77-443: Lai Haraoba ( Meitei for ' merry making of the gods') is a traditional Meitei religious festival of ritual dance and musical theatre , celebrated annually in honour of Umang Lais , the forest deities of Sanamahism ( traditional Meitei religion ). Lai Haraoba ( Meitei : ꯂꯥꯏ ꯍꯔꯥꯎꯕ ) is a ritualistic festival of the Meiteis observed since ancient times. It is
154-732: 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
231-629: A "thieves' argot" rather than a legitimate language. The other language isolates found in the rest of South Asia include Burushaski , a language spoken in Gilgit–Baltistan (administered by Pakistan), Kusunda (in western Nepal), and Vedda (in Sri Lanka). The validity of the Great Andamanese language group as a language family has been questioned and it has been considered a language isolate by some authorities. The Hruso language , which
308-505: 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
385-508: 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
462-581: A million native speakers, 60 have more than 100,000 and 122 have more than 10,000 native speakers. There are a few languages like Kodava that do not have a script but have a group of native speakers in Coorg (Kodagu). According to the most recent census of 2011, after thorough linguistic scrutiny, edit, and rationalization on 19,569 raw linguistic affiliations, the census recognizes 1369 rationalized mother tongues and 1474 names which were treated as ‘unclassified’ and relegated to ‘other’ mother tongue category. Among,
539-516: A privately owned research institution in India, has recorded over 66 different scripts and more than 780 languages in India during its nationwide survey, which the organisation claims to be the biggest linguistic survey in India. The People of India (POI) project of Anthropological Survey of India reported 325 languages which are used for in-group communication by 5,633 Indian communities. The Census of India records and publishes data with respect to
616-401: A ritual enactment of the creation myth. It mirrors the entire culture of Manipur and depicts the close affinities between the hill and plain people. It is a combination of religious recitations, traditional music and dance, traditional social values and ancient cultural aspects. The rituals within the festival are the same except in some items or hymns , such as ikouba, ikourol, and yakairol at
693-412: 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
770-508: 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
847-546: 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
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#1733085905051924-563: Is given to languages that have a rich heritage and independent nature. According to the Census of India of 2001 , India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages. However, figures from other sources vary, primarily due to differences in the definition of the terms "language" and "dialect". The 2001 Census recorded 30 languages which were spoken by more than a million native speakers and 122 which were spoken by more than 10,000 people. Three contact languages have played an important role in
1001-697: Is long assumed to be a Sino-Tibetan language , it may actually be a language isolate . Roger Blench classifies the Shompen language of the Nicobar Islands as a language isolate. Roger Blench also considers Puroik to be a language isolate . In addition, a Bantu language , Sidi , was spoken until the mid-20th century in Gujarat by the Siddi . After Mughal rule and prior to Independence, in British India , English
1078-687: 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 + Languages of India (total of official languages: 23, including 22 8th Schedule languages and additional official language, English) Languages spoken in
1155-525: Is the Meitei or Manipuri language ". In India, Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken across the Himalayas in the regions of Arunachal Pradesh , Assam (hills and autonomous councils), Himachal Pradesh , Ladakh , Manipur , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Sikkim , Tripura and West Bengal . Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in India include two constitutionally recognised official languages, Meitei (officially known as Manipuri ) and Bodo as well as
1232-784: 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
1309-679: Is the pre-form of the Kamrupi dialect of today). Nowadays, small Tai communities and their languages remain in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh together with Sino-Tibetans, e.g. Tai Phake , Tai Aiton and Tai Khamti , which are similar to the Shan language of Shan State , Myanmar ; the Dai language of Yunnan , China ; the Lao language of Laos ; the Thai language of Thailand ; and
1386-436: Is the second most spoken and understood language in the country with a significant number of speakers in eastern and northeastern regions . Marathi is the third most spoken and understood language in the country with a significant number of speakers in the southwest, followed closely by Telugu, which is most commonly spoken in southeastern areas. Hindi is the fastest growing language of India, followed by Kashmiri in
1463-442: Is well represented in India. However, their interrelationships are not discernible, and the family has been described as "a patch of leaves on the forest floor" rather than with the conventional metaphor of a "family tree". Padma Vibhushan awardee Indian Bengali scholar Suniti Kumar Chatterjee said, "Among the various Tibeto-Burman languages, the most important and in literature certainly of much greater importance than Newari,
1540-607: 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
1617-614: The Constitution of India does not give any language the status of national language. The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists 22 languages, which have been referred to as scheduled languages and given recognition, status and official encouragement. In addition, the Government of India has awarded the distinction of classical language to Kannada , Malayalam , Odia , Sanskrit , Tamil and Telugu . This status
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#17330859050511694-503: 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
1771-526: 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
1848-578: 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
1925-596: The Middle Indo-Aryan Prakrit languages and Apabhraṃśa of the Middle Ages . The Indo-Aryan languages developed and emerged in three stages — Old Indo-Aryan (1500 BCE to 600 BCE), Middle Indo-Aryan stage (600 BCE and 1000 CE), and New Indo-Aryan (between 1000 CE and 1300 CE). The modern north Indian Indo-Aryan languages all evolved into distinct, recognisable languages in the New Indo-Aryan Age. In
2002-723: 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
2079-715: The Northeast India , among the Sino-Tibetan languages , Meitei language (officially known as Manipuri language ) was the court language of the Manipur Kingdom ( Meitei : Meeteileipak ). It was honoured before and during the darbar sessions before Manipur was merged into the Dominion of the Indian Republic. Its history of existence spans from 1500 to 2000 years according to most eminent scholars including Padma Vibhushan awardee Suniti Kumar Chatterji . Even according to
2156-603: The People's Linguistic Survey of India , India has the second highest number of languages (780), after Papua New Guinea (840). Ethnologue lists a lower number of 456. Article 343 of the Constitution of India stated that the official language of the Union is Hindi in Devanagari script, with official use of English to continue for 15 years from 1947. Later, a constitutional amendment, The Official Languages Act, 1963 , allowed for
2233-667: The Republic of India belong to several language families , the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians; both families together are sometimes known as Indic languages . Languages spoken by the remaining 2.31% of the population belong to the Austroasiatic , Sino–Tibetan , Tai–Kadai , and a few other minor language families and isolates . According to
2310-637: The Zhuang language in Guangxi , China . The languages of the Andaman Islands form another group: In addition, Sentinelese is thought likely to be related to the above languages. The only language found in the Indian mainland that is considered a language isolate is Nihali . The status of Nihali is ambiguous, having been considered as a distinct Austroasiatic language, as a dialect of Korku and also as being
2387-474: The history of India in chronological order: Sanskrit , Persian and English. Persian was the court language during the Indo-Muslim period in India and reigned as an administrative language for several centuries until the era of British colonisation . English continues to be an important language in India. It is used in higher education and in some areas of the Indian government. Hindi , which has
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2464-423: 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
2541-478: The "Manipur State Constitution Act, 1947" of the once independent Manipur, Manipuri and English were made the court languages of the kingdom (before merging into Indian Republic). Persian , or Farsi , was brought into India by the Ghaznavids and other Turko-Afghan dynasties as the court language. Culturally Persianized, they, in combination with the later Mughal dynasty (of Turco-Mongol origin), influenced
2618-442: The 1369 rationalized mother tongues which are spoken by 10,000 or more speakers, are further grouped into appropriate set that resulted into total 121 languages. In these 121 languages, 22 are already part of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and the other 99 are termed as "Total of other languages" which is one short as of the other languages recognized in 2001 census. Languages in India (2011) Ethnolinguistically,
2695-429: The 1991 census, 22 languages had more than a million native speakers, 50 had more than 100,000 and 114 had more than 10,000 native speakers. The remaining accounted for a total of 566,000 native speakers (out of a total of 838 million Indians in 1991). According to the census of 2001, there are 1635 rationalised mother tongues, 234 identifiable mother tongues and 22 major languages. Of these, 29 languages have more than
2772-429: 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
2849-481: The Indian subcontinent was carried out by Sir George Abraham Grierson from 1898 to 1928. Titled the Linguistic Survey of India , it reported a total of 179 languages and 544 dialects. However, the results were skewed due to ambiguities in distinguishing between "dialect" and "language", use of untrained personnel and under-reporting of data from South India, as the former provinces of Burma and Madras, as well as
2926-517: The Indian subcontinent. Proto-Dravidian languages were spoken in India in the 4th millennium BCE and started disintegrating into various branches around 3rd millennium BCE. The Dravidian languages are classified in four groups: North, Central (Kolami–Parji), South-Central (Telugu–Kui), and South Dravidian (Tamil-Kannada). The Northern Indian languages from the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family evolved from Old Indo-Aryan by way of
3003-574: The Indo-Aryan languages, other Indo-European languages are also spoken in India, the most prominent of which is English, as a lingua franca . The second largest language family is the Dravidian language family , accounting for some 277 million speakers, or approximately 20.5% per 2018 estimate. The Dravidian languages are spoken mainly in southern India and parts of eastern and central India as well as in parts of northeastern Sri Lanka , Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh . The Dravidian languages with
3080-549: 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
