曼尼普尔文字

Meitei (Meithei, Manipuri)

Research notes toward a Unicode encoding of Meitei

by Dr. Richard S. Cook

STEDT, SEI, Unicode

A recent proposal has come forward to encode Meitei Mayek Script in the UCS. The present notes provide some additional information on the language and script. The Manipuri language (曼尼普尔語 Mànnípǔěr Yǔ) is also known as Meitei (Meithei). The Meitei themselves seem to favor the spelling “Meitei” rather than “Meithei” (see e.g. Singh, scanned below). Pages from two Meitei books are reproduced below. The first is the Kelou Iyekki Madi Lairik ‘Meitei Mayek Primer’, a book teaching the elements of Meitei writing to children, published by the Government of Manipur, and promulgating the “approved script”. The second text is the Manipuri Grammar of Prof. Chungkham Yashawanta Singh [of the Dept. of Ling., Manipur Univ., Imphal; currently Visiting Scholar at STEDT]. The Introduction to his Manipuri Grammar includes information on the Meitei people and their writing system, and the Appendix tabulates the elements of the “Meitei Mayek Mapee (Manipuri Script)”, including letters for native and borrowed sounds, syllable-final consonant forms, “Vowel matra”, and numerals.

Images of some Meitei texts

• Kelou Iyekki Madi Lairik ‘Meitei Mayek Primer’ [Subtitle in English: “Approved script by the Government of Manipur”], by Kanglei Lol-lyek Tampham Sanglen (KLITS). Imphal, Manipur. [No publication data, but may be c. 2005?] (scans)
• Manipuri Grammar. Chungkham Yashawanta Singh [Dept. of Ling., Manipur Univ., Imphal]. New Dehli: Rajesh Publications, 2000. [ISBN: 81-85891-33-8]. Amazon. (scans)

For assistance in preparation of the present notes, thanks to Prof. Chungkham Yashawanta Singh, of the Department of Linguistics, Manipur Univ., Imphal.