Understanding Chejap (ꯆꯦꯖꯞ)
When a base consonant in Meitei Mayek needs to take a vowel sound other than the inherent /ə/, a vowel diacritic called Chejap (ꯆꯦꯖꯞ) is attached to it.
Chejap signs can appear to the right, above, or below the primary consonant glyph.
The Complete Chejap Inventory
Here are the primary Chejap vowel signs, demonstrated on the base consonant ꯀ (Kok):
| Chejap Sign | Name | Position | Combined Glyph | Romanization | Phonetic IPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ꯣ | Onap | Right | ꯀꯣ | Ko | /ko/ |
| ꯤ | Inap | Above | ꯀꯤ | Ki | /ki/ |
| ꯥ | Aatap | Right | ꯀꯥ | Kaa | /kaː/ |
| ꯦ | Yetap | Above | ꯀꯦ | Ke | /ke/ |
| ꯧ | Otap | Right | ꯀꯧ | Kou | /kəu/ |
| ꯨ | Unap | Below | ꯀꯨ | Ku | /ku/ |
| ꯩ | Cheinap | Above-Right | ꯀꯩ | Kei | /kəi/ |
| ꯪ | Nung | Above | ꯀꯪ | Kang | /kaŋ/ (Anusvara) |
The Apun Iyek (꯭) - Conjunct Marker
When two consonants must be combined into a consonant cluster without any intervening vowel (such as Pr, Kr, or St), the Apun Iyek (꯭) is used as a conjunct ligature joiner:
Meitei Mayek Punctuation Marks
Traditional and modern Meitei Mayek uses distinct punctuation marks to demarcate clauses and sentence boundaries: