Sino-Tibetan · ISO 639-3 mni
Manipuri Language Meitheiron
Manipuri is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 1.5 million people in 2 countries. It is written in the Meitei Mayek, Bangla and Latin scripts.
Where Manipuri is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Manipuri
Language family
- Sino-Tibetan
- Kuki-Chin-Naga
- Manipuri
Writing system
Meitei Mayek, Bangla and Latin scripts
About the Manipuri language
Manipuri (Meitheiron) is spoken by about 1.5 million people, which makes it the 374th most spoken language in the world — just behind Thur (1.5 million) and ahead of Pangasinan (1.5 million). It belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family.
Where is Manipuri spoken?
Manipuri is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in India (1.6 million) and Bangladesh (18,556).
Share of the population that speaks Manipuri: India 0.1% (1.6 million) and Bangladesh <0.1% (18,556).
Manipuri is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Manipuri is written in the Meitei Mayek, Bangla and Latin scripts. Glottolog classifies it as threatened, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 mni.
Frequently asked questions about Manipuri
How many people speak Manipuri?
Where is Manipuri spoken?
What language family does Manipuri belong to?
What is Manipuri called in Manipuri?
Is Manipuri an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.