LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 11 : 11 November 2011
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

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Liangmai: A Minority Language of Manipur

Widinibou Ch. M.A., Ph.D. Research Scholar

Abstract

This paper discusses how Meitei, the dominant language of Manipur, is influencing the Liangmai language. A lot of lexical borrowings from Meitei has taken place in Liangmai because of language contact with Meitei for a very long time. But still Liangmai is surviving the impact of Meitei even though it is a minority language in Manipur. The Indian Constitution adopted several safeguards to protect linguistic minorities in the country. Thus minorities are allowed to secure state funds for their educational institutions. Article 347 allows the use of minority languages for official purposes. But in Manipur, most of the tribal languages are not yet introduced in government educational institutions even at the primary level.

A lot of lexical borrowing from Meitei has taken place in Liangmai because of language contact in day today life. Borrowing of Meitei words become a necessity in day today life. This leads to language endangerment. Most of the borrowed words belong to the category of nouns. The large domain or proportions of the Loan vocabulary from Meitei words have entered the Liangmai lexicon. This sometimes leads to language endangerment.

Introduction

It is widely believed that the Tibeto-Burman people came to the northeast India via the northeastern route from the Yangtze Kiang and the Hwang-Ho river valleys. Nevertheless, the fact is that different groups of this language family came from different routes. Liangmais are mongoloid stock who, for a considerable period, lived in South-west China and migrated to Northern South East Asia and East India around one thousand years before Christ. Liangmai names such as Suang, Hu Wang Liu San, Kiang, etc., are some names which are identical to the Chinese names. Ethnically and linguistically Liangmai people belong to the mongoloid group of race and speak Liangmai, a Tibeto-Burman language under the Naga Bodo section family (G.A. Grierson in Linguistic Survey of India).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Widinibou Ch. Ph.D. Research Scholar
Department of Linguistics
Assam University
Silchar 788011
Assam
dinee-ch@yahoo.com
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