3157-686: The Meitei society, namely, Kanglei Haraoba , Moirang Haraoba , Kakching Haraoba and Chakpa Haraoba . Kanglei Haraoba is performed mainly in Imphal and the nearby towns. Moirang Haraoba is only in Moirang, Kakching Haraoba is held in Kakching and Chakpa Haraoba is celebrated at Andro, Phayeng, Sekmai, Koutruk, Khuukhul, Leimaram and Tairenpokpi. Lai Haraoba Ishei is a famous folk song played mainly during Lai Haraoba. This song contains lyrics with veiled references to erotic mysticism . The main quality of
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3234-552: The South from their party stance, the resignation of two Union ministers from the South, and the increasing threat to the country's unity forced Shastri to concede. As a result, the proposal was dropped, and the Act itself was amended in 1967 to provide that the use of English would not be ended until a resolution to that effect was passed by the legislature of every state that had not adopted Hindi as its official language, and by each house of
3311-692: The art, history, and literature of the region for more than 500 years, resulting in the Persianisation of many Indian tongues, mainly lexically. In 1837, the British replaced Persian with English and Hindustani in Perso-Arabic script for administrative purposes and the Hindi movement of the 19th Century replaced Persianised vocabulary with Sanskrit derivations and replaced or supplemented the use of Perso-Arabic script for administrative purposes with Devanagari. Each of
3388-498: The beginning and mikon thagonba, ngaprum tanba at the end of the festival. In the performances, the evolution story with the amorous love-affairs of Nongpok Ninghthou and Panthoibi is depicted and played equally in all kinds of lai haraoba. According to folklore, the gods held the first Lai Haraoba on the Koubru Hill so that their descendants would imitate them by performing the same rites. Four types of Lai Haraoba are prevalent in
3465-498: 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
3542-404: The continuation of English alongside Hindi in the Indian government indefinitely until legislation decides to change it. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union are "the international form of Indian numerals ", which are referred to as Arabic numerals in most English-speaking countries. Despite some misconceptions, Hindi is not the national language of India;
3619-566: The date for changeover approached, however, there was much alarm in the non-Hindi-speaking areas of India, especially in Kerala , Gujarat , Maharashtra , Tamil Nadu , Punjab , West Bengal , Karnataka , Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh . Accordingly, Jawaharlal Nehru ensured the enactment of the Official Languages Act, 1963 , which provided that English "may" still be used with Hindi for official purposes, even after 1965. The wording of
3696-546: The declaring individuals often mixed names of languages with those of dialects, subdialects and dialect clusters or even castes, professions, religions, localities, regions, countries and nationalities. The list therefore includes languages with barely a few individual speakers as well as 530 unclassified mother tongues and more than 100 idioms that are non-native to India, including linguistically unspecific demonyms such as "African", "Canadian" or "Belgian". The 1991 census recognises 1,576 classified mother tongues. According to
3773-629: 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
3850-692: 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
3927-435: The epithet "national". The Constitution of India does not give any language the status of national language . Members belonging to the northern parts of India insisted that the Constitution be drafted in Hindi with the unofficial translation in English. This was not agreed to by the drafting committee on the grounds that English was much better to craft the nuanced prose on constitutional subjects. The efforts to make Hindi
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#17330859050514004-518: 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
4081-407: 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
4158-422: The language Hindi. Separate figures for Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi were not issued, due to the fact the returns were intentionally recorded incorrectly in states such as East Punjab , Himachal Pradesh , Delhi , PEPSU , and Bilaspur . The 1961 census recognised 1,652 mother tongues spoken by 438,936,918 people, counting all declarations made by any individual at the time when the census was conducted. However,
4235-648: The language families represented in India, in terms of speakers, is the Indo-Aryan language family , a branch of the Indo-Iranian family , itself the easternmost, extant subfamily of the Indo-European language family . This language family predominates, accounting for some 1035 million speakers, or over 76.5 of the population, per a 2018 estimate. The most widely spoken languages of this group are Hindi , Bengali , Marathi , Gujarati , Bhojpuri , Awadhi , Odia , Maithili , Punjabi , Marwari , Kashmiri , Assamese (Asamiya) , Chhattisgarhi and Sindhi . Aside from
4312-453: The languages of South Asia, echoing the complex history and geography of the region, form a complex patchwork of language families , language phyla and isolates . Languages spoken in India belong to several language families , the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians. The most important language families in terms of speakers are: The largest of
4389-444: The largest number of first-language speakers in India today, serves as the lingua franca across much of northern and central India . However, there have been concerns raised with Hindi being imposed in South India , most notably in the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka . Some in Maharashtra , West Bengal , Assam , Punjab and other non-Hindi regions have also started to voice concerns about imposition of Hindi. Bengali
