Updated 22 April, 2024
This page brings together basic information about the Mro script and its use for the Mru language. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Mru using Unicode.
Richard Ishida, Mru (Mro) Orthography Notes, 22-Apr-2024, https://r12a.github.io/scripts/mroo/mro
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฏ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฏ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฎ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฎ\n๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉฏ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฏ
Mru (or Mro) is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken primarily in Bangladesh with a few speakers in India. According to the Unicode script proposal, literacy levels for this script among the 100,000 Mro exceed 80%.p Education in the script is available up to grade 3.@Scriptsource,https://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=script_detail&key=Mroo
The script was invented by Menlay Murang (or Manley Mro) in the 1980s. Mro folklore says that an earlier script was sent with a cow by the god Turai, but the cow became hungry and ate the book it was carrying. Murang aimed to restore a writing system to the Mro people.
The Mro script is an alphabet. Both consonants and vowels are indicated by letters, and the script is mostly quite straightforward. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for the orthography used to write the Mro language.
Mru text runs from left to right in horizontal lines. Words are separated by spaces. The orthography is unicameral.
โฏ consonantSummary
Mru uses 25 consonant letters, but 6 of those are duplicates, representing the same sound as another letter. There are no combining marks or special forms for consonant clusters. Syllable medial and final consonants are represented using ordinary consonant letters.
โฏ basicV
The Mro orthography is an alphabet where vowel sounds are written using just 7 dedicated letters, and one digraph (which combines 2 of the 7).
Mru has no prebase glyphs. or circumgraphs. Multiple vowels may sometimes be used together. There are no letters or diacritics for tone, nasalisation, or vowel length.
Standalone vowel sounds are written using the normal vowel letters.
Punctuation is mostly that used for the Latin script, but Mro includes 2 native punctuation marks resembling dandas.
Mro has its own set of digits.
Line-breaking and justification are primarily based on inter-word spaces.
The following represents the general repertoire of the Mru language.
Click on the sounds to reveal locations in this document where they are mentioned.
Phones in a lighter colour are non-native or allophones. Source Wikipedia.
| labial | alveolar | post- alveolar |
palatal | velar | glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stop | p b | t d | k | ส | ||
| aspirated | pสฐ | tสฐ | kสฐ | |||
| affricate | tอกs | |||||
| fricative | s | ส | h | |||
| nasal | m | n | ล | |||
| approximant | w | l | j | |||
| trill/flap | r | |||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Mru is not a tonal language.
tbd
The following table summarises the main vowel to character assigments.
โ represents the inherent vowel. Diacritics are added to the vowels to indicate nasalisation (not shown here).
| All: | |
|---|---|
For additional details see vowel_mappings.
Here is the set of characters described in this section.
The standard vowel sounds for Mro are written using the following characters.
Mro doesn't indicate tones, nasalisation or long vowels.
No special mechanism is used to show the absence of a vowel.
Standalone vowel sounds are simply represented using ordinary vowel letters.
No special mechanisms or rules are employed to indicate consonants that are not followed by a vowel. The vowel letter is simply omitted.
This section maps Mru vowel sounds to common graphemes in the Mro orthography. Click on a grapheme to find other mentions on this page (links appear at the bottom of the page). Click on the character name to see examples and for detailed descriptions of the character(s) shown.
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
The following table summarises the main consonant to character assigments.
| Standard | |
|---|---|
| Syllables |
For additional details see consonant_mappings.
Several consonants can be written with more than one letter. Typically the first letter in the list above is used for most words, but a few words use the following letter instead. Click on the letters above for examples.
Some sound sequences can be abbreviated to a single letter (see abbrev).
Mru syllables can begin with a consonant cluster, but they are just written using the relevant letters.
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ
Syllable-final consonants are also just represented by ordinary letters.
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ
Mru has no conjunct forms for consonant clusters.
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ
Consonant gemination doesn't appear to be common in Mru.
This section maps Mru consonant sounds to common graphemes in the Latin orthography. Uppercase is not shown. Click on a grapheme to find other mentions on this page (links appear at the bottom of the page). Click on the character name to see examples and for detailed descriptions of the character(s) shown.
Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc.
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ
Mru has its own set of digits, with a decimal base.
Mru text is written horizontally, with lines that flow from top to bottom.
You can experiment with examples using the Mru character app.
There appears to be no contextual shaping of letters, and there are no combining characters in Mro.
Words are separated by spaces.
In Mru text, there are no combining marks, and each letter is a unit of text that corresponds to a grapheme cluster.
See type samples.
Basic phrase and section boundaries in Mru use ASCII punctuation.
| phrase |
, ๐ฉฎ ; : |
|---|---|
| sentence |
. ๐ฉฏ ? ! |
Observation: The sources are not very clear about the relationship between the 2 danda-like characters. It may be that one represents a comma like pause and the other a sentence-final punctuation. Occasionally, ASCII punctuation can also be found in the same text for each of those functions.
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฏ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฏ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ, ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฎ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฎ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉฏ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฏ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฏ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฏ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉฏ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฏ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ, ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ, ๐ฉ๐ฉL๐ฉ๐ฉ? ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฏ
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ: ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ: ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฎ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฎ
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ: ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ, ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ.
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ: ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ, L๐ฉ๐ฉ, ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉฏ
Mru commonly uses ASCII parentheses to insert parenthetical information into text.
| start | end | |
|---|---|---|
| standard | ( |
) |
Mru texts may use quotation marks around quotations. Of course, due to keyboard design, quotations may also be surrounded by ASCII double and single quote marks.
| start | end | |
|---|---|---|
| initial | โ |
โ |
| nested | โ |
โ |
Two consonant letters may be used to represent an abbreviated sound sequence.
Compare the following pairs.
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ
๐ฉ
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ
๐ฉ๐ฉ
๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ-๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ
๐ฉ-๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ
The principal line-break opportunities are inter-word spaces.
tbd
Mru uses the 'alphabetic' baseline.