The linguistic situation in Manipur

Abstract

From the linguistic point of view, Manipur can be treated as a Mini-India. There are many mother tongues and there are places where as many as three different language families interact with each other, e.g. in Moreh, a small Indo-Burma border town. Officially and according to Grierson, in Manipur as a whole there are 29 'dialects' besides Manipuri itself. This figure is of course only an approximation. Some regions have still not been surveyed at all, and other areas have not yet undergone scientific linguistic analysis. For example, Teizang and Tiddim Chin (spoken in some parts of Moreh and Churachandpur) were not included in Grierson's "29 dialects".