Learn Yapiri Script — Interactive Kokborok Alphabet, Lessons & Exercises

Lesson 01 · Orientation

Start Here: How Yapiri Works

Yapiri is a phonemic script — a writing system built entirely around Kokborok sound. Two characters (v and z) are the exception: they aren't native Kokborok sounds, but are included specifically to spell loanwords. Before anything else, let's make sure the phonemic idea actually makes sense, then start learning the sounds themselves.

Focus 1

Characters represent sounds, not English letters.

Focus 2

Roman Kokborok helps you check pronunciation while learning.

Focus 3

The same symbols will reappear in the keyboard and translation exercises.

Characters

󱲺y

󱲠a

󱲧p

󱲢i

󱲷r

What "Phonemic" Actually Means

In a phonemic script, one character always represents one sound — no exceptions, ever. Once you know what a character sounds like, it sounds like that in every single word, forever. That's the whole rule.

English is a good example of a script that isn't phonemic, and it shows why this matters. The letter c sounds different in cat and city. The sound sh is spelled three different ways in shoe, sugar, and nation. You can't just look at an English word and know how to say it — you have to have already memorized it, exceptions and all.

Yapiri has none of that. Learn the sound of each of the 45 characters once, and you can sound out any word written in Yapiri — even one you've never seen before — because the character never lies to you about its sound.

Even loanwords get respelled to fit this rule. English science is written in Kokborok as it actually sounds — sains — and scientific becomes saintiphik. Every letter in each spelling maps to a real Yapiri sound, with nothing silent and nothing borrowed from English spelling habits.

󱲶󱲠󱲢󱲳󱲶sainsscience

󱲶󱲠󱲢󱲳󱲨󱲢󱲭󱲢󱲩saintiphikscientific

The Shape of the Script

Yapiri has 45 characters in total: 6 vowels, 21 native consonants, 2 loanword consonants, 10 numerals, and 6 punctuation marks and diacritics. It reads left to right, the same direction as Roman Kokborok. Throughout every lesson on this page, each worked example follows one format: the Yapiri glyphs, then the Roman Kokborok spelling, then the English meaning — in that order, every time.

Worked Examples

󱲺󱲠󱲧󱲢󱲷󱲢yapirithe script name

󱲢󱲴in'yes — affirmative particle

󱲠󱲢aidiphthong, as in "phai"

Quick Checks

What should you learn first in Yapiri?

How many characters does Yapiri have in total?

In a phonemic script, how many sounds can one character represent?

Which two Yapiri characters exist only to spell loanwords, not native Kokborok sounds?

How is the English word "science" spelled in Kokborok?

Lesson 02 · Core sounds

Vowels First

Learn the six vowel characters first: /a e ə i o u/. In Roman Kokborok spelling, the schwa-equivalent sound is commonly written with w, but Yapiri gives this sound its own dedicated schwa character. Treat it as a full Kokborok vowel, not a weak filler sound.

Focus 1

Read every vowel as a full sound.

Focus 2

Roman w can represent the schwa-equivalent sound, but Yapiri uses a dedicated schwa character.

Focus 3

Use the Yapiri schwa only in the middle of words — never at the beginning.

Characters

󱲠a

󱲡e

󱲥ə

󱲢i

󱲤o

󱲣u

Schwa Rule

When Kokborok is written in Roman script, the schwa-equivalent sound is often represented by w. In Yapiri, that sound does not borrow the Roman w; it has its own dedicated schwa character, shown here as ə in the lesson labels.

The Yapiri schwa character is used only in the middle of words. It never starts a word. If a word begins with the Roman letter w, that is the consonant/glide w, not the schwa vowel.

Worked Examples

󱲢󱲴in'yes — affirmative particle

󱲠󱲢aidiphthong, as in "phai"

󱲳󱲤󱲯󱲠nokhasky

Quick Checks

In Roman Kokborok spelling, which letter often represents the schwa-equivalent sound?

How is that schwa sound written in Yapiri?

Where can the Yapiri schwa character be used?

How many vowel characters are taught in this lesson?

Which worked example means sky?

