	rai	R	/ɾ/
ꯕ	ba	B	/b/
ꯖ	jil	J	/d͡ʒ/
ꯗ	dil	D	/d/
ꯘ	ghou	Gh	/gʱ/
ꯙ	dhou	Dh	/dʱ/
ꯚ	bham	Bh	/bʱ/

Syllable-coda (Lonsum) Letters

Lonsum letter	Name	Derived from Mapung Mayek letter
ꯛ	kok lonsum	ꯀ
ꯜ	lai lonsum	ꯂ
ꯝ	mit lonsum	ꯃ
ꯞ	pa lonsum	ꯄ
ꯟ	na lonsum	ꯅ
ꯠ	til lonsum	ꯇ
ꯡ	ngou lonsum	ꯉ
ꯢ	ee lonsum	ꯏ

Suffix letters or addendum used - Cheitap letters (Cheitap mayek)

Cheitap mayek	Name	Latin	Example
ꯥ	aa-tap	a	Karl (ꯀꯥꯔꯜ)
ꯤ	ee-nap	e or i	King (ꯀꯤꯡ), Feel (ꯐꯤꯜ)
ꯨ	uu-nap	u or oo	Cool (ꯀꯨꯜ), Fumigate (ꯐꯨꯃꯤꯒꯦꯠ)
ꯦ	yet-nap	ay or e	Bay (ꯕꯦ), Kentuk (ꯀꯦꯟꯇꯨꯛ)
ꯣ	ot-nap	o	Boy (ꯕꯣꯌ), Cold (ꯀꯣꯜꯗ)
ꯩ	chei-nap	ei	Heifer (ꯍꯩꯐꯔ), Feign (ꯐꯩꯟ)
ꯧ	sou-nap	ou or ow	Soul (ꯁꯧꯜ), Hou (ꯍꯧ), Bowl (ꯕꯧꯜ)
ꯪ	nung or noong	ang or ng	Anglo (ꯑꯪꯒꯂꯣ), Kangla (ꯀꯪꯂꯥ)

Numerals

Arabic numerals	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Meitei numerals	꯰	꯱	꯲	꯳	꯴	꯵	꯶	꯷	꯸	꯹
Names	ꯐꯨꯟ phun	ꯑꯃ ama	ꯑꯅꯤ ani	ꯑꯍꯨꯝ ahum	ꯃꯔꯤ mari	ꯃꯉꯥ mangā	ꯇꯔꯨꯛ taruk	ꯇꯔꯦꯠ taret	ꯅꯤꯄꯥꯜ nipāl	ꯃꯥꯄꯜ māpal

Unicode

The Meitei script was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 2009 with the release of version 5.2.

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
U+ABCx	ꯀ	ꯁ	ꯂ	ꯃ	ꯄ	ꯅ	ꯆ	ꯇ	ꯈ	ꯉ	ꯊ	ꯋ	ꯌ	ꯍ	ꯎ	ꯏ
U+ABDx	ꯐ	ꯑ	ꯒ	ꯓ	ꯔ	ꯕ	ꯖ	ꯗ	ꯘ	ꯙ	ꯚ	ꯛ	ꯜ	ꯝ	ꯞ	ꯟ
U+ABEx	ꯠ	ꯡ	ꯢ	ꯣ	ꯤ	ꯥ	ꯦ	ꯧ	ꯨ	ꯩ	ꯪ	꯫	꯬	꯭
U+ABFx	꯰	꯱	꯲	꯳	꯴	꯵	꯶	꯷	꯸	꯹

Source

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meitei_script
• https://omniglot.com/writing/manipuri.htm