Meitei language

Meitei
Manipuri
ꯃꯩꯇꯩꯂꯣꯟমৈতৈলোনMeiteilon
Meitei Lon written in Meitei script
Native toManipur, Assam and Tripura
RegionNortheast India and Neighbouring areas of Bangladesh and Myanmar
EthnicityMeitei people
Total speakersL1 & L2 combined: 3 million[1]
L1 only: 1.8 million (2003–2011)[2]
Early forms
Dialects
Official status
Official language in
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated byDirectorate of Language Planning and Implementation, Manipur
Development body
Language codes
ISO 639-2mni
ISO 639-3Either:
mni – Manipuri
omp – Old Manipuri
Glottologmani1292  Manipuri
meit1246  Meitei (standard dialect)
loii1241  Loi (Chakpa dialect)
pang1284  Pangal (Muslim dialect)
  Regions where Meitei is native, majority, 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
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Meitei (ꯃꯩꯇꯩꯂꯣꯟ, Eastern Nagari script: মৈতৈলোন্, romanized: meiteilon),[4] also known as Manipuri (ꯃꯅꯤꯄꯨꯔꯤ, Eastern Nagari script: মণিপুরী, /mænᵻˈpʊəri/ (IPA)), is a Tibeto-Burman language of northeast India. It is the official language and the lingua franca of Manipur and one of the official languages India.[5] Meitei is the most widely-spoken Tibeto-Burman language of India and third the most used language of northeast India after Assamese and Bengali.[6] There are 1.76 million Meitei native speakers in India according to the 2011 census. Most of these, or 1.52 million, are found in the state of Manipur, where they represent 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[7] and Bangladesh.[2]

Meitei and Gujarati, hold the third place among the fastest growing languages of India, following Hindi and Kashmiri.[8]

Meitei is not endangered: its status has been assessed as safe by Ethnologue (where it is assigned to EGIDS level 2 "provincial language"),[2] but is considered vulnerable by UNESCO. [9]

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

  1. ^ Chelliah, Shobhana Lakshmi; Ray, Sohini (23 June 2000). "Discovering Tibeto-Burman Linguistic History Through Pre 20th Century Meithei Manuscripts". UNT Digital Library. University of North Texas (UNT). University of North Texas Libraries. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  2. ^ a b c Manipuri at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
    Old Manipuri at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  3. ^ "Meitei | Ethnologue". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 24 July 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  4. ^ "Meithei". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 14 October 2022. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Britannica_Meitei_language was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Language – India, States and Union Territories" (PDF). Census of India 2011. Office of the Registrar General. pp. 13–14. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  7. ^ Sunil, Oinam (14 July 2015). "Manipuris in Mandalay see ray of hope in Modi". The Times of India.
  8. ^ R, Aishwaryaa (6 June 2019). "What census data reveals about use of Indian languages". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  9. ^ Moseley, C., ed. (2010). Atlas of the world's languages in danger (3rd ed). Paris: UNESCO Publishing. pp. 44–45 and elsewhere.