Lesson 03 · Vowel glides

Diphthongs in Kokborok

Beyond the six single vowels, Kokborok also has vowel glides — two vowel sounds blending within a single syllable. Yapiri writes these as two vowel characters in sequence, keeping the one-sound-one-character principle intact.

Focus 1

A diphthong glides between two vowel qualities in one syllable.

Focus 2

Kokborok has three primary diphthongs: ai, oi, and ui.

Focus 3

Each is written as two separate vowel characters — one sound, one character, every time.

Characters

󱲠a

󱲤o

󱲣u

󱲢i

Diphthongs & Triphthongs

Kokborok’s vowel system has three layers: monophthongs (the 6 single vowels from Lesson 02), diphthongs (two vowel qualities gliding within one syllable), and a rare triphthong. The three primary diphthongs are ai, oi, and ui. Academic sources also note one attested triphthong, awi, occurring in certain word-final contexts — described as rare even within Kokborok phonology, so it is included here for completeness rather than as a core drill.

Worked Examples

󱲠󱲢aidiphthong: a + i

󱲤󱲢oidiphthong: o + i

󱲣󱲢uidiphthong: u + i

Quick Checks

How many primary diphthongs does Kokborok have?

How is a diphthong written in Yapiri?

Lesson 04 · Sound families

Consonants

Kokborok’s native consonants divide into four families: stops (plain and aspirated), nasals, fricatives/affricates, and liquids/glides. This lesson covers all four — open each group to work through its characters, examples, and checks.

Focus 1

Consonants group into stops, nasals, fricatives/affricates, and liquids/glides by how they’re made.

Focus 2

Plain and aspirated stops are separate phonemes — the h is not decoration.

Focus 3

Open each group below to work through its characters and checks.

Consonant Groups

The core consonant path is arranged into four categories below. The fricatives/affricates group also notes z and v as loanword extensions.

Stops: Plain & Aspirated9 characters

Focus 1

Plain and aspirated stops are different phonemes.

Focus 2

k, t, p are not the same as kh, th, ph.

Focus 3

Train the pairs side by side before reading longer words.

Characters

󱲩k

󱲯kh

󱲬g

󱲨t

󱲮th

󱲫d

󱲧p

󱲭ph

󱲪b

Worked Examples

󱲯󱲣󱲳󱲱󱲣khunjuaspirated stop practice

󱲠󱲲󱲠amamother

󱲪󱲣󱲲󱲣󱲵bumungname

Quick Checks

Which pair shows plain vs aspirated k?

Does aspiration change meaning in Kokborok?

Nasals4 characters

Focus 1

m, n, and ng are separate characters.

Focus 2

ng is common and should be read as one sound.

Focus 3

n‑prime is used in specific conventional forms such as in’ and in’he.

Characters

󱲲m

󱲳n

󱲴n'

󱲵ng

Worked Examples

󱲲󱲠󱲢mairice

󱲳󱲤󱲩nokhouse

󱲵ngvelar nasal character

Quick Checks

Which Roman value is written as one velar nasal character?

Which sound is reserved for in’ and in’he?

Fricatives & Affricates6 characters

Focus 1

ch and j are affricates.

Focus 2

s and h are common in everyday Kokborok.

Focus 3

z and v are useful for contact-language words.

Characters

󱲶s

󱲹h

󱲰ch

󱲱j

󱲽z

󱲼v

Worked Examples

󱲲󱲣󱲢󱲩󱲥󱲮󱲥󱲵muikwthwngvegetable

󱲶󱲠󱲢󱲲󱲠󱲳󱲤saimanoto know

󱲮󱲠󱲵󱲯󱲠thangkhawent

Quick Checks

Which sounds are mostly loanword consonants?

Which Roman form means “to know” in the worked examples?

Liquids & Glides4 characters

Focus 1

r and l are liquid consonants.

Focus 2

y and w are glides: consonant-like sounds close to vowels.

Focus 3

Read each as a separate Yapiri character, not as part of a vowel spelling.

