Imphal dialect

This article is about the standard variety of Meitei language based in the capital city of Manipur. For for the modern stage of development of the language, see Modern Meitei language.

Imphal
Standard Meiteilon, Standard Manipuri
ꯏꯝꯐꯥꯜ
Meitei Mayek transliteration of "Imphal"
Pronunciation	US: /ˈɪmphʌl/ ⓘ
Native to	Manipur
Region	Greater Imphal (primarily Imphal city) and nearby areas
Ethnicity	Meitei ethnicity
Era	1st century CE
Language family	Sino-Tibetan
Early forms	Ancient Meitei Medieval Meitei
Writing system	Meitei script and Bengali script
Official status
Official language in	India (Manipur)
Development body	Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation, Government of Manipur
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Meitei & English bilingual signs inside the Kangla of Imphal

Imphal dialect, also known as Standard Imphal dialect, or Meitei Proper, or Standard Meiteilon, or Standard Manipuri, is the standard dialect of Meitei language, officially known as Manipuri language. It is natively used in Imphal, the capital city of Manipur state, and is used in administration, education, media, literature, widely across the state and abroad. According to the reports of the Linguistic Survey of India, the Imphal dialect is the basis of the "literary language" of Manipur and its people.

Unlike other Meitei regional dialects in the outskirts of Imphal, it is heavily influenced by Sanskrit, Bengali and Hindi languages.

Meitei engravings in a monument in the Bir Tikendrajit Park of Imphal

Imphal dialect has six vowels, i.e. /ə/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ and /a/, some diphthongs and monophthongs. Out of six vowels, the most frequently used vowel is /a/ in Imphal dialect.

The Imphal dialect marginally permits the interrogative to be suffixed to the bare verb stem for some verbs. While forms such as *čára from čá 'eat' and čátra from čát 'go' are clearly ungrammatical, speakers are ambivalent about forms like setra.