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Meitei
Manipuri
ꯃꯩꯇꯩꯂꯣꯟ • মৈতৈলোন • Meiteilon
Meitei Lon written in Meitei script
Native to	Manipur, Assam and Tripura
Region	Northeast India and Neighbouring areas of Bangladesh and Myanmar
Ethnicity	Meitei people
Total speakers	L1 & L2 combined: 3 million L1 only: 1.8 million (2003–2011)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Central Tibeto-Burman Meitei
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Proto-Tibeto-Burman
Dialects	Chakpa/Loi Meitei Pangal
Writing system	Meetei Mayek Bengali-Assamese script Latin alphabet (unofficial)
Official status
Official language in	India (scheduled official) Manipur (main official) Assam (additional official)
Recognised minority language in	Tripura, India Bangladesh Myanmar
Regulated by	Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation, Manipur
Development body	Ministry of Culture (India) Sahitya Akademi Central Institute of Indian Languages Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation Manipuri Sahitya Parishad
Language codes
ISO 639-2	mni
ISO 639-3	Either: mni – Manipuri omp – Old Manipuri
Glottolog	mani1292  Manipuri meit1246  Meitei (standard dialect) loii1241  Loi (Chakpa dialect) pang1284  Pangal (Muslim dialect)
Regions where Meitei is official and educational language   Regions where Meitei is recognised and educational language but not official   Regions where Meitei is not recognised and not official but educational   Regions where Meitei is recognised but not official and educational   Regions with significant Meitei speaking minorities
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Meitei (/ˈmeɪteɪ/; ꯃꯩꯇꯩꯂꯣꯟ, Eastern Nagari script: মৈতৈলোন্, (IPA), romanized: meiteilon) also known as Manipuri (ꯃꯅꯤꯄꯨꯔꯤ, Eastern Nagari script: মণিপুরী, (IPA)), is a Tibeto-Burman language of northeast India. It is the official language and the lingua franca of Manipur and an additional official language in four districts of Assam. It is one of the constitutionally scheduled official languages of the Indian Republic. Meitei is the most widely-spoken Tibeto-Burman language of India and the third most widely spoken language of northeast India after Assamese and Bengali. There are 1.76 million Meitei native speakers in India according to the 2011 census, 1.52 million of whom are found in the state of Manipur, where they represent the majority of its population. There are smaller communities in neighbouring Indian states, such as Assam (168,000), Tripura (24,000), Nagaland (9,500), and elsewhere in the country (37,500). The language is also spoken by smaller groups in neighbouring Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Meitei and Gujarati jointly hold the third place among the fastest growing languages of India, following Hindi and Kashmiri.

Meitei is not endangered: its status has been assessed as safe by Ethnologue (where it is assigned to EGIDS level 2 "provincial language"). However, it is considered vulnerable by UNESCO.

The Manipuri language is associated with the Ningthouja dynasty (Mangangs), the Khuman dynasty, the Moirangs, the Angoms, the Luwangs, the Chengleis (Sarang-Leishangthems), and the Khaba-Nganbas. Each had their respective distinct dialects and were politically independent from one another. Later, all of them fell under the dominion of the Ningthouja dynasty, changing their status of being independent "ethnicities" into those of "clans" of the collective Meitei community. The Ningthouja dialect was predominant, and received heavy influences from the speech forms of the other groups.

Meitei is one of the advanced literary languages recognised by Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.

Classification

Meitei belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, different linguists tried to assign Meitei to various sub-groups. Early classifier George Abraham Grierson (1903–1924) put it in Kuki-Chin, Vegelin and Voegelin (1965) in Kuki-Chin-Naga, and Benedict (1972) in Kuki-Naga. Robbins Burling has suggested that Meitei belongs to none those groups. Current academic consensus agrees with James Matisoff in placing Manipuri in its own subdivision of the Kamarupan group—a geographic rather than a genetic grouping. However, some still consider Meitei to be a member of the Kuki-Chin-Naga branch.

History

The Meitei language has existed for at least 2000 years. According to linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, the ancient Meitei literature dates back to 1500 to 2000 years before present.

First Millennium CE

The earliest known Meitei language compositions is the ritual song Ougri (ꯑꯧꯒ꯭ꯔꯤ), which was used in religious and coronation ceremonies of Kangleipak. It may have existed before the Common Era. Numit Kappa (Meitei: ꯅꯨꯃꯤꯠ ꯀꯥꯞꯄ, transl: The Shooting of the Sun), a religious epic that tells the tale of how the night was divided from the day, was also composed in the first century.

Poireiton Khunthok (Meitei: ꯄꯣꯢꯔꯩꯇꯣꯟ ꯈꯨꯟꯊꯣꯛ, transl: The Immigration of Poireiton) is a 3rd-century narrative work describing the establishment of a colony in Kangleipak by a group of immigrants led by Poireiton, the younger brother of the god of the underworld.

