Meitei language

Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:About {{#invoke:Hatnote|hatnote}} Template:Pp Template:Use Indian English Template:Use dmy dates {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other Template:Contains special characters

Meitei (Template:IPAc-en;<ref>Template:Cite OED</ref> Template:Meitei {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) also known as Manipuri Template:Meitei {{#invoke:IPA|main}}), 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.<ref name="Britannica_Meitei_language" /> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There are Template:Sigfig million Meitei native speakers in India according to the 2011 census, Template:Sigfig 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 (Template:Sigfig), Tripura (Template:Sigfig), Nagaland (Template:Sigfig), and elsewhere in the country (Template:Sigfig). The language is also spoken by smaller groups in neighbouring Myanmar<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Bangladesh.<ref name=e25/>

Meitei and Gujarati jointly hold the third place among the fastest growing languages of India, following Hindi and Kashmiri.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Meitei is not endangered: its status has been assessed as safe by Ethnologue (where it is assigned to EGIDS level 2 "provincial language").<ref name=e25/> However, it is considered vulnerable by UNESCO.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and received heavy influences from the speech forms of the other groups.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="britannica.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="britannica.com"/> However, some still consider Meitei to be a member of the Kuki-Chin-Naga branch.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

History

File:Yumbanlol (Yumpanlol) - a 6th century Classical Meitei language copper manuscript text - in Meetei script - works on sensuality & relationship between husbands & wives and how to run a household in Ancient Kangleipak civilisation state.jpg

Yumbanlol (Yumpanlol), a group of 6th century Classical Meitei language copper plate inscriptions, written in Meitei script.

The Meitei language has existed for at least 2000 years.<ref name="iias.ac.in"/> According to linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, the ancient Meitei literature dates back to 1500 to 2000 years before present.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

First Millennium CE

The earliest known Meitei language compositions is the ritual song Ougri (Template:Script), which was used in religious and coronation ceremonies of Kangleipak. It may have existed before the Common Era.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Numit Kappa Template:Meitei, a religious epic that tells the tale of how the night was divided from the day, was also composed in the first century.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Poireiton Khunthok Template:Meitei 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Khencho (Template:Script), an early Meitei work of poetry was composed by the beginning of the 7th century CE.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Although it is obscure and unintelligible to present-day Meiteis, it is still recited as part of the Lai Haraoba festival.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

One of the best-preserved early Meitei language epigraphic records is a copper plate inscription dating to the reign of King Khongtekcha (Template:Reign).<ref name="aponpath.com">Template:Cite book</ref> During the same time period, Akoijam Tombi composed the Panthoibi Khonggul ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), an account of the romantic adventures of the deified Meitei princess Panthoibi.<ref name=":Glimpses_Panthoibi_Khongul">Template:Cite book</ref>

Second Millennium CE

File:The first page of Loyumba Silyen (Loiyumpa Silyel) - 11th-12th century Classical Meitei language Constitution of the then Kangleipak civilisation state - in traditional Meetei Mayek writing system (Manipur State Archives).jpg

The first page of Loyumba Shinyen, the 11th-12th century Meitei-language constitution of Kangleipak.

In 1100 CE, a written constitution, Template:Meitei, was finalised by King Loiyumba (Template:Reign) of Kangleipak. It was a codification of the proto-constitution drafted by King Naophangba in 429 CE.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Before 1675 CE, the Meitei language experienced no significant influence from any other languages.<ref name="iias.ac.in">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="iias.ac.in"/>

File:ANDRO INSCRIBED STONE.jpg

An 1822 CE stone recording a royal decree attributed to King Jai Singh (Template:Reign), erected at Andro, Imphal East, Manipur

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Geographical distribution

Template:Further The majority of Meitei speakers, about 1.5 million<ref name="census">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> live in the Indian state of Manupur. Meitei is the official language of the Government of Manipur as well as its lingua franca.<ref name="Britannica_Meitei_language">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