4466-408: 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
4543-548: The most speakers are Telugu , Tamil , Kannada and Malayalam . Besides the mainstream population, Dravidian languages are also spoken by small scheduled tribe communities, such as the Oraon and Gond tribes. Only two Dravidian languages are exclusively spoken outside India, Brahui in Balochistan, Pakistan and Dhangar , a dialect of Kurukh , in Nepal . Families with smaller numbers of speakers are Austroasiatic and numerous small Sino-Tibetan languages , with some 10 and 6 million speakers, respectively, together 3% of
4620-462: The non-scheduled languages like Karbi , Lepcha , and many varieties of several related Tibetic , West Himalayish , Tani , Brahmaputran , Angami–Pochuri , Tangkhul , Zeme , Kukish sub linguistic branches, amongst many others. The Ahom language , a Southwestern Tai language , had been once the dominant language of the Ahom Kingdom in modern-day Assam , but was later replaced by the Assamese language (known as Kamrupi in ancient era which
4697-491: The northern Indian languages had different influences. For example, Hindustani was strongly influenced by Sanskrit , Arabic and Persian , leading to the emergence of Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu as registers of the Hindustani language. Bangla on the other hand has retained its Sanskritic roots while heavily expanding its vocabulary with words from Persian, English, French and other foreign languages. The first official survey of language diversity in
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#17330859050514774-425: The number of speakers for languages and dialects, but uses its own unique terminology, distinguishing between language and mother tongue . The mother tongues are grouped within each language. Many of the mother tongues so defined could be considered a language rather than a dialect by linguistic standards. This is especially so for many mother tongues with tens of millions of speakers that are officially grouped under
4851-422: The official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement." Article 343 (1) of the Constitution of India states "The Official Language of the Union government shall be Hindi in Devanagari script." Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use of English for official purposes was to cease 15 years after the constitution came into effect, i.e. on 26 January 1965. As
4928-489: The population. The Austroasiatic language family ( austro meaning South) is the autochthonous language in Southeast Asia, arrived by migration. Austroasiatic languages of mainland India are the Khasi and Munda languages , including Bhumij and Santali . The languages of the Nicobar islands also form part of this language family. With the exceptions of Khasi and Santali, all Austroasiatic languages on Indian territory are endangered. The Tibeto-Burman language family
5005-433: The pre-eminent language were bitterly resisted by the members from those parts of India where Hindi was not spoken natively. Eventually, a compromise was reached not to include any mention of a national language. Instead, Hindi in Devanagari script was declared to be the official language of the union, but for "fifteen years from the commencement of the Constitution, the English Language shall continue to be used for all
5082-601: The princely states of Cochin, Hyderabad, Mysore and Travancore were not included in the survey. Languages of India by language families ( Ethnologue ) Different sources give widely differing figures, primarily based on how the terms "language" and "dialect" are defined and grouped. Ethnologue , produced by the Christian evangelist organisation SIL International , lists 435 tongues for India (out of 6,912 worldwide), 424 of which are living, while 11 are extinct. The 424 living languages are further subclassified in Ethnologue as follows: The People's Linguistic Survey of India,
5159-399: 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
5236-410: 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
5313-453: The second place, with Meitei (officially called Manipuri ) as well as Gujarati , in the third place, and Bengali in the fourth place, according to the 2011 census of India . According to the Ethnologue , India has 148 Sino-Tibetan , 140 Indo-European , 84 Dravidian , 32 Austro-Asiatic , 14 Andamanese , 5 Kra-Dai languages. The Southern Indian languages are from the Dravidian family . The Dravidian languages are indigenous to
5390-417: The song is the rhythm in its tune. 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 ) ), is a Tibeto-Burman language of northeast India . It is the official language and
5467-445: The text proved unfortunate in that while Nehru understood that "may" meant shall, politicians championing the cause of Hindi thought it implied exactly the opposite. In the event, as 1965 approached, India's new Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri prepared to make Hindi paramount with effect from 26 January 1965. This led to widespread agitation, riots, self-immolations, and suicides in Tamil Nadu. The split of Congress politicians from
5544-452: 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 ,
5621-420: 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
5698-953: 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
5775-459: 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
5852-467: Was the sole language used for administrative purposes as well as for higher education purposes. In 1946, the issue of national language was a bitterly contested subject in the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly of India , specifically what should be the language in which the Constitution of India is written and the language spoken during the proceedings of Parliament and thus deserving of
5929-523: 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)
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