The Yumbanlol, a copper plate manuscript was composed in the 6th century or 7th century CE for the royal family of Kangleipak. It is a rare work of dharmashastra, covering sexuality, the relationships between husbands and wives, and instructions on how to run a household.

The Khencho (ꯈꯦꯟꯆꯣ), an early Meitei work of poetry was composed by the beginning of the 7th century CE. Although it is obscure and unintelligible to present-day Meiteis, it is still recited as part of the Lai Haraoba festival.

One of the best-preserved early Meitei language epigraphic records is a copper plate inscription dating to the reign of King Khongtekcha (r. c. 763 – 773 CE). During the same time period, Akoijam Tombi composed the Panthoibi Khonggul (ꯄꯥꯟꯊꯣꯏꯄꯤ ꯈꯣꯡꯀꯨꯜ), an account of the romantic adventures of the deified Meitei princess Panthoibi.

Second Millennium CE

In 1100 CE, a written constitution, (Meitei: ꯂꯣꯏꯌꯨꯝꯄ ꯁꯤꯜꯌꯦꯜ, romanized: Loyumba Shinyen), was finalised by King Loiyumba (r. c. 1074 – 1112 CE) of Kangleipak. It was a codification of the proto-constitution drafted by King Naophangba in 429 CE.

Before 1675 CE, the Meitei language experienced no significant influence from any other languages. Beginning in the late 17th century, Hindu influence on Meitei culture increased, and the Meitei language experienced some influences from other languages, on its phonology, morphology (linguistics), syntax and semantics. At the same time, the Hinduised King Pamheiba ordered that the Meitei script be replaced by the Bengali-Assamese script.

In 1725 CE, Pamheiba wrote Parikshit, possibly the first piece of Meitei-language Hindu literature, based on the story of the eponymous king Parikshit of the Mahabharata.

Geographical distribution

The majority of Meitei speakers, about 1.5 million live in the Indian state of Manupur. Meitei is the official language of the Government of Manipur as well as its lingua franca.

There are nearly 170,000 Meitei-speakers in Assam, mainly in the Barak Valley, where it is the third most commonly-used language after Bengali and Hindi. Manipuri is also spoken by about 9500 people in Nagaland, in communities such as Dimapur, Kohima, Peren and Phek. Meitei is a second language for various Naga and Kuki-Chin ethnic groups.

There are around 15,000 Meitei speakers in Bangladesh mainly are in the districts of Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Sunamganj and Habiganj in the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh. In the past, there was a Meitei speaking population in Dhaka, Mymensingh and Comilla also. Manipuri is used as a second language by the Bishnupriya Manipuri people.

Myanmar has a significant Meitei speaking population in the states of Kachin and Shan and the regions of Yangon, Sagaing, and Ayeyarwady, among others.

Name

According to the Ethnologue, the alternative names of Meitei language are Kathe, Kathi, Manipuri, Meetei, Meeteilon, Meiteilon, Meiteiron, Meithe, Meithei, Menipuri, Mitei, Mithe, Ponna.

The name Meitei or its alternate spelling Meithei is preferred by many native speakers of Meitei over Manipuri. The term is derived from the Meitei word for the language Meitheirón (Meithei + -lon 'language', pronounced /mə́i.təi.lón/). Meithei may be a compound from mí 'man' + they 'separate'. This term is used by most Western linguistic scholarship. Meitei scholars use the term Meit(h)ei when writing in English and the term Meitheirón when writing in Meitei. Chelliah (2015: 89) notes that the Meitei spelling has replaced the earlier Meithei spelling.

The language (and people) is also referred to by the loconym Manipuri. The term is derived from the name of the state of Manipur. Manipuri is the official name of the language for the Indian government and is used by government institutions and non-Meitei authors. The term Manipuri is also used to refer to the different languages of Manipur and to the people. Additionally, Manipuri, being a loconym, can refer to anything pertaining to the Manipur state.

Speakers of Meitei language are known as "Kathe" by the Burmese people, "Moglie" or "Mekhlee" by the people of Cachar, Assam (Dimasas and Assamese) and "Cassay" by the Shan people and the other peoples living in the east of the Ningthee River (or Khyendwen River). "Ponna" is the Burmese term used to refer to the Meiteis living inside Burma.

Dialects

The Meitei language exhibits a degree of regional variation; however, in recent years the broadening of communication, as well as intermarriage, has caused the dialectal differences to become relatively insignificant. The only exceptions to this occurrence are the speech differences of the dialects found in Tripura, Bangladesh and Myanmar. The exact number of dialects of Meitei is unknown.

The three main dialects of Meitei are: Meitei proper, Loi and Pangal. Differences between these dialects are primarily characterised by the extensions of new sounds and tonal shifts. Meitei proper is considered to be the standard variety—and is viewed as more dynamic than the other two dialects. The brief table below compares some words in these three dialects:

Devi (2002) compares the Imphal, Andro, Koutruk, and Kakching dialects of Meitei.

