53-610: The Lainingthou Sanamahi Kiyong ( Meitei for 'Lainingthou Sanamahi Shrine'), officially known as the Laiyingthou Sanamahi Kiyong ( Meitei for 'Laiyingthou Sanamahi Shrine'), is a temple of God Lainingthou Sanamahi of Meitei religion ( Sanamahism ), built on the Nongmaiching mountain ( Selloi Langmai mountain ) in the Imphal East district of Kangleipak ( Meitei for ' Manipur '). It
106-732: 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. The exact classification of the Meitei language within Sino-Tibetan remains unclear. It has lexical resemblances to Kuki and Tangkhul . The Meitei language
159-505: 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
212-508: 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
265-478: A separate Assamese transliteration table used by linguists specialising in Assamese phonology are included along with IPA transcription. There are three major modern alphabets in this script: Bengali , Assamese , and Tirhuta . Modern Assamese is very similar to modern Bengali. Assamese has at least one extra letter, ৱ , that Bengali does not. It also uses a separate letter for the sound 'ro' ৰ different from
318-439: A total of 11 vowel letters, used to represent the seven vowel sounds of Bengali and eight vowel sounds of Assamese, along with a number of vowel diphthongs. All of these vowel letters are used in both Assamese and Bengali. Some of the vowel letters have different sounds depending on the word, and a number of vowel distinctions preserved in the writing system are not pronounced as such in modern spoken Bengali or Assamese. For example,
371-613: 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
424-412: Is a tonal language . There is a controversy over whether there are two or three tones. 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 [ə], but more usually [ɐ]. It is assimilated to a following approximant: /ɐw/ = [ow], /ɐj/ = [ej]. A velar deletion
477-508: 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
530-550: Is a center of the Sanamahism followers in Manipur . It is the central body of the "Sanamahi Lainingkol" ( University of Sanamahi Culture ) at Chingoi Maru Langmaiching ( Nongmaiching ). The Sanamahi Kiyong is a religious destination and a pilgrimage site for the Meitei people , even for those living outside Manipur in other Northeast Indian states and also for the Kabui people and
583-559: Is an eastern Brahmic script , primarily used today for the Bengali and Assamese language spoken in eastern South Asia . It evolved from Gaudi script , also the common ancestor of the Odia and Trihuta scripts . It is commonly referred to as the Bengali script by Bengalis and the Assamese script by the Assamese , while in academic discourse it is sometimes called Eastern-Nāgarī . Three of
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#1733349201466636-546: 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
689-622: 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 + Eastern Nagari script The Bengali–Assamese script , sometimes also known as Eastern Nagari ,
742-784: 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
795-523: Is the source of most native Indian scripts including the South Indian languages and Devanagari, the script associated with classical Sanskrit and other Indo-Aryan languages. The modern eastern scripts (Bengali-Assamese, Odia, and Maithili) became clearly differentiated around the 14th and 15th centuries from the predecessor Gaudi . While the scripts in Bengal, Assam and Mithila remained similar to each other
848-412: The 22 official languages of the Indian Republic — Bengali , Assamese , and Meitei —commonly use this script in writing; Bengali is also the official and national language of Bangladesh . Besides, Bengali and Assamese languages, it is also used to write Bishnupriya Manipuri , Meitei , Chakma , Santali and numerous other smaller languages spoken in eastern South Asia. Historically, it
901-531: The Bengali alphabet , অ্যা is used when the intended pronunciation would otherwise be ambiguous. Some other languages use a vowel অৗ to denote / ɯ / which is not found in either Bengali or Assamese; and though the vowel diacritic ( matra , ৗ ) is found in Tirhuta the vowel letter itself is absent. Assamese alphabet uses an additional "matra" (ʼ) that is used to represent the phonemes অʼ and এʼ . Vowel signs can be used in conjunction with consonants to modify
