Meitei script

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Meitei script (Meitei: ꯃꯩꯇꯩ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ, romanized: Meitei Mayek)
The original 18 letters used in the Meitei Mayek writing system
Script type	Abugida
Time period	6th-18th centuries AD,[1] revived 1930 – present
Direction	Left-to-right
Official script	for Meitei language in India
Region	India Manipur
Languages	Meitei (Manipuri) language
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic script Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Brahmi script Gupta script Meitei script
Sister systems	Tibetan,[2][3][4] Lepcha, Khema, ʼPhags-pa, Marchen
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Mtei (337), ​Meitei Mayek (Meithei, Meetei)
Unicode
Unicode alias	Meetei Mayek
Unicode range	Meetei Mayek (Unicode block)

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), also known as the Kanglei script (Meitei: ꯀꯪꯂꯩ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ, romanized: Kanglei mayek)^[5] or the Kok Sam Lai script (Meitei: ꯀꯣꯛ ꯁꯝ ꯂꯥꯏ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ, romanized: Kok Sam Lai mayek), after its first three letters^[6][7] is an abugida in the Brahmic scripts family used to write the Meitei language, the official language of Manipur, Assam and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is first known from engravings on 6th century CE coins and copper plate inscriptions.^[8] 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 was revived and is again being used.^[9] Beginning in 2021, the Government of Manipur began to use the Meitei alongside the Bengali-Assamese script, per the Manipur Official Language (Amendment) Act, 2021.^[10]

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 consonants letters inherited from Indic languages are available for writing loan words. There are seven vowel diacritics and a final consonant (/ŋ/) diacritic. The names of the twenty-seven letters are based on parts of the human body.^[11]