Status

Meitei is the sole official language of the Government of Manipur, and has been an official language of India since 1992.

Meitei language was the court language of the historic Manipur Kingdom, and before it merged into the Indian Republic. The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, recognised Meitei as one of the major advanced Indian literary languages in 1972, long before it became an official language in 1992. In 1950, the Government of India did not include Meitei in its list of 14 official languages. A language movement, spearheaded by organisations including the Manipuri Sahitya Parishad and the All Manipur Students' Union demanded that Meitei be made an official language for more than 40 years, until Meitei was finally added to the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India in 1992.

Meitei became an associate official language of Assam in 2024, following several years of effort by the Meitei associate official language movement to protect the identity, history, culture and tradition of Manipuris in Assam.

The Meitei language is one of the 13 official languages of the India used to administer police, armed services, and civil service recruitment exams.

The Press Information Bureau of the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting publishes in 14 languages, including Meitei.

Education

Meitei is a language of instruction in all in the educational institutions in Manipur. It is one of the 40 instructional languages offered by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), controlled and managed by the Ministry of Education. Meitei is taught as a subject up to the post-graduate level in Indian universities, including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Gauhati University, and the University of North Bengal. Indira Gandhi National Open University teaches Meitei to undergraduates.

Assam

Meitei language instruction has been offered in the lower primary schools of Assam since 1956. The Board of Secondary Education, Assam offers secondary education in Manipuri. The Assam Higher Secondary Education Council of Assam offers both Meitei-language schooling and instruction in Meitei as a second language.

Since 2020, the Assam Government has made an annual grant of ₹5 lakh (equivalent to ₹5.9 lakh or US$7,100 in 2023) to the Manipuri Sahitya Parishad (Manipuri Language Council). It also invested ₹6 crore (equivalent to ₹7.1 crore or US$850,000 in 2023) in the creation of a corpus for the development of the Meitei language.

The Department of Manipuri of Assam University offers education up to the Ph.D. level in Meitei language.

Tripura

Since 1998, the Government of Tripura has offered Meitei language as a "first language" subject at primary level in 24 schools throughout the state.

In December 2021, Tripura University proposed to the Indian Ministry of Education and the University Grants Council (UGC), regarding the introduction of diploma courses in Meitei, along with international languages like Japanese, Korean and Nepali.

Phonology

The exact classification of the Meitei language within Sino-Tibetan remains unclear. It has lexical resemblances to Kuki and Tangkhul.

Tone

The Meitei language is a tonal language. There is a controversy over whether there are two or three tones.

Segments

Meitei distinguishes the following phonemes:

Consonants

Vowels

Note: the central vowel /ɐ/ is transcribed as <ə> in recent linguistic work on Meitei. However, phonetically it is never , but more usually . It is assimilated to a following approximant: /ɐw/ = , /ɐj/ = .

Phonological processes

A velar deletion is noted to occur on the suffix -lək when following a syllable ending with a /k/ phoneme.

Meitei has a dissimilatory process similar to Grassmann's law found in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit, though occurring on the second aspirate. Here, an aspirated consonant is deaspirated if preceded by an aspirated consonant (including /h/, /s/) in the previous syllable. The deaspirated consonants are then voiced between sonorants.

/tʰin-/

pierce

+

/-kʰət/

upward

→

/tʰinɡət/

pierce upwards

/tʰin-/ + /-kʰət/ → /tʰinɡət/

pierce {} upward {} {pierce upwards}

/səŋ/

cow

+

/kʰom/

udder

→

/səŋɡom/

milk

/səŋ/ + /kʰom/ → /səŋɡom/

cow {} udder {} milk

/hi-/

trim

+

/-tʰok/

outward

→

/hidok/

trim outwards

/hi-/ + /-tʰok/ → /hidok/

trim {} outward {} {trim outwards}

Writing systems

Meitei script

The Meitei script (ꯃꯩꯇꯩ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ, Meitei mayek) is one of the official scripts of the Indian Republic. Meitei mayek is also known as Kanglei script (ꯀꯪꯂꯩ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ) or kok sam lai script (ꯀꯣꯛ ꯁꯝ ꯂꯥꯏ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ, romanized: kok sam lai mayeke), after its first three letters. Its earliest known appearance is on 6th century coins. It was used until the 18th century, when it was replaced by the Bengali script, and then revived in again massively in the 20th. In 2021, the use of Meetei Mayek to write Manipuri was officially adopted by the Government of Manipur, alongside Bengali script.

The Roman alphabet has been used in medium for teaching basic Meitei as a second language teaching by the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur. More recently, the Board has issued a directive that no more Manipuri textbooks using the Latin alphabet be published. Meitei language editions of the Bible in Roman script are very commonly used by the Christians in Manipur.