954-496: The Bengali language that ultimately prevailed. It first commissioned Willem Bolt, a Dutch adventurer, to create a grammar for Bengali, but he had to leave India after he ran into trouble with the company. The first significant book with Bengali typography was Halhed 's 1778 "A Grammar of the Bengal Language" which he compiled from a meagre set of six Bengali manuscripts. When Halhed turned to Warren Hastings for publishing, he
1007-653: 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 . The Meitei language exhibits a degree of regional variation; however, in recent years
1060-503: 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
1113-526: 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. Since 1998, the Government of Tripura has offered Meitei language as
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#17333492014661166-578: 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
1219-544: The Meitei people . The 7 stories are painted in the colours of the 7 Meitei clans. The construction of the Sanamahi Kiyong started in the year 2006. It was done through the donated funds raised from the public. As of March 2012, the construction cost reached ₹ 2 crore (equivalent to ₹ 3.8 crore or US$ 450,000 in 2023) and the then estimation of net cost was around ₹ 3 crore (equivalent to ₹ 5.7 crore or US$ 680,000 in 2023). The Sanamahi Kiyong
1272-723: 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
1325-505: The Zeliangrong people living in Manipur , Assam and Tripura inside India as well as in Myanmar and Bangladesh . The construction of the Sanamahi Kiyong temple aims at the establishment of a university of Sanamahi religion on the Nongmaiching mountain . It was built according to a 2002 resolution adopted at a public meeting having a goal to construct a university for Sanamahism , with
1378-463: The /r/ sound, and an extra letter for the /w/ or /v/ sound. The Bengali–Assamese script was originally not associated with any particular regional language, but was prevalent as the main script in the eastern regions of Medieval India for Old- and Middle-Indo-Aryan including Sanskrit . All of these eastern Magadhan scripts are based on a system of characters historically related to, but distinct from, Devanagari. Brahmi, an ancient Indian syllabary,
1431-429: 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
1484-549: 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 . 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 . The earliest known Meitei language compositions is the ritual song Ougri ( ꯑꯧꯒ꯭ꯔꯤ ), which
1537-611: The Kiyong-Temple';) was organised by the "Foundation For University of Sanamahi Culture" and the "Laiyingthou Sanamahi Thougal Kanglup" . The event was attended by N Hiyainu, wife of Nongthombam Biren , the then Chief Minister of Manipur . Meitei language Meitei ( / ˈ m eɪ t eɪ / ; ꯃꯩꯇꯩꯂꯣꯟ , Eastern Nagari script : মৈতৈলোন্ , [mejtejlon] ( IPA ) , romanized: meiteilon ) also known as Manipuri ( ꯃꯅꯤꯄꯨꯔꯤ , Eastern Nagari script : মণিপুরী , [mɐnipuɾi] ( IPA ) ),
1590-581: The Odia script developed a curved top in the 13th–14th century and became increasingly different. Old Maithili also used a script similar to the Bengali–Assamese script, and Maithili scholars (particularly of the older generation) still write Sanskrit in that script. According to d'Hubert (2014) manuscripts written in the 17th–18th century from eastern Bihar in the west to Manipur in the east followed related scripts, that could be classed largely into three on
1643-449: The aim to teach the future generations of people about the ancient Meitei culture of the Sanamahi religion , offering its students various subjects about indigenous art forms, dance forms, music, Thang-Ta and Sagol Kangjei ( Meitei for ' polo ') etc. The Sanamahi Kiyong is 75 feet (23 m) tall. It has 7 stories , that represent the seven clans ( Meitei : Salai ) of
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1696-466: The basis of the letter ro : (1) western - with the current Bengali ro ; (2) northern - with the current Assamese ro ; and (3) eastern - largely lost today with a ro not seen today. Modern Bengali–Assamese script saw further standardisations following the introduction of printing. Though there were early attempts to cut Bengali types it was the East India Company 's interest in propagating
1749-498: 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
1802-629: 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. According to
1855-741: 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. Meitei language instruction has been offered in
1908-518: 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. Meitei is the sole official language of the Government of Manipur , and has been an official language of India since 1992. Meitei language