File:Map of Barak Valley.jpg

Districts of Barak Valley – Meitei speaking population settlement areas of Assam

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

File:Sylhet in Bangladesh.svg

Areas with significany numbers of Meitei speakers in Bangladesh

There are around 15,000 Meitei speakers in BangladeshTemplate:Citation needed 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.<ref name=":Bangladesh">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Manipuri is used as a second language by the Bishnupriya Manipuri people.<ref name="ethnologue_mni"/>

Myanmar has a significant Meitei speaking population in the states of Kachin and Shan and the regions of Yangon, Sagaing, and Ayeyarwady, among others.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref name="ethnologue_mni"/>

The name Meitei or its alternate spelling Meithei is preferred by many native speakers of Meitei over Manipuri.<ref name="Chelliah 1997: 2">Chelliah (1997: 2)</ref> The term is derived from the Meitei word for the language Meitheirón (Meithei + -lon 'language', pronounced {{#invoke:IPA|main}}).<ref name="Chelliah 1997: 2"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Meithei may be a compound from mí 'man' + they 'separate'.<ref name="Chelliah 1997: 2"/> This term is used by most Western linguistic scholarship.<ref name="Chelliah 1997: 2"/> Meitei scholars use the term Meit(h)ei when writing in English and the term Meitheirón when writing in Meitei.<ref name="Chelliah 1997: 2"/> Chelliah (2015: 89) notes that the Meitei spelling has replaced the earlier Meithei spelling.<ref>Chelliah (2015: 89)</ref>

The language (and people) is also referred to by the loconym Manipuri.<ref name="Chelliah 1997: 2"/> The term is derived from the name of the state of Manipur.<ref name="Chelliah 1997: 2"/> Manipuri is the official name of the language for the Indian government and is used by government institutions and non-Meitei authors.<ref name="Chelliah 1997: 2"/> The term Manipuri is also used to refer to the different languages of Manipur and to the people.<ref name="Chelliah 1997: 2"/> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The exact number of dialects of Meitei is unknown.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The brief table below compares some words in these three dialects:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Standard Meitei	Loi	Pangal	English translation
chaaba	chaapa	chaaba	to eat
kappa	kapma	kappa	to weep
saabiba	saapipa	saabiba	to make
thamba	thampa	thamba	to put
chuppiba	chuppipa	chuppiba	to kiss

Devi (2002)<ref name="Devi2002">Devi, L. Manimala. 2002. A comparative study of Imphal, Andro, Koutruk and Kakching dialects of Meiteiron. (Doctoral dissertation, Canchipur: Manipur University; 273pp.)</ref> 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.<ref name="Britannica_Meitei_language" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Meitei language was the court language of the historic Manipur Kingdom,<ref name="Sanajaoba 1988 290">Template:Cite book</ref> and before it merged into the Indian Republic.<ref name=":court_language_status">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Meitei became an associate official language of Assam in 2024,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> following several years of effort by the Meitei associate official language movement to protect the identity, history, culture and tradition of Manipuris in Assam.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Meitei language is one of the 13 official languages of the India used to administer police, armed services, and civil service recruitment exams.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Press Information Bureau of the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting publishes in 14 languages, including Meitei.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Indira Gandhi National Open University teaches Meitei to undergraduates.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Assam

Meitei language instruction has been offered in the lower primary schools of Assam since 1956.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> The Board of Secondary Education, Assam offers secondary education in Manipuri.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Assam Higher Secondary Education Council of Assam offers both Meitei-language schooling and instruction in Meitei as a second language.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Since 2020, the Assam Government has made an annual grant of Template:INR Convert to the Manipuri Sahitya Parishad (Manipuri Language Council). It also invested Template:INR Convert in the creation of a corpus for the development of the Meitei language.<ref name=":0" />

The Department of Manipuri of Assam University offers education up to the Ph.D. level in Meitei language.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Phonology