The Naoriya Phulo script is a constructed script, invented by Laininghan Naoriya Phulo (1888–1941). It shares many similarities with Devanagari and Bengali script. It was championed by Apokpa Marup, but never widely adopted.

Grammar

Sentences in the Meitei language use the subject–object–verb word order (SOV). For example, in the sentence Ei chak chai (ꯑꯩ ꯆꯥꯛ ꯆꯥꯢ), which translates to I eat rice, the gloss is "ei" (I), "chak" (rice), "chai" (eat).

Nouns

Nouns and pronouns are marked for number in Meitei. The plural is indicated by the suffixes -khoi (for personal pronouns and human proper nouns) and -sing (for all other nouns). Verbs associated with the pluralised nouns are unaffected. Examples are demonstrated below:

When adjectives are used to be more clear, Meitei utilises separate words and does not add a suffix to the noun. Examples are show in the chart below:

Compound verbs

Compound verbs are created by combining root verbs each ending with aspect markers. While the variety of suffixes is high, all compound verbs utilise one of two:

Aspect markers appear as suffixes that clarify verb tense and appear at the end of the compound verb. Overall, the formula to construct a compound verb becomes + + :

Compound verbs can also be formed utilising both compound suffixes as well, allowing utterances such as pithokningle meaning "want to give out".

Number words

Literature

The Khamba Thoibi Sheireng, a poem of 39,000 verses composed by Hijam Anganghal Singh and first published in 1940 (Meitei: ꯈꯝꯕ ꯊꯣꯏꯕꯤ ꯁꯩꯔꯦꯡ, romanized: Poem on Khamba Thoibi) is regarded as the national epic of the Manipuris. It is a classical Meitei language epic poem based on the ancient romantic adventure tale of Khamba and Thoibi of Moirang. It is regarded as the greatest of all Meitei epic poems.

The Meitei classical language movement seeks to gain recognition for Meitei as one of the Classical Languages of India.

Annual events

Various annual events are organised to promote, protect and develop Meitei language, in the sovereign states of India and Bangladesh in particular as well as in other parts of the world in general.

• Manipuri language day (Meitei: ꯂꯣꯟꯒꯤ ꯅꯨꯃꯤꯠ, romanized: Manipuri Lon-gi Numit) is observed annually on 20 August, commemorating the day in 1992 when Manipuri was made one of the official languages of India.
• Manipuri poetry day (Meitei: ꯃꯅꯤꯄꯨꯔꯤ ꯁꯩꯔꯦꯡꯒꯤ ꯅꯨꯃꯤꯠ, romanized: Manipuri Sheirenggi Numit), is an annual literary event that promotes Meitei language poetry and the traditions of Meitei literature. Events are held in Manipur and in and by Meitei-speakers in Northeast India and West Bengal.
• The Manipuri Language Festival (Meitei: ꯃꯅꯤꯄꯨꯔꯤ ꯂꯣꯟꯒꯤ ꯀꯨꯝꯃꯩ, romanized: Manipuri Lon-gi Kummei) is an annual cultural event that aims to protect and develop of the Meitei language, script and culture in Bangladesh.

Software

In 2021, Rudali Huidrom, a Manipuri researcher of the EBMT/NLP laboratory, Waseda University, Japan, created a text corpus named "EM Corpus" (shortened form of "Emalon Manipuri Corpus"). It is the first comparable text to text corpus built for Meitei language (mni) and English language (eng) pair from sentences. The writing system used for Meitei language in this corpus is Bengali script. It was crawled and collected from thesangaiexpress.com – the news website of "The Sangai Express", a daily newspaper of Manipur from August 2020 to 2021. In version 1, she created the monolingual data, having 1,034,715 Meitei language sentences and 846,796 English language sentences. In version 2, she created the monolingual data, having 1,880,035 Meitei language sentences and 1,450,053 English language sentences.

EM-ALBERT is the first ALBERT model available for Meitei language. EM-FT is also FastText word embedding available for Meitei language. These resources were created by Rudali Huidrom and are now available at free of cost at the European Language Resources Association catalogue (ELRA catalogue) under CC-BY-NC-4.0 licence.

On 11 May 2022, Google Translate added Meitei-language (under the name "Meiteilon (Manipuri)") during its addition of 24 new languages to the translation tool. The writing system used for Meitei language in this tool is Meitei script.

