Meitei Language
Meitei-lon (মৈতৈলোন্), also Meitei-lol (মৈতৈলোল্) and Manipuri (মনিপুরি) (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 states 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.
Read more about Meitei Language: Phonology, Grammar, Numbers, Writing
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“What distinguished man from animals was the human capacity for symbolic thought, the capacity which was inseparable from the development of language in which words were not mere signals, but signifiers of something other than themselves. Yet the first symbols were animals. What distinguished men from animals was born of their relationship with them.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)