Characters

󱲷r

󱲸l

󱲺y

󱲻w

Worked Examples

󱲷󱲢󱲶󱲠risacloth

󱲸󱲠󱲲󱲶󱲤󱲩󱲬󱲤lamsokgoto welcome

󱲺󱲠󱲧󱲢󱲷󱲢yapiriscript name

󱲻wglide consonant

Quick Checks

Which two characters are liquids?

Which two characters are glides?

Worked Examples

󱲯󱲣󱲳󱲱󱲣khunjuaspirated stop example

󱲵ngvelar nasal character

󱲶󱲠󱲢󱲲󱲠󱲳󱲤saimanoto know

Quick Checks

How many native consonant characters does Kokborok use?

Which four categories organize the consonants in this lesson?

Lesson 05 · Two letters, one sound

Digraphs

Some Yapiri sounds are spelled with two Roman letters but written with a single character. ph, th, kh, ch, and ng are all digraphs — each one phoneme, one glyph.

Focus 1

A digraph is two Roman letters spelling one Yapiri sound.

Focus 2

ph, th, kh, ch, and ng are each a single character, not two.

Focus 3

Never split a digraph when typing or reading — it represents exactly one phoneme.

Characters

󱲭ph

󱲮th

󱲯kh

󱲰ch

󱲵ng

Why Digraphs Exist

Roman Kokborok sometimes needs two letters to spell a sound that Yapiri writes with a single character. ph, th, and kh mark aspiration; ch marks the palatal affricate; ng marks the velar nasal. Even though each is typed as two Roman letters, each maps to exactly one Yapiri glyph — the one-sound-one-character principle holds even when the Roman spelling looks like two sounds.

Worked Examples

󱲯󱲣󱲲khumflower (kh)

󱲮󱲠󱲢󱲰󱲣󱲩thaichukmango (th)

󱲭󱲠󱲳󱲨󱲤󱲩phantokbrinjal (ph)

󱲰󱲤󱲯󱲷󱲡󱲵chokhrengrainbow (ch)

󱲳󱲥󱲵Nwngyou (ng)

Quick Checks

How many Yapiri characters does the digraph "kh" represent?

Which of these is a digraph covered in this lesson?

Which worked example means flower?

Which digraph begins thaichuk, meaning mango?

Which worked example means brinjal?

Which worked example contains ch and means rainbow?

Which worked example means you and ends with ng?

Lesson 06 · Contrast drills

Pairs Recognition

Some characters are easy to confuse at a glance but represent different, meaning-changing sounds. This lesson drills the pairs that trip learners up most: aspirated vs plain stops, and n vs n-prime.

Focus 1

Some Yapiri characters look or sound close to each other.

Focus 2

Train your eye and ear to tell contrastive pairs apart.

Focus 3

n vs n' is a written distinction reserved for specific conventional words.

Characters

󱲩k

󱲯kh

󱲨t

󱲮th

󱲳n

󱲴n'

󱲳n

󱲵ng

Pairs to Watch

These pairs are the ones learners most often confuse early on. Each pair is contrastive — mixing them up changes the word.

󱲩vs󱲯

Unaspirated k vs aspirated kh

Worked Examples

󱲩󱲠kaplain k

󱲯󱲠khaaspirated kh

󱲢󱲴in'yes — uses n-prime

Quick Checks

When is n' (n-prime) used, compared to plain n?

Why does pairs practice matter in Yapiri?

Lesson 07 · Combining

Build Your Syllables

Now combine what you’ve learned: one consonant plus one vowel makes a syllable. Short syllables such as ka, na, and nga make the script feel readable quickly.

Focus 1

Read from left to right.

Focus 2

Say the consonant, then the vowel.

Focus 3

Build tiny syllables before full words.

Characters

󱲩k

󱲳n

󱲲m

󱲵ng

󱲠a

󱲢i

󱲤o

Worked Examples

󱲩󱲠kak + a

󱲳󱲠nan + a

󱲵󱲠ngavelar nasal syllable: ng + a

Quick Checks

Which syllable is made by k + a?

Which Roman value uses the velar nasal character?

Lesson 08 · Meaning detail

Tone Mark

The high tone mark is a combining sign. It attaches above a base character and should be learned separately from ordinary punctuation.

Focus 1

Tone is written with a combining mark.