Sample text

The following is a sample text in Modern Meitei of the Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (by the United Nations):

ꯃꯤꯑꯣꯏꯕ ꯈꯨꯗꯤꯡꯃꯛ ꯄꯣꯛꯄ ꯃꯇꯝꯗ ꯅꯤꯡꯇꯝꯃꯤ, ꯑꯃꯗꯤ ꯏꯖꯖꯠ ꯑꯃꯁꯨꯡ ꯍꯛ ꯃꯥꯟꯅꯅ ꯂꯧꯖꯩ ꯫ ꯃꯈꯣꯏ ꯄꯨꯝꯅꯃꯛ ꯋꯥꯈꯜ ꯂꯧꯁꯤꯡ ꯁꯦꯡꯏ, ꯑꯐ ꯐꯠꯇ ꯈꯪꯏ, ꯑꯗꯨꯅ ꯑꯃꯅ ꯑꯃꯒ ꯂꯣꯏꯅꯕ ꯃꯇꯝꯗ ꯃꯆꯤꯟ ꯃꯅꯥꯎꯒꯨꯝꯅ ꯂꯣꯏꯅꯒꯗꯕꯅꯤ ꯫ (in Meitei script)

মিওইবা খুদিংমক পোকপা মতমদা নিংতম্মী, অমদি ইজ্জৎ অমসুং হক মান্ননা লৌজৈ । মখোই পুম্নমক ৱাখল লৌশিং শেঙই, অফ ফত্তা খঙই, অদুনা অমনা অমগা লোইনবদা মচীন মনাওগুম্না লোইনগদবনি । (in Bengali script)

Mioiba khudingmak pokpa matamda ningtammi amadi ijjat amasung hak mānnana leijei, makhoi pumnamak wākhal loushing shengi, apha phatta khangi, aduna amana amaga loinabada machin manāogumna loinagadabani. (Roman transliteration)

míːójbə kʰud̯íŋmək pókpə mət̯ə̀md̯ə níːŋt̯ə̀mmi, əməd̯i iːdʒət əməʃùng hə́k màːnənə lɐ̀jdʒɐ̀j. məkʰój púmnəmək wakʰə̀l lə̀wʃiŋ ʃèŋi, əpʱə̀ pʱə́ːt̯ə kʰə́ŋi, əd̯unə əmənə əməgə lòjnəbəd̯ə mət͡ʃìn mənáwgùmnə lójnəgəd̯əbəni' (IPA transliteration).

English: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

See also

• Asia
• Bangladesh
• India
• Languages
• Linguistics
• Myanmar

• Meitei language in India
  • Meitei language in Assam
  • Meitei language in Tripura
• Meitei language in Bangladesh
• Meitei language in Myanmar
• Languages of India
• List of languages by number of native speakers in India
• List of Meitei poets
• Meitei inscriptions
• Meitei literature
• Meitei Language Day
• List of epics in Meitei language
• List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for Meitei
• List of Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize winners for Meitei
• List of Yuva Puraskar winners for Meitei
• List of Bal Sahitya Puraskar winners for Meitei
• Vikaspedia

Footnotes

1. The Meitei-language translation of the passage of the Article 1 has two foreign words present, "ꯏꯖꯖꯠ" ("iːdʒət") and "ꯍꯛ" ("hə́k"), meaning "dignity" and "rights" respectively, as given in the source website. The original Meitei-language terms for "dignity" and "rights" are "ꯏꯀꯥꯏ ꯈꯨꯝꯅꯕ" ("í.kai kʰum.nə.bə") and "ꯐꯪꯐꯝ ꯊꯣꯛꯄ" ("pʰəŋ.pʰəm tʰok.pə") respectively.

