Modern Meitei/Script/Full sound carrying letters
In Meitei script (Meetei Mayek), the full sound carrying letters, formally known as "Mapi Mayek" (literally meaning "Mother letters" or "Master letters") play a very crucial role. All of these letters are consonants except 3 letters, which are ꯎ (U), ꯏ (E) and ꯑ (A).
Among the full sound carrying letters, there are two types:
- Principal full sound carrying letters
- Extended full sound carrying letters
Principal full sound carrying letters
[edit | edit source]There are 18 (eighteen) principal letters in Meitei writing system. 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. This is corroborated from the holy book "Wakoklol Heelel Theelel Salai Amailol Pukok Puya", which details how each script originated received its name.
| 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/ |
Extended full sound carrying letters
[edit | edit source]There are 9 (nine) extended letters in Meitei writing system.
| Letter | Name | Latin | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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/ |