Meitei script (Meitei: ꯃꯩꯇꯩ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ, romanized: Meitei Mayek)
Meitei Mayek (Meitei for 'Meitei writing system') written in Meitei script; the ancient 18 letters used in the official Meitei Mayek writing system
Script type	Abugida
Time period	6th century AD[1] – upto 1700 AD, 1930 – present
Direction	left-to-right
Official script	for Meitei language in India
Region	India Manipur
Languages	Meitei language (officially known as "Manipuri language")
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs[a] Proto-Sinaitic script[a] Phoenician alphabet[a] Aramaic alphabet[a] Brahmi script Gupta script Tibetan[2][3][4] Meitei script
Sister systems	Lepcha, Khema, ʼPhags-pa, Marchen
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Mtei (337), ​Meitei Mayek (Meithei, Meetei)
Unicode
Unicode alias	Meetei Mayek
Unicode range	U+ABC0–U+ABFF Meetei Mayek U+AAE0–U+AAFF Meetei Mayek Extensions
[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon.

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This article contains the Meitei alphabet. Without proper rendering support, you may see errors in display.

The Meitei script (Meitei: ꯃꯩꯇꯩ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ, romanized: Meitei Mayek, lit. 'Meitei writing system'), also known as the Meetei script (Meitei: ꯃꯤꯇꯩ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ, romanized: Meetei Mayek, lit. 'Meetei writing system'),^[5] is an abugida used for the Meitei language, the official language of Manipur state and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is one of the official scripts of the Indian Republic. It is also popularly known as the Kanglei script (Meitei: ꯀꯪꯂꯩ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ/ꯀꯪꯂꯩ ꯏꯌꯦꯛ, romanized: Kanglei Mayek/Kanglei Iyek)^[6][7] and the Kok Sam Lai script (Meitei: ꯀꯣꯛ ꯁꯝ ꯂꯥꯏ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ, romanized: Kok Sam Lai Mayek).^[a][8][9] Its earliest known evidence of existence dates back to the 6th century AD coins, engraving the Meitei letters,^[10] as verified by the various publications of the National Sahitya Akademi.^[1] It was used until the 18th century, when it was replaced by the Bengali alphabet. A few manuscripts survive. In the 20th century, the script has experienced a resurgence, and is again being used.^[11] Starting from 2021, Meitei script (officially known as Meetei Mayek^[b]) was officially used by the Government of Manipur, along with the Bengali-Assamese script, to write the Meitei language, as per "The Manipur Official Language (Amendment) Act, 2021".^[12]

Since Meitei does not have voiced consonants, there are only fifteen consonant letters used for native words, plus three letters for pure vowels. Nine additional consonant letters inherited from the Indic languages are available for borrowings. There are seven vowel diacritics and a final consonant (/ŋ/) diacritic. The names of the twenty-seven letters are not only phonetic names, but also based on parts of the human body.^[13]

A Meitei language stone inscription in Meitei script about a royal decree of a Meitei king found in the sacred site of God Panam Ningthou in Andro, Imphal East, Manipur.

History

6th century - 7th century

The ancient Meitei script (old Manipuri script) is first evident in the coins issued during the eras of Meitei Kings, Ura Konthouba (568-653 AD) and Ayangba (821-910 AD). These coins are presently preserved in the Mutua Museum in Imphal.^[1]

The earliest stone inscription in Meitei script found from the Khoibu village in Manipur is widely believed to of the time of King Ura Konthouba, that is around 6th-7th century CE. But there is no authenticity of the fact as of now. This Meitei inscription is presently kept in the Manipur Government Museum, Imphal.^[1]

8th century

The earliest copper plate Meitei inscription dates back to the 8th century AD. It was inscribed during the reign of Meitei King Khongtekcha (c. 721 AD). It was discovered by scholar Yumjao from Phayeng village in the east of Imphal in the year 1935. It is one of the preserved earliest known written records for Meitei literature.^[14][15][16]

Yumjao, the discoverer of the 8th century copper plate inscription, opined that Meitei script was developed during the 8th century, but his fact was contradicted by the evidence of the Meitei script engravings on the coins of the 6th-7th century eras. This contradiction is well noted in the Volume 1 of the Encyclopedia of Indian Literature published by the Sahitya Akademi in the year 1987.^[1]

11th century

Contradictory to the various publications of the National Sahitya Akademi about the unanimous earliest attested dating of the Meitei script, many people gave personal opinions in their research works as Meitei script was developed in the 11th century, 18th century, 19th century, etc. The Meitei script is a Brahmic abugida. According to Singh (1962), an archaic form of the script had developed by the 11th century, and it was in use until the early 18th century, when it was replaced by the Bengali script.^[17] By contrast, Tomba (1993) claims that the script is a development of c. 1930, with all supposedly older documents being deliberate forgeries.^[18] According to K.S. Singh and Mahoharan (1993), as per the modifications of the phonemic distributions of Meitei language, the script belongs to the Tibetan group of scripts.^[2]

A stone inscription found^{[year needed]} at Khoibu in Tengnoupal district, of current Manipur state, contains royal edicts of king Senbi Kiyamba (d. 1508), representing the earliest portion of the Chietharol Kumbaba or Royal Chronicle of Manipur. It is one of the primary texts in the Meitei script.^{[19][better source needed]}

Meitei manuscript

20th century

In 1980, a modernized version of the writing system was approved by Manipur state law for use in educational institutions.^[20][21]

21st century

2009

The modernised version of the Meitei script was encoded in Unicode in the year 2009.