References

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20. ^ "A History of Manipuri Language – Indian Institute of Advanced Study". iias.ac.in. Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
21. Chatterji, Suniti Kumar (1951). Kirata-jana-krti. Kolkata: The Asiatic Society, Digital Library of India; Internet Archive. pp. 157, 158. ... The beginnings of this Old Manipuri literature (as in the case of Newari) may go back to 1500 years, or even 2000 years, from now. ...
22. Ayyappappanikkar (1997). Medieval Indian Literature: Surveys and selections. Sahitya Akademi. pp. 326–329. ISBN 978-81-260-0365-5.
23. Wouters, Jelle J. P.; Subba, Tanka B. (30 September 2022). The Routledge Companion to Northeast India. Taylor & Francis. p. 473. ISBN 978-1-000-63699-4.
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27. Singh, Ch Manihar (1996). "The Early Period (Ritual Songs)". A History of Manipuri Literature (in English and Manipuri). India: Sahitya Akademi. pp. 14, 15. ISBN 978-81-260-0086-9.
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29. Devi, Dr Yumlembam Gopi (16 June 2019). Glimpses of Manipuri Culture. Lulu.com. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-359-72919-7.
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48. Sanajaoba, Naorem (1988). Manipur, Past and Present: The Heritage and Ordeals of a Civilization. Mittal Publications. p. 290. ISBN 978-81-7099-853-2.
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50. "English Releases". pib.gov.in. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
51. Thomas, C. Joshua; Gopalakrishnan, Ramamoorthy; Singh, R. K. Ranjan (2001). Constraints in Development of Manipur. Regency Publications . pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-81-87498-30-8.
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55. "Manipuri language should be one of Assam's associate official languages: AAMSU". Imphal Free Press.
56. Laithangbam, Iboyaima (27 September 2020). "Assam to look into demand to include Manipuri in list of associate languages". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X.
57. "Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh lauds SSC for deciding to conduct the Multi-Tasking (Non-Technical) Staff examination 2022 in 13 regional languages in addition to Hindi and English for the first time". www.pib.gov.in. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
58. "Manipuri among 13 regional languages approved for CAPF exam". Imphal Free Press. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
59. Press, Imphal Free. "PIB website has news in regional languages now – KanglaOnline". Retrieved 25 January 2023.
60. "CBSE | Academics Unit : Curriculum/Syllabus". cbseacademic.nic.in. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
61. Devi, S. (May 2013). "Is Manipuri an Endangered Language?" (PDF). Language in India. 13 (5): 520–533.
62. Bareh, Hamlet (2001). Encyclopaedia of North-East India. Mittal Publications. p. 80. ISBN 978-81-7099-790-0.
63. NEWS, NE NOW (21 August 2023). "Manipur: Meitei language to be introduced in IGNOU syllabus, says union minister". NORTHEAST NOW. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
64. ^ Laithangbam, Iboyaima (27 September 2020). "Assam to look into demand to include Manipuri in list of associate languages". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
65. "Assam HSLC Exam Routine 2023 Revised: SEBA To Conduct All Class 10 Language Papers Including English On April 1". India.com. 17 March 2023. Retrieved 18 March 2023. In addition to Assamese, the other MIL subjects are Bengali, Bodo, Hindi, Manipuri, Hmar, Nepali, Mizo, Khasi, Garo, Karbi and Urdu.
66. "AHSEC complete syllabus for HS 2nd year". ahsec.assam.gov.in.
67. "Manipuri Department". Retrieved 18 March 2023.
68. "5 literary bodies bat for Manipuri language in Assam". www.thesangaiexpress.com. Retrieved 18 March 2023. Moreover, Manipuri in MA and PhD courses are offered at Assam University, Silchar.
69. "AAMSU demands Associate Official Language status to Manipuri language". www.time8.in. Several universities, notably Assam University and Silchar University, provide Manipuri language courses.
70. "MANIPURI | DIRECTORATE OF KOKBOROK & OTHER MINORITY LANGUAGES". kokborokoml.tripura.gov.in. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
71. "Tripura University proposes introduction of diploma courses in Japanese, Korean, Nepali and Manipuri languages". India Today NE (in Hindi). 23 December 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
72. Post, Mark W.; Burling, Robbins (2017) . "The Tibeto-Burman Languages of Northeastern India". In Thurgood, Graham; LaPolla, Randy J. (eds.). The Sino-Tibetan Languages (2nd ed.). Routledge. pp. 23, 232–233. ISBN 978-1-138-78332-4.
