Meithei language
Encyclopedia
Meitei-lon also Meitei-lol (মৈতৈলোল্) and Manipuri (মণিপুরি) (and sometimes, the 19th century British term, Meithei (মৈথৈ), which is the name of the people, not of the language), is the predominant language and lingua franca
in the southeastern Himalayan state of Manipur
, in northeastern India
. It is the official language in government offices. Meitei-lon is also spoken in the Indian state
s of Assam
and Tripura
, and in Bangladesh
and Burma (now Myanmar).
Meitei is a Tibeto-Burman language whose exact classification remains unclear, though it shows lexical resemblances to Kuki and Tangkhul Naga.
Meitei-lon has proven to be a large integrating factor among all ethnic groups in Manipur who use it to communicate among themselves.
Meitei-lon has been recognized, as "Manipuri", 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-lon 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.
food - chak, far -lappah, face - mai
sky- atiya, soil- leibak,
air- nungsit(in poetic- malangba,namiba), knife- thang sori, sword- thangsang, spear- ta, father- ipa, mother-ima
I-Ei, He-Mahak(in case of male), She-Mahak(in case of female) , You-Nahak/ adombu(with respect), This-Mashi, That-Madu
(commonly known as the Assamese
/ Bengali
script) was forced upon the people. This script is, however, still in use today. Efforts are being made to popularise the Meitei Mayek script and is showing significant improvement in the recent decades.
There are some texts from the Maring and Limbu tribes of Manipur which were also written using Meitei Mayek.
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
in the southeastern Himalayan state of Manipur
Manipur
Manipur is a state in northeastern India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. Manipur is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west; it also borders Burma to the east. It covers an area of...
, in northeastern India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. It is the official language in government offices. Meitei-lon is also spoken in the Indian state
States and territories of India
India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...
s of Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
and Tripura
Tripura
Tripura is a state in North-East India, with an area of . It is the third smallest state of India, according to area. Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on the north, south, and west. The Indian states of Assam and Mizoram lie to the east. The capital is Agartala and the main languages spoken are...
, and in Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
and Burma (now Myanmar).
Meitei is a Tibeto-Burman language whose exact classification remains unclear, though it shows lexical resemblances to Kuki and Tangkhul Naga.
Meitei-lon has proven to be a large integrating factor among all ethnic groups in Manipur who use it to communicate among themselves.
Meitei-lon has been recognized, as "Manipuri", 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-lon 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.
Numbers
1 - ama, 2 - ani, 3 - ahum, 4 - mari, 5 - manga, 6 - taruk, 7 - taret, 8 - nipan, 9 - mapan, 10 - taraSome basic words
water - ising, fire - mei, dog - hui, fish - nga,food - chak, far -lappah, face - mai
sky- atiya, soil- leibak,
air- nungsit(in poetic- malangba,namiba), knife- thang sori, sword- thangsang, spear- ta, father- ipa, mother-ima
I-Ei, He-Mahak(in case of male), She-Mahak(in case of female) , You-Nahak/ adombu(with respect), This-Mashi, That-Madu
Writing
Meitei-lon has its own script named Meitei-mayek, which was popularly used until the 18th century. Its earliest use is dated between the 11th and 12th centuries C.E. Subsequently, and particularly with the advent of British Rule in 1891, the Eastern Nagari scriptEastern Nagari script
The Eastern Nagari script is an Abugida system of writing belonging to the Brahmic family of scripts which use is associated with the two main languages Assamese and Bengali and other related variants such as, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Maithili, Mising, Meitei Manipuri, Sylheti, and Chittagonian...
(commonly known as the Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...
/ Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
script) was forced upon the people. This script is, however, still in use today. Efforts are being made to popularise the Meitei Mayek script and is showing significant improvement in the recent decades.
There are some texts from the Maring and Limbu tribes of Manipur which were also written using Meitei Mayek.
See also
- Languages of IndiaLanguages of IndiaThe languages of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages—Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages...
- List of languages by number of native speakers in India
- List of Meitei-lon poets
- Sahitya Akademi Award to Manipuri WritersSahitya Akademi Award to Manipuri WritersSahitya Akademi Award is given each year, since 1955, by Sahitya Akademi , to writers and their works, for their outstanding contribution to the upliftment of Indian and Manipuri literature....
Culture
- Brara, N. Vijaylakshmi. (1998). Politics, society, and cosmology in India's North East. Delphi: Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
. - 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 UniversityArizona State UniversityArizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
. - Chelliah, Shobhana L. (1992). Bracketing paradoxes in Manipuri. In M. Aronoff (Ed.), Morphology now (pp. 33–47). Albany: State University of New York PressState University of New York PressThe State University of New York Press , is a university press and a Center for Scholarly Communication. The Press is part of the State University of New York system and is located in Albany, New York.- History :...
. - 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.
- Singh, Ningthoukhongjam Khelchandra. (1964). Manipuri to Manipuri & English dictionary.
External links
- Entry for Meitei at Rosetta Project
- Meetei Mayek (Meitei Script)
- Meetei Mayek Alphabet
- Learn to speak Manipuri, with the right pronunciation
- Learn Manipuri
- Learn Meitei Mayek (Meitei Script) - E-Pao.net
- Manipuri Poetry
- Contemporary Poetry In Manipuri
- Seirangba Marup, the language based Yahoo Group of Manipuri Art and Literature
- KokSum.com, A Mobile friendly News Aggregator on Manipur. Made it easy as KOK-SUM.