1961-407: 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. Meitei is a language of instruction in all in
2014-488: The inherent vowel " অ " ô . Since the inherent vowel is assumed and not written, most letters' names look identical to the letter itself (e.g. the name of the letter " ঘ " is itself ঘ ghô , not gh ). Some letters that have lost their distinctive pronunciation in Modern Assamese and Bengali are called by a more elaborate name. For example, since the consonant phoneme /n/ can be written ন , ণ , or ঞ (depending on
2067-515: The letter used for that sound in Bengali র and the letter ক্ষ is not a conjunct as in Bengali, but a letter by itself. The alphabetical orders of the two alphabets also differ, in the position of the letter ক্ষ , for example. Languages like Meitei and Bishnupriya use a hybrid of the two alphabets, with the Bengali র and the Assamese ৱ . Tirhuta is more different and carries forward some forms used in medieval Assamese. The script presently has
2120-517: 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
2173-462: The pronunciation of the consonant (here exemplified by ক , kô). When no vowel Diacritic symbol is written, then the vowel " অ " (ô) is the default inherited vowel for the consonant. To specifically denote the absence of a vowel, a hôsôntô (্) may be written underneath the consonant. The names of the consonant letters in Eastern Nagari are typically just the consonant's main pronunciation plus
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2226-458: The same time period, Akoijam Tombi composed the Panthoibi Khonggul ( ꯄꯥꯟꯊꯣꯏꯄꯤ ꯈꯣꯡꯀꯨꯜ ), an account of the romantic adventures of the deified Meitei princess Panthoibi . 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
2279-587: 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 . The majority of Meitei speakers, about 1.5 million live in the Indian state of Manupur. Meitei
2332-455: The script has two symbols for the vowel sound [i] and two symbols for the vowel sound [u]. This redundancy stems from the time when this script was used to write Sanskrit, a language that had a short [i] and a long [iː] , and a short [u] and a long [uː] . These letters are preserved in the script with their traditional names of "short i" and "long i", etc., despite the fact that they are no longer pronounced differently in ordinary speech. In
2385-426: The spelling of the particular word), these letters are not simply called nô ; instead, they are called "dental nô", "cerebral nô" and niô . Similarly, the phoneme /ʃ/ in Bengali and /x/ in Assamese can be written as "palatal shô/xhô" শ , "cerebral shô/xhô" ষ , or "dental sô/xô" স , depending on the word. There are two Unicode blocks for Bengali–Assamese script, called Bengali and Tirhuta. The Bengali block
2438-452: 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 ,
2491-420: 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
2544-953: 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. 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
2597-507: Was previously planned to be inaugurated on 16 May 2019. But it was postponed to 8 June 2019 because religious leaders advised that it should be done on Meitei month of Enga ( Meitei : ꯏꯉꯥ , romanized: ī-ngā ) and not on the month of Kalen ( Meitei : ꯀꯥꯂꯦꯟ , romanized: kā-len ) and 8 June falls on Enga, the favourable month. On 8 June 2019, the Sanamahi Kiyong Hongba ( Meitei for 'inauguration of
2650-571: Was referred to Charles Wilkins , the type-founder at the Company press at Hoogly. Learned in Sanskrit and Persian, Wilkins singlehandedly cut the most complete set. He was assisted by the Bengali blacksmith, Panchanan Karmakar, who is often erroneously credited as the father of the Bengali type. In this and other articles on Misplaced Pages dealing with the Assamese and Bengali languages, a Romanization scheme used by linguists specialising in Bengali phonology and
2703-459: 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
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#17333492014662756-523: 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)
2809-426: Was used to write various Old and Middle Indo-Aryan languages, and, like many other Brahmic scripts, is still used for writing Sanskrit . Other languages, such as Bodo , Karbi , Maithili and Mising were once written in this script. The two major alphabets in this script – Assamese and Bengali – are virtually identical, except for two characters — Assamese differs from Bengali in one letter for
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