73. ^ LaPolla, Randy J. (2000). "Book review: A grammar of Meitei, by S. L. Chelliah". Lingua. 110 (4). Elsevier: 299–304. doi:10.1016/s0024-3841(99)00037-6.
74. Chelliah, S. L. (1997). Meitei Phonology. Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 17–21.
75. Chelliah (1997)
76. Khuman, Yanglem Loijing Khomba; Devi, Salam Dickeeta; Singh, Ch. Ponykumar; Devi, H. Mamata; Singh, N. Ajith (1 December 2022). "A benchmark dataset for printed Meitei/Meetei script character recognition". Data in Brief. 45: 108585. Bibcode:2022DIB....4508585K. doi:10.1016/j.dib.2022.108585. ISSN 2352-3409. PMC 9679442. PMID 36426059.
77. Noni, Arambam; Sanatomba, Kangujam (16 October 2015). Colonialism and Resistance: Society and State in Manipur. Routledge. pp. 223, 235, 237. ISBN 978-1-317-27066-9.
78. "মণিপুরদা লোলয়ান চঙলকপা অমদি মীতৈ ইয়েক্না থোঙজিন্দা ৱারৌজনা লেপ্লরবদা !" (PDF). hueiyenlanpao.com (in Manipuri).
79. "Lost and revived: The story of Meitei script". The Indian Express. 11 December 2022. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
80. Datta, Amaresh (1987). Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature. Sahitya Akademi. p. 142. ISBN 978-81-260-1803-1.
81. Laithangbam, Iboyaima (23 September 2017). "Banished Manipuri script stages a comeback". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
82. "GAZETTE TITLE: The Manipur Official Language (Amendment) Act, 2021". manipurgovtpress.nic.in. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
83. "Manipur HSLC Date Sheet 2023: BSEM Class 10 time table released, exam begins March 16". The Times of India. 25 January 2023. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
84. SNS (10 January 2019). "Manipur Board Class 12 (HSC) and Class 10 (HSLC) Timetable 2019 available online at manipureducation.gov.in | Check now". The Statesman. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
85. "MEELAL lauds BSEM order : 04th feb24 ~ E-Pao! Headlines". e-pao.net. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
86. "The Birth of Jesus Manipuri Roman Mayek CB" (PDF). bibleforchildren.org.
87. "নাওরিয়া ফুলো : ঋষি অমা - এলাংম দীনমনী" (PDF). hueiyenlanpao.com (in Manipuri). India.
88. Singh, Wahengbam Ibohal. The History Of Manipur. Internet Archive. India: Digital Library of India. p. 501.
89. ^ Singh, S. Indrakumar (November 2013). "Agreements in Manipuri" (PDF). Language in India. 13 (11): 216–231.
90. ^ Devi, M. Bidyarani (May 2014). "Compound Verbs in Manipuri" (PDF). Language in India. 14 (5): 66–70.
91. George, K. M. (1992). Modern Indian Literature, an Anthology: Surveys and poems. India: Sahitya Akademi. p. 29. ISBN 978-81-7201-324-0.
92. George, K. M. (1992). Modern Indian Literature, an Anthology: Surveys and poems. India: Sahitya Akademi. p. 258. ISBN 978-81-7201-324-0. H. Anganghal Singh's Khamba Thoibi Sheireng (Poem on Khamba Thoibi, 1940) is a national epic of the Manipuris based on the story of Khamba and Thoibi of Moirang. The poet composes the whole epic in the Pena Saisak style of folk ballads sung by minstrels or bards popular in Manipur.
93. Datta, Amaresh (1988). Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Devraj to Jyoti. India: Sahitya Akademi. p. 1186. ISBN 978-81-260-1194-0.
94. Datta, Amaresh (1988). Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Devraj to Jyoti. India: Sahitya Akademi. p. 1573. ISBN 978-81-260-1194-0. His best work, Khamba Thoibi sheireng, in 39,000 lines on the story of 'Khamba and Thoibi' was started in 1939 and the composition was completed in 1940.
95. Das, Sisir Kumar (2005). A History of Indian Literature: 1911–1956, struggle for freedom : triumph and tragedy. Sahitya Akademi. p. 190. ISBN 978-81-7201-798-9. His epic Singel Indu was published in 1938 which was followed by his magnum opus Khamba Thoibi Sheireng (1940), a poem of 39000 lines, considered to be the 'national' epic of the Manipuris, written in the Pena Saisak style of folk ballads.
96. AKASHVANI: Vol. XL. No. 35 ( 31 AUGUST, 1975 ). New Delhi: All India Radio (AIR). 31 August 1975. p. 1582.
97. "Government must take concrete step for recognition of Manipuri as classical language". Imphal Free Press.
98. IANS (20 August 2016). "Classic language status for Manipuri demanded". Business Standard India.
99. "Manipur Govt Begins Efforts for Inclusion of Manipuri Among 'Classical' Languages". India Today NE (in Hindi). 21 August 2019.
100. Singh, Th Suresh (2 June 2014). The Endless Kabaw Valley: British Created Visious Cycle of Manipur, Burma and India. Quills Ink Publishing. pp. 24~25. ISBN 978-93-84318-00-0.
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102. "St Joseph University, Nagaland observes Manipuri Poetry Day 2022". Imphal Free Press. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
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Further reading