The exact classification of the Meitei language within Sino-Tibetan remains unclear. It has lexical resemblances to Kuki and Tangkhul.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Tone

The Meitei language is a tonal language. There is a controversy over whether there are two or three tones.<ref name="ReferenceA">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Segments

Meitei distinguishes the following phonemes:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Consonants

			Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal			Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Plosive	Template:Small	Template:Small	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
		Template:Small	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
	Template:Small	Template:Small	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
		Template:Small	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Fricative				Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
Tap				Template:IPA link
Lateral				Template:IPA link
Approximant			Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Mid	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Low		Template:IPA link

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

Phonological processes

A velar deletion is noted to occur on the suffix -lək when following a syllable ending with a /k/ phoneme.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Meitei has a dissimilatory process similar to Grassmann's law found in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit, though occurring on the second aspirate.<ref>Chelliah (1997)</ref> Here, an aspirated consonant is deaspirated if preceded by an aspirated consonant (including {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) in the previous syllable. The deaspirated consonants are then voiced between sonorants.Template:Citation needed

Writing systems

Meitei script

File:Depiction of the Puya Mei Thaba (Burning of the Meitei texts) ordered by Meitei King Pamheiba (AKA Garib Niwaj or Gopal Singh) under the influence of Bengali Hindu missionary Shantidas Gosai (AKA Shantidas Goswami or Shantidas Adhikari).jpg

Depiction of the 18th century historic burning of texts written in Meitei script.

The Meitei script (Template:Langx)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> is one of the official scripts of the Indian Republic. Meitei mayek is also known as Kanglei script Template:Meitei<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> or kok sam lai script Template:Meitei, after its first three letters.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Its earliest known appearance is on 6th century coins.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It was used until the 18th century, when it was replaced by the Bengali script, and then revived in again massively in the 20th.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2021, the use of Meetei Mayek to write Manipuri was officially adopted by the Government of Manipur, alongside Bengali script.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Roman alphabet has been used in medium for teaching basic Meitei as a second language teaching by the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> More recently, the Board has issued a directive that no more Manipuri textbooks using the Latin alphabet be published.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Meitei language editions of the Bible in Roman script are very commonly used by the Christians in Manipur.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Naoriya Phulo script is a constructed script, invented by Laininghan Naoriya Phulo (1888–1941). It shares many similarities with Devanagari and Bengali script.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was championed by Apokpa Marup, but never widely adopted.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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:<ref name="Singh 2013">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Noun (Meitei)	Noun (English)	Example (Meitei)	Example (English)
angaang	baby	angaang kappi	Baby cries.
angaangsing	babies	angaangsing kappi	Babies cry.

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:<ref name="Singh 2013" />

Adjective (Meitei)	Adjective (English)	Example (Meitei)	Example (English)
ama	one	mi ama laak’i	A person comes.
khara	some	mi khara laak’i	Some persons come.
mayaam	many	mi mayaam laak’i	Many persons come.

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:<ref name="Devi 2014">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Suffix	English translation
-thok	out/ come out
-ning	To wish/ want/ desire

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 [root verb] + [suffix] + [aspect marker]:<ref name="Devi 2014" />

Language	Root verb	Suffix	Aspect marker	Combined form
Meitei	tum	-thok	-le	tumthokle
English	sleep	out/ come out	perfect aspect	has started sleeping
Meitei	tum	-ning	-le	tumningle
English	sleep	want	perfect aspect	has felt sleepy

