LANGUAGE IN INDIA

WRITTEN MANIPURI (MEITEIRON) - PHONEME TO GRAPHEME CORRESPONDENCE

Leihaorambam Sarbajit Singh, Ph.D.
Kabita Thaoroijam, Ph.D. Candidate
Pradip Kumar Das, Ph.D.

Abstract

Man is bound to speak, which is the main device to express ones feelings or concepts inside out. The hand written language records the spoken one and plays the vital role in information technology as well as electronic retrieval system. Linguistics, the study of language, was taken for granted to be the study of spoken language until recently. The written was just written down the spoken language. Besides, it should be easy and natural to learn the spoken language as it is the only language visible, language that is seen with the eyes and make with the hands, just as the spoken language is heard with the ears and spoken with the mouth. This paper focuses on the problems of Meiteiron written using Bengali script, the advantage of using Meitei script for written Meiteiron and some innovative approach to Meiteiron written using the indigenous script.

1. Introduction

Meiteiron (Manipuri) is the only scheduled Tibeto-Burman language of India, which has its own script known as Meitei/Meetei Mayek "Meitei script". At present, for all purposes, Meteiron is written using Bengali script. The Government of Manipur have replaced the Bengali script with Meitei script from Class I to III and also assured that Bengali script would be completely replaced in a phase-wise manner. The Bengali script used for written Meiteiron is not exactly the same as that of the Bengali alphabet, for instance, symbol for /w/ in Meiteiron is not available in Bengali alphabet. While it is found in Assamese, another symbol in Assamese (in phonetic script it is presented a up side down r) is different from that of Manipuri written using Bengali script. Therefore, the script used for written Meiteiron is a combination of Assamese and Bengali scripts.

Bengali script replaced Meetei/Meitei Mayek (indigenous Manipuri script) and subsequently became the official script of the Konung "the Royal Palace" (1709-1941).

It can be mentioned that the office effort of Konung to impose a concoction of Bengali, Devanagari and Gurumukhi script on the people was not welcomed by one and all. Another reason for replacement of Bengali script for written Meiteiron was due to - "... when the British conquered Manipur in 1891, the conquerors did not want to use Manipuri script because of the large number of Bengali clerks under British employment who did not know Meitei Mayek. Moreover, printing press in Bengali script was already available. Another press with Meitei Mayek was impracticable at that time" (H. Bhuban Singh, 2003).

The origin of the indigenous Meitei script is still not clear. The Meitei letters have peculiar shapes and its exact affinities are not known. Mietei script has released and unreleased symbols, tone mark, and cluster mark which are essential for written Meiteiron.

The history of Manipur records that the Puyas "the historical documents" of Manipur were written in original script, which has been burnt during the reign of Pamheiba, the king of Kangleipak "Manipur" in the early 18th century. Kangjiya states that "Meetei Mayek experts and authorities say the script dates back as early as 3900 years ago" (Kangjiya, 1996).

Regarding the origin of Meitei script, Tomchou comments that "It is quite probable that ancient Meitei scholars devised their own system of writing at a time when the alphabetic system of writing reached the whole of civilization elsewhere." (W. Tomchou, 1991).

It can also be recalled that: "the accepted date for the earliest use of Meitei script is between the 11th and 12th centuries" (Ch. Manihar Singh, 1984:23).

According to different scholars the number of letters in the Meitei script is varied. G.A. Grierson has mentioned 35 letters in his well-known book "Linguistic Survey of India Vol. III Part III" and some scholars are of the opinion that it is 27 in number (L. Sarbajit Singh, 2002).

In 1980, the Government of Manipur has recognized the alphabet with 27 letters (Manipur Gazette, No. 33, 1980). It can be pointed out that 27-alphabet seems to be matching for modern Manipuri speech sounds. In the meantime, the Government of India has included the Meiteiron in the 8th Schedule of Indian Constitution as "Manipuri written in Bengali."

It can be observed that Meitei script for written Meiteiron is in the implementation stage. At the outset, this study tries to acquaint the reader with the Meiteiron sounds. Section 3 gives a brief note on the Bengali script and the problem encountered while using it for Meiteiron spelling. The Meetei/Meitei Mayek "Meitei script" is described in detail in section 4. The discussion and the innovative comments on written Meiteiron conclude this paper.

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