Manipur Languages

Meithei (also Meitei, Manipuri, Meiteilon) is the predominant language and lingua-franca in the state of Manipur, in northeastern India. It is the official language in government offices. Meithei has proven to be a large integrating factor among all ethnic groups in Manipur who use it to communicate among themselves.

Meithei 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). Meithei is taught as a subject up to the Post-graduate level (Ph.D.) in Universities of India, apart from being a medium of instruction upto the undergraduate level in Manipur.

There is another language named Bishnupriya (or Bishnupriya Manipuri), which was also spoken in the polyglot land of Manipur before 15th century, which is mentioned in Sir G.A.Griersons ‘Linguistic Survey of India’. The language contains many pre-meithei vocabulary.

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