Focus 2

The mark belongs above a base character.

Focus 3

Tone can distinguish meaning, so it is part of reading, not decoration.

Characters

󱳑◌́

󱲠a

󱲢i

󱲤o

󱲣u

Worked Examples

󱲠󱳑áa with high tone mark

󱲢󱳑íi with high tone mark

󱲤󱳑óo with high tone mark

Quick Checks

What does the tone mark attach to?

Should tone be treated as meaningful?

Lesson 09 · Numbers

Numerals

Yapiri has its own numeral shapes from 0 to 9, and each digit also has its own Kokborok name. Learn both the written form and the spoken word.

Focus 1

Numerals are visually matched to the script.

Focus 2

0-9 have dedicated Yapiri forms.

Focus 3

Learn the spoken Kokborok names for every number from 0 to 100.

Characters

󱳀0

󱳁1

󱳂2

󱳃3

󱳄4

󱳅5

󱳆6

󱳇7

󱳈8

󱳉9

Kokborok Numeral Names

The table gives the Yapiri form and spoken Kokborok name for every number from 0 to 100.

The pattern: 11-19 begin with chi (ten), while 20-99 use the multiplier before chi, followed by the unit. For example, tham + chi + dok becomes thamchidok (36).

Number	Yapiri	Kokborok Name

Spellings follow the counting pattern in the supplied workbook and the TTAADC Learn Kokborok Language guide, Lesson XXIV.

Worked Examples

󱳁󱳀10chi

󱳂󱳁21nwichisa

󱳃󱳆36thamchidok

󱳉󱳉99chukuchichuku

󱳁󱳀󱳀100sara

Quick Checks

How many Yapiri numeral characters are taught here?

What is the Kokborok name for the digit 1?

What is the Kokborok name for the digit 0?

Which digit is called nwi?

Which digit is called brwi?

What is the Kokborok name for the digit 6?

Which sequence correctly names 7-8-9?

Lesson 10 · Useful words

Everyday Kokborok Pronouns and Core Words

Everyday Kokborok pronouns and 51 core words — pronouns first, then greetings, food, actions, movement, and descriptors. Use these as your daily anchors while everything from Lessons 01–9 falls into place.

Focus 1

Start with pronouns, then move through greetings, food, actions, movement, and descriptors.

Focus 2

Read the Yapiri form, check the Roman spelling, then use it in a sentence.

Focus 3

The sentence column shows each word in real Kokborok context.

Pronouns & Core Word List

85 Kokborok pronouns plus 51 everyday core words across five groups. Pronouns open first so the lesson begins serially.

Pronouns85 entries

#	English	Kokborok
1	All	Jotono
2	Another	Tei kaisa
3	Any	Jesa
4	Anybody	Jeba Khoroksa
5	Anyone	Jeba Khoroksa
6	Anything	Jesa Phano
7	As	Hai
8	Both	Mungnwino/Khoroknwino
9	Each	Kaisa kaisa/Mungsa Mungsa/Khoroksa Khoroksa
10	Each other	Khoroksa tei Khoroksa
11	Either	Jeba Khoroksa
12	Everybody	Jotono
13	Everyone	Jotono
14	Everything	Jotono
15	Few	Kichasa
16	He	Bo
17	Her	Bo
18	Hers	Bini
19	Herself	Bo Saksak
20	Him	Bono
21	Himself	Bo Saksak
22	His	Bini
23	I	Ang
24	It	Ibo
25	Its	Iboni
26	Itself	Ibo saksak
27	Many	Gila/kwbangma
28	Me	Ang/Ano
29	Mine	Ani
30	Most	Jotonisai
31	My	Ani
32	Myself	Ang saksak
34	No one	Keboya
35	Nobody	Keboya
37	Nothing	Mungsaya
38	One	Kaisa
39	One another	Khoroksa tei khoroksa
40	Other	kubuni/bui
41	Others	kubunirok/buirok
42	Our	chini
43	Ours	chinirok
44	Ourself	chwng saksak
45	Ourselves	chwng saksak
46	Several	mungsu
47	She	bo
48	Some	baksa
49	Somebody	sabobo
50	Someone	sabobo
51	Something	tamo mungsa
53	Such	ahai
54	Suchlike	amtwi hai
55	That	abo
56	Their	bohrokni
57	Theirs	bohrokni
58	Themself	Bohrokni saksak
59	Themselves	Bohrokni saksak
60	Them	bohrokno
61	Themself	bohrok saksak
62	Themselves	bohrok saksak
63	There	aro
64	These	morok
65	They	bohrok
66	This	omo
67	Those	aborok
68	Us	chwngno
69	We	chwng
70	What	tamo
72	Whatnot	tamo tamo
74	Where	boro
75	Whereby	biyango
76	Wherefrom	biyangni
77	Wherein	biyangtwi
78	Whereinto	biyang
79	Whereof	biyango
81	Whereto	Boro
86	Which	bobo, bomo
87	Whichever	jesa bo
89	Who	sabo
91	Whom	sabono
95	Whose	saboni
98	You	nwng
99	Your	nini
100	Yours	nini
101	Yourself	nwng saksak
102	Yourselves	norok saksak