2023 planning in 2022

All the newspapers in Meitei language (Manipuri language) will be using the "Meitei script" (Meitei: Meetei Mayek) instead of the Bengali script from 15 January 2023; 4 months ago (2023-01-15), according to a joint meeting consensus of the "Meetei Erol Eyek Loinasillol Apunba Lup" (MEELAL), "All Manipur Working Journalists' Union" (AMWJU) and "Editors' Guild Manipur" (EGM) in Imphal.^{[22][23][24][25][26]}

Letters

The eighteen foremost letters of the ancient Meitei script (ancient Meetei script) of ancient Kangleipak (early Manipur)

The logograms of the Meitei script

One of the unique features of this script is the use of body parts in naming the letters.^[27] 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.^[28] This is corroborated from the holybook "Wakoklon Heelel Thilel Salai Amailon Pukok Puya", which details how each script originated received its nomenclature.^[29]

Primary letters

Image(s)	Letter(s)	Name(s)/Pronunciation(s)	Romanization	Representation(s)	Meaning(s)[c]	Latin equivalent letters/sounds	IPA[34]
	ꯀ	ꯀꯣꯛ	kok		head or brain	K	/k/
	ꯁ	ꯁꯝ	sam/sham		hair	S	/s/
	ꯂ	ꯂꯥꯏ	lai		forehead	L	/l/
	ꯃ	ꯃꯤꯠ	mit/meet		eye	M	/m/
	ꯄ	ꯄꯥ	pā/paa		eyelash	P	/p/
	ꯅ	ꯅꯥ	nā/naa		ear	N	/n/
	ꯆ	ꯆꯤꯜ	chil/cheel		lips	Ch	/t͡ʃ/
	ꯇ	ꯇꯤꯜ	til/teel		saliva	T	/t/
	ꯈ	ꯈꯧ	khou		throat, palate, neck	Kh	/kʰ/
	ꯉ	ꯉꯧ	ngou		pharynx, larynx	Ng	/ŋ/
	ꯊ	ꯊꯧ	thou		breast, chest, ribs	Th	/tʰ/
	ꯋ	ꯋꯥꯏ	wai		navel, heart	W	/w/
	ꯌ	ꯌꯥꯡ	yang		backbone, vertebral column, spine	Y	/j/
	ꯍ	ꯍꯨꯛ	huk/hook		joint, articulation	H	/h/
	ꯎ	ꯎꯟ	un/oon		skin, hair follicle	U	/u(ː)/
	ꯏ	ꯏ	ee/i		blood	I or E	/i(ː)/
	ꯐ	ꯐꯝ	pham/fam		"anus" or "buttocks" or "seat" or "uterus" or "womb"	F or Ph	/pʰ/
	ꯑ	ꯑꯇꯤꯡꯉꯥ / ꯑꯇꯤꯌꯥ	atinga/atiya		"sky" or "immortality" or "heaven" or "eternity" or "divinity" or "celestial being" or "birth"	A	/ɐ/

Evolved consonant letters

Lonsum letters

Vowel diacritics

Numerals

In Meitei religion

Meitei letter "Ama" (lit. One) in the symbol of Sanamahism (traditional Meitei religion)

Meitei letter "Ama" (lit. One)

In Sanamahism (traditional Meitei religion), the Meitei letters (including Meitei numerals) are believed to be the divine creations (or the divine manifestations) of the supreme deity in the universe.^[36][37]

Unicode

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

Blocks

The Unicode block for the Meitei script, called Meetei Mayek, is U+ABC0 – U+ABFF.

Characters for historical orthographies are part of the Meetei Mayek Extensions block at U+AAE0 – U+AAFF.

Software

A typical Meitei Mayek keyboard

Meitei Mayek keyboards and other input methods are available at or supported by:

1. Gboard
2. Apple iOS 13
3. Linux
4. Macintosh operating systems
5. Microsoft SwiftKey
6. Windows

Sample text

The following is a Meitei language sample text of the Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (by the United Nations) in Meitei script, its romanisation, its IPA and its English version:^[38]

ꯃꯤꯑꯣꯏꯕ ꯈꯨꯗꯤꯡꯃꯛ ꯄꯣꯛꯄ ꯃꯇꯝꯗ ꯅꯤꯡꯇꯝꯃꯤ, ꯑꯃꯗꯤ ꯏꯖꯖꯠ ꯑꯃꯁꯨꯡ ꯍꯛ ꯃꯥꯟꯅꯅ ꯂꯩꯖꯩ ꯫ ꯃꯈꯣꯏ ꯄꯨꯝꯅꯃꯛ ꯋꯥꯈꯜ ꯂꯧꯁꯤꯡ ꯁꯦꯡꯏ, ꯑꯐ ꯐꯠꯇ ꯈꯪꯏ, ꯑꯗꯨꯅ ꯑꯃꯅ ꯑꯃꯒ ꯂꯣꯏꯅꯕꯗ ꯃꯆꯤꯟ ꯃꯅꯥꯎꯒꯨꯝꯅ ꯂꯣꯏꯅꯒꯗꯕꯅꯤ ꯫

— Meitei-language translation in Meitei script

Mioiba khudingmak pokpa matamda ningtammi amadi ijjat amasung hak mānnana leijei, makhoi pumnamak wākhal loushing shengi, apha phatta khangi, aduna amana amaga loinabada machin manāogumna loinagadabani.

— The passage in Roman transliteration

míːójbə kʰud̯íŋmək pókpə mət̯ə̀md̯ə níːŋt̯ə̀mmi, əməd̯i iːdʒət əməʃùng hə́k màːnənə lɐ̀jdʒɐ̀j. məkʰój púmnəmək wakʰə̀l lə̀wʃiŋ ʃèŋi, əpʱə̀ pʱə́ːt̯ə kʰə́ŋi, əd̯unə əmənə əməgə lòjnəbəd̯ə mət͡ʃìn mənáwgùmnə lójnəgəd̯əbəni'.

— The passage in IPA

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

— The passage in English version