Meetei Mayek script (also Meithei Mayek, Meitei Mayek, Manipuri script) (Manipuri: Meetei Mayek) is an abugida that was used for the Meitei language (Manipuri), one of the official languages of the Indian state of Manipur, until the eighteenth century, and it was replaced by the Bengali script. A few manuscripts survive (right). In the twentieth century the script experienced a resurgence.
Meetei Mayek is a Brahmic script with an uncertain history. Since the Meitei language 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. Every letter is named after a body part of human being.
External links
References
- Chelliah, Shobhana L. (1997). A grammar of Meithei. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 0-19-564331-3.
- Chelliah, Shobhana L. (2002). Early Meithei manuscripts. In C. I. Beckwith (Ed.), Medieval Tibeto-Burman languages: PIATS 2000: Tibetan studies: Proceedings of the ninth seminar of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, Leiden 2000 (pp. 59-71). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.
- Chelliah, Shobhana L. (2002). A glossary of 39 basic words in archaic and modern Meithei. In C. I. Beckwith (Ed.), Medieval Tibeto-Burman languages: PIATS 2000: Tibetan studies: Proceedings of the ninth seminar of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, Leiden 2000 (pp. 189-190). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.