Greetings & Daily Phrases6 words

Kokborok	English
Khulumkha	Hello
Hambai	Thanks
Phung Kaham	Good morning
Dibor Kaham	Good afternoon
Sairik Kaham	Good evening
Hor Kaham	Good night

Food & Everyday Words11 words

Kokborok	English
Mai	Rice
Mairung	Rice grains
Chahdi	Eat
Nungdi	Drink
Khibdi	Throw/Leave
Tisadi	Lift
Tubdi	Bring
Romdi	Hold
Yachakdi	Catch
Kandi	Wear
Richum	Clothes/Wearables

Actions & Movement22 words

Kokborok	English
Risa	Traditional attire
Rignai	Traditional attire
Ri	Cloth
Ridi	Give
Hordi	Send/Pass
Nahardi	Look
Himdi	Walk
Rwchabdi	Sing
Mwsadi	Dance
Mwnwidi	Smile
Kapdi	Cry
Wansukdi	Think
Karidi	Take out
Kaidi	To plant
Tungphlakha	feeling hot
Mai ok khwikha	feeling hungry
Twi Kangkha	feeling thirsty
Bisi Kwtal	new year
Ta Jolidi	don’t be angry
Phaidi	come
Thangdi	go
Thudi	sleep

States & Descriptors12 words

Kokborok	English
Khorang	sound
Mwchang	suit
Kwsrang	energetic
Sal Kwchang	cool weather
Lachio	shy
Kaham	good
Hamya	bad
Chaya	wrong
Chahya	won’t eat
Bwskang	forward
Ukolok	back/behind
Hainohai	again

Sentence Examples 51 sentences

Word

Quick Checks

Which plate should open first in this lesson?

How many pronoun entries are included in the pronouns plate?

Which Kokborok word means Thanks?

What does Khulumkha mean?

Which Kokborok word means rice?

What does Kaham mean?

Which Kokborok word means go?

Which Kokborok word means sleep?

Learn the
Kokborok Script

Alphabet Reference

Guided Learning Path

Start Here: How Yapiri Works

Vowels First

Diphthongs in Kokborok

Consonants

Digraphs

Pairs Recognition

Build Your Syllables

Tone Mark

Numerals

Everyday Kokborok Pronouns and Core Words

Practice Hub

Recognition Drill

Recall Drill

Word Builder

Yapiri Numeral Drill

Kokborok Numeral Names

Write Your Name in Yapiri

Translation Exercises

Quick Reference

Learn theKokborok Script

Alphabet Reference

Guided Learning Path

Start Here: How Yapiri Works

Vowels First

Diphthongs in Kokborok

Consonants

Digraphs

Pairs Recognition

Build Your Syllables

Tone Mark

Numerals

Everyday Kokborok Pronouns and Core Words

Practice Hub

Recognition Drill

Recall Drill

Word Builder

Yapiri Numeral Drill

Kokborok Numeral Names

Write Your Name in Yapiri

Translation Exercises

Your translation helps preserve Kokborok

Learn the
Kokborok Script