Meitei language

Meitei
Meitei
Meiteilon
Region	Northeast India, Bangladesh, Myanmar
Native speakers	2.5 million
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Meitei; ;
Official status
Official language in	Indian state Manipur
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mni

Meitei (also Meithei, Meetei, Manipuri) is the predominant language and lingua-franca in the state of Manipur, in northeastern India. It is the official language in government offices. Meitei is also spoken in the Indian states of Assam and Tripura, and in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Meitei has proven to be a large integrating factor among all ethnic groups in Manipur who use it to communicate among themselves.

Meitei has been recognized as the Manipuri language by the Indian Union and has been included in the list of scheduled languages (included in the 8th schedule by the 71st amendment of the constitution in 1992). Meitei is taught as a subject up to the Post-graduate level (Ph.D.) in Universities of India, apart from being a medium of instruction up to the undergraduate level in Manipur.

Although Meitei was formerly called Manipuri, it should not be confused with the Indo-Aryan language called Bishnupriya Manipuri that was spoken in Manipur between the 13th and 19th centuries.

Sounds

Meitei is a tonal language.

Grammar

Writing

The Meitei had its own script named Meetei-Mayek, which was in use until the 18th century. Subsequently, the Eastern_Nagari_script was adopted to write the language and is being used till date. However, efforts are being made to revive the Meitei Mayek script.

References

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.
Singh, M. Kirti. (1988). Religion and culture of Manipur. Delhi: Manas Publications.
Singh, M. Kirti. (1993). Folk culture of Manipur. Delhi: Manas Publications.

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 Meithei. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 0-19-564331-3.
Chelliah, Shobhana L. (2002). Early Meithei 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 Meithei. 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 Meithei pi 'grandmother'. Studies in Language, 28 (2), 363-386.
Singh, Ningthoukhongjam Khelchandra. (1964). Manipuri to Manipuri & English dictionary.

External links