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 association appears in the book
Wakoklon Heelel Thilel Salai Amailon Pukok Puya, which details how each script originated received its nomenclature and which is widely considered to be the source of the Meitei script. Some letters have a second form (lonsom) that is used at the end of a word and are used to indicate stop consonants. ) in the symbol of
Sanamahism (
traditional Meitei religion) In the traditional Meitei religion of
Sanamahism Meitei letters and numerals are believed to be the creations of the supreme God.
Primary letters Additional consonants }
Independent vowels In Meitei Mayek, vowels are not listed separately before the consonants, unlike in most Brahmic scripts. Instead, they appear within the main sequence of the script, making it structurally different from scripts like Devanagari. Independent vowels are used only when a word starts with a vowel, just like in most Indic scripts. Otherwise, vowels appear as diacritics attached to consonants. Meitei Mayek has seven independent vowel letters, including , which is used as a default vowel carrier, similar to in Devanagari: Examples: • ꯑꯣꯏꯅꯥ (oina) – ‘like ( comparatively ) / left' • ꯑꯣꯖꯥ (oja) - 'teacher' Since Meitei Mayek preserves independent vowels, it functions similarly to Brahmic scripts in terms of structure, even though the vowel ordering differs from most Indic alphabets.
Vowel diacritics Syllables are written by adding vowel diacritics (cheitap eeyek) to consonants.
Numerals == Unicode ==