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

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

The Meitei language had its own script named Meetei-Mayek, which was in use till 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.

External Links

• Manipuri/Meiteilon: An Introduction  (http://www.arbornet.org/~prava/eeyek/mani_intro.html)