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

Number words

Numeral	Word	Etymology	Meitei Script
1	a-ma ~ a-maa	"1"	Template:Script
2	a-ni	Proto-Tibeto-Burman *ni	Template:Script
3	a-húm	PTB *sum	Template:Script
4	ma-ri	PTB *li	Template:Script
5	ma-ngaa	PTB *ŋa	Template:Script
6	ta-ruk	PTB *luk	Template:Script
7	ta-ret	PTB *let	Template:Script
8	ni-paan	"2-less"	Template:Script
9	maa-pan	"1-less"	Template:Script
10	ta-raa	"10"	Template:Script
11	taraa-maa-thoi	"ten + 1-more"	Template:Script
12	taraa-ni-thoi	"ten + 2-more"	Template:Script
13	taraa-húm-doi	"ten + 3-more"	Template:Script
14	taraa-mari	"ten +4"	Template:Script
15	taraa-mangaa	"ten +5"	Template:Script
16	taraa-taruk	"ten +6"	Template:Script
17	taraa-taret	"ten +7"	Template:Script
18	taraa-nipaan	"ten +8"	Template:Script
19	taraa-maapan	"ten +9"	Template:Script
20	kun ~ kul	"score"	Template:Script
30	*kun-taraa > kun-thraa	"score ten"	Template:Script
40	ni-phú	"two score"	Template:Script
50	yaang-khéi	"half hundred"	Template:Script
60	hum-phú	"three score"	Template:Script
70	hum-phú-taraa	"three score ten"	Template:Script
80	mari-phú	"four score"	Template:Script
90	mari-phú-taraa	"four score ten"	Template:Script
100	chaama	"one hundred"	Template:Script
200	cha-ni	"two hundreds"	Template:Script
300	cha-hum	"three hundreds"	Template:Script
400	cha-mri	"four hundreds"	Template:Script
500	cha-mangaa	"five hundreds"	Template:Script
1,000	lisíng ama	"one thousand"	Template:Script
10,000	lisīng-taraa	"ten thousands"	Template:Script
1,00,000	licha	"one hundred-thousand"	Template:Script
10,00,000	licha-taraa	"ten hundred-thousands"	Template:Script
1,00,00,000	leepun	"one ten-million"	Template:Script
10,00,00,000	leepun-taraa	"ten ten-millions"	Template:Script
1,00,00,00,000	leepot	"one billion"	Template:Script
10,00,00,00,000	leepot-taraa	"ten billions"	Template:Script
1,00,00,00,00,000	leekei	"one hundred-billion"	Template:Script
10,00,00,00,00,000	leekei-taraa	"ten hundred-billions"	Template:Script
1,00,00,00,00,00,000	pu-ama	"one ten-trillion"	Template:Script

Literature

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

File:The classical Meitei epic of the "Numit Kappa", written in ancient Meitei language (in archaic Meitei script).jpg

The Numit Kappa, a Classical Meitei 1st century epic based on Meitei mythology and religion.

The Khamba Thoibi Sheireng, a poem of 39,000 verses composed by Hijam Anganghal Singh and first published in 1940 (Template:Langx)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> is regarded as the national epic of the Manipuris.<ref name="George 1992 258">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="Datta 1988 1573">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":Sisir">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The Meitei classical language movement seeks to gain recognition for Meitei as one of the Classical Languages of India.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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 (Template:Langx) is observed annually on 20 August, commemorating the day in 1992 when Manipuri was made one of the official languages of India.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Manipuri poetry day (Template:Langx), is an annual literary event that promotes Meitei language poetry and the traditions of Meitei literature.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Events are held in Manipur and in and by Meitei-speakers in Northeast India and West Bengal.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• The Manipuri Language Festival (Template:Langx) is an annual cultural event that aims to protect and develop of the Meitei language, script and culture in Bangladesh.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Software

Template:Further 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.<ref name="RudaliHuidrom">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="catalog.elra.info">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref name="RudaliHuidrom" /><ref name="catalog.elra.info" />

File:Google Translate - English to Meiteilon (Manipuri) - "What is your name?" - Screenshot.jpg

A screen shot of Google Translate translating a sentence from English language into Meitei language

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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):<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn

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{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (in Bengali script)

{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Roman transliteration)

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See also

• 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

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. Template:ISBN.
• 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.
• Template:Cite journal
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• Singh, Ningthoukhongjam Khelchandra. (1964). Manipuri to Manipuri & English dictionary.

External links

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