• 1. A Short History of Kangleipak (Manipur) Part-I, by Chingtamlen, 2005
• 2. A Short History of Kangleipak (Manipur) Part-II, by Chingtamlen, 2007
• 3. A Short History of Kangleipak (Manipur) Part-III, by Chingtamlen, 2008
• 4. The Meetei and the Bishnupriya, by Chingtamlen, 2008

Culture

• Brara, N. Vijaylakshmi. (1998). Politics, society, and cosmology in India's North East. Delphi: Oxford University Press.
• Budha, W. (1992). Indigenous games of the Meiteis. Manipur: Wangkeimayum Publications.
• Kshetrimayum, Otojit. (2014). Ritual, Politics and Power in North East India: Contexualising the Lai Haraoba of Manipur. Delhi: Ruby Press & Co.
• Singh, M. Kirti. (1988). Religion and culture of Manipur. Delhi: Manas Publications.
• Singh, M. Kirti. (1993). Folk culture of Manipur. Delhi: Manas Publications.
• Singh, Saikhom Gopal. (2014). The Meeteis of Manipur: A Study in Human Geography. Delhi: Ruby Press & Co.

Language

• Bhat, D. N. S.; & Ningomba, S. (1997). Manipuri grammar. Munich: Lincom Europa.
• Chelliah, Shobhana L. (1990). Experiencer subjects in Manipuri. In V. M. Manindra & K. P. Mohanan (Eds.), Experiencer subjects in South Asian languages (pp. 195–211). Stanford: The Center for the Study of Language and Information.
• Chelliah, Shobhana L. (1992). Tone in Manipuri. In K. L. Adams & T. J. Hudak (Eds.), Papers from the first annual meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 1991 (pp. 65–85). Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University.
• Chelliah, Shobhana L. (1992). Bracketing paradoxes in Manipuri. In M. Aronoff (Ed.), Morphology now (pp. 33–47). Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Chelliah, Shobhana L. (1994). Morphological change and fast speech phenomena in the Manipuri verb. In K. L. Adams & T. J. Hudak (Eds.), Papers from the second annual meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 1992 (pp. 121–134). Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University.
• Chelliah, Shobhana L. (1997). A grammar of Meitei. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 0-19-564331-3.
• Chelliah, Shobhana L. (2002). Early Meitei manuscripts. In C. I. Beckwith (Ed.), Medieval Tibeto-Burman languages: PIATS 2000: Tibetan studies: Proceedings of the ninth seminar of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, Leiden 2000 (pp. 59–71). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.
• Chelliah, Shobhana L. (2002). A glossary of 39 basic words in archaic and modern Meitei. In C. I. Beckwith (Ed.), Medieval Tibeto-Burman languages: PIATS 2000: Tibetan studies: Proceedings of the ninth seminar of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, Leiden 2000 (pp. 189–190). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.
• Chelliah, Shobhana L. (2004). "Polysemy through metonymy: The case of Meitei pi 'grandmother'". Studies in Language. 28 (2): 363–386. doi:10.1075/sl.28.2.04che.
• Chelliah, Shobhana L. (2015). "Is Manipur a linguistic area?". Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics. 2 (1): 87–109. doi:10.1515/jsall-2015-0004. S2CID 130962163.
• Singh, Ningthoukhongjam Khelchandra. (1964). Manipuri to Manipuri & English dictionary.

External links

• "Meetei Mayek". tabish.freeshell.org. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
  • "Manipuri/Meiteilon/Meithei". tabish.freeshell.org. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
• "Manipuri language and alphabets". omniglot.com. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
• "Learn to speak Manipuri". tabish.freeshell.org. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
• "Learn Manipuri". www.e-pao.net. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
• "Meetei Mayek keys". www.e-pao.net. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
• "Meetei Mayek Poems". www.e-pao.net. Retrieved 21 August 2022.

v t e Sino-Tibetan branches
Western Himalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim)	West Himalayish Tamangic Newaric Newar Baram–Thangmi Kiranti Dhimalish Dhimal Toto Lhokpu Lepcha Greater Magaric Magaric Magar Kham Chepangic Chepang Bhujel Raji–Raute Dura–Tandrange
Eastern Himalayas (Tibet, Bhutan, Arunachal)	Bodish Tibetic East Bodish Tshangla Basum Nam? Gongduk ʼOle Tani Chamdo
Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border	Karbi Kuki-Chin Mruic Mru Hkongso Pyu Taman "Naga" Ao Angami–Pochuri Meitei Tangkhulic Zeme Sal Boro–Garo Konyak Jingpho–Luish
East and Southeast Asia	Sinitic Bai Tujia Nungish Karenic Gong Kathu Cai–Long Caijia Longjia Luren Burmo-Qiangic Qiangic Gyalrongic Ersuic Naic Lolo-Burmese Mondzish Burmish Loloish
Dubious (possible isolates) (Arunachal)	Hrusish Hruso Mijiic Kho-Bwa Puroik Miju–Meyor Songlin Greater Siangic Siangic Koro Milang Idu–Taraon
Proposed groupings	Central Tibeto-Burman Kuki-Chin–Naga Macro-Bai Mahakiranti Rung Tibeto-Burman Tibeto-Kanauri
Proto-languages	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Proto-Tibeto-Burman Proto-Loloish Proto-Karenic Proto-Min Proto-Hakka
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches.

v t e Languages of Bangladesh
Official language	Bengali
Indo-European	Assamese Goalpariya Kamrupi Bengali Chittagonian Dhakaiya Kutti Dobhashi Eastern Bengali Noakhailla Rangpuri Rarhi Sylheti Varendri Bihari Bishnupriya Chakma English Bangladeshi English Hajong Hindustani Dhakaiya Urdu Hindi Urdu Khotta Odia Persian Rohingya Sadri (Nagpuri)
Sino-Tibetan	Shö A'Tong Bawm Sak Kukish Falam Garo Hakha Chin (Laiholh) Khumi Koch Kokborok Megam Meitei (Manipuri) Mizo Mru Pangkhu Rakhine (Marma) Rengmitca Tanchangya
Austroasiatic	Khasi Koda Kol Mundari Pnar Santali War-Jaintia
Dravidian	Kurukh Sauria Paharia
Afro-Asiatic	Arabic
Sign	Indo-Pakistani Sign Language

• Meitei language
• Official languages of India
• Languages of Manipur
• Languages of Assam
• Languages of Tripura
• Languages of Nagaland
• Languages of Bangladesh
• Languages of Myanmar
• Languages written in Latin script
• Languages written in Brahmic scripts
• Lingua francas
• Meitei culture
• Meitei literature
• Standard languages
• Subject–object–verb languages
• Tonal languages
• Unclassified Sino-Tibetan languages