Manipuri (also known as Meitei and Meetei; ISO 639-3: mni, Glottocode: meit1246 / mani1292) belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family. Its precise subgrouping within Tibeto-Burman remains a subject of academic debate, often classified within its own independent branch or grouped tentatively with the Kuki-Chin-Naga languages.

Speakers

According to the 2011 Census of India, there are approximately 1.76 million native speakers of Manipuri in India.

Distribution in India

The language is primarily spoken in the northeastern state of Manipur, where it serves as the official state language and the lingua franca among diverse ethnic groups. Significant speaker communities also exist in the neighbouring states of Assam, Tripura, and Nagaland.

Major Grammatical Features

Phonology: Manipuri is a tonal language, traditionally analysed as having two contrastive tones (high and low/level). The phoneme inventory consists of approximately 28 segmental phonemes, including six vowels and a distinction between aspirated and unaspirated stops.
Morphology: Highly agglutinative. Grammatical relations are marked predominantly through suffixation, though prefixation plays a crucial role in nominal derivation and pronominal possession. There is no grammatical gender; instead, natural gender is indicated lexically or through specific markers.
Syntax: The basic word order is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV). It is a split-ergative or agentive-aligning language where case markers (such as the agentive/nominative and accusative enclitics) are applied pragmatically depending on emphasis, definiteness, and control.

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