Learning a new script can feel overwhelming. But Yapiri was designed to be learned quickly — because it is a phonemic alphabet, meaning every symbol represents exactly one sound. There are no silent letters, no irregular pronunciations, no exceptions to memorise. If you know how a character sounds, you know how to read it. Always.
This guide is for anyone who speaks or is learning Kokborok and wants to start reading and writing it in Yapiri. You do not need any technical background — just curiosity and a little patience.
Before you start: install the Yapiri font on your device so the characters display correctly throughout this guide. Download it free from the Download page.
The Basics — What Kind of Script Is This?
Yapiri is a phonemic alphabet — the same type of writing system as the Roman alphabet you are reading right now. Each character represents one sound. Consonants and vowels are written as separate, equal letters. There is no hierarchy between them, and no inherent vowel attached to any consonant.
This makes Yapiri very different from scripts like Devanagari and Bengali — and also from Aima and Kokmari, the two existing indigenous scripts for Kokborok. All four are abugidas: consonants carry an implied vowel that must be cancelled with a special mark when absent. In Yapiri, there is no implied vowel and no cancellation mark. Every character represents exactly one sound, and every sound has its own character. The relationship between writing and speech is unambiguous in both directions. You read left to right, just as in English.
The Vowels — Start Here
Kokborok has six vowels. These are the best place to begin because they are few, simple, and appear in almost every word.
| Glyph | Sound | Like the sound in... |
|---|---|---|
| | a | apha |
| | e | ereng |
| | i | imang |
| | u | umai |
| | o | ongkhordi |
| | ə (schwa) | təi (written as 'twi' in Roman script) |
The schwa — ə — is the sixth vowel and the one most specific to Kokborok. It is a neutral, central vowel that appears frequently in the language. In Yapiri it has its own dedicated character, mapped to the key x on the keyboard.
The Consonants — Plain and Aspirated
Yapiri has 25 consonants. Many of them will feel immediately familiar if you speak Kokborok — but a few require special attention, particularly the aspirated consonants.
Aspiration means a puff of air is released along with the consonant sound — the difference between the /p/ in spin (no puff) and the /p/ in pin (with a puff). In Kokborok, this difference changes meaning. So Yapiri gives aspirated consonants their own dedicated characters, visually derived from their plain counterparts.
| Glyph | Sound | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| | p | plain stop |
| | ph | aspirated — p with a breath |
| | t | plain stop |
| | th | aspirated — not like English "th" |
| | k | plain stop |
| | kh | aspirated |
| | b | |
| | d | |
| | g | |
| | ch | like ch in chair |
| | chh | aspirated ch |
| | j | like j in jump |
| | m | |
| | n | |
| | n' | palatal nasal — like ñ in Spanish |
| | ng | like ng in sing |
| | s | |
| | r | |
| | l | |
| | v | |
| | f | |
| | z | |
| | y | like y in yes |
| | w | |
| | h |
A note on th: in Yapiri, th is not the English "th" sound. It is simply the aspirated version of /t/ — a /t/ with a breath behind it. The same logic applies to ph and kh.
Four consonants in the table sit outside the core native alphabet and deserve special mention. v and z are secondary characters — they cover sounds that do not exist in native Kokborok but appear in loanwords and scientific names. No native Kokborok word uses them. f is optional — in native Kokborok writing, the ph character already covers the /f/ sound, consistent with Bengali convention. Use f only if you want to explicitly distinguish it from ph when writing loanwords. chh is the aspirated form of ch, formally documented in phonological descriptions of Kokborok, but confirmed native examples in everyday use are rare. As a beginner you are very unlikely to need any of these four characters — the 21 native consonants cover virtually all everyday Kokborok vocabulary.
The Diacritics — Tone and Reduplication
Yapiri has two combining diacritics — marks that attach to a base character to modify its meaning.
The high tone mark is placed after a vowel to indicate high tone. On the keyboard, type the vowel first, then press [ to add the mark.
The reduplication mark indicates that a syllable or word is reduplicated — a grammatical feature of Kokborok. On the keyboard, type the base character first, then press ].
Rule: always type the diacritic after the base glyph it modifies, never before. The font handles the positioning automatically.
The Numerals
Yapiri has its own set of ten digits — a complete numeral system that replaces the Arabic digits 0–9 when writing in the script. On the keyboard, the number keys 0–9 type the Yapiri numerals directly.
Reading Your First Words
Now that you know the basic characters, let's try reading some Kokborok words in Yapiri. Remember the rule: every character sounds exactly as labelled, every time.
How to Start Writing
There are two ways to write in Yapiri right now.
The first is the web keyboard tool on this website — available at yapiriscript.com/try. No download needed. Open it in any browser, type using your physical keyboard, and copy the Yapiri text into any application you like.
The second is the Keyman keyboard package, which installs native Yapiri input directly on your device — available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. Download it from the Download page. Once installed, you can type Yapiri in any text field on your system — Word, notes, Libre.
Keep Going
This guide covers the foundations. For a complete reference — including the full glyph inventory with IPA values and codepoints — visit the Script Specification (spec). For a printable learning chart, check the Yapiri Chart.
And if you get stuck, have questions, or just want to share something you wrote in Yapiri — reach out through the Community page. This script was built for you, and every person who learns it carries it forward.
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