There are smaller communities in neighbouring Indian states, such as Assam (168,000), Tripura (24,000), Nagaland (9,500), and elsewhere in the country (37,500).

[2] Meitei and Gujarati jointly hold the third place among the fastest growing languages of India, following Hindi and Kashmiri.

[8] Meitei is not endangered: its status has been assessed as safe by Ethnologue (where it is assigned to EGIDS level 2 "provincial language").

Later, all of them fell under the dominion of the Ningthouja dynasty, changing their status of being independent "ethnicities" into those of "clans" of the collective Meitei community.

The Ningthouja dialect was predominant,[10][11][12] and received heavy influences from the speech forms of the other groups.

[13][14][15] Meitei is one of the advanced literary languages recognised by Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.

Early classifier George Abraham Grierson (1903–1924) put it in Kuki-Chin, Vegelin and Voegelin (1965) in Kuki-Chin-Naga, and Benedict (1972) in Kuki-Naga.

[18] Current academic consensus agrees with James Matisoff in placing Manipuri in its own subdivision of the Kamarupan group—a geographic rather than a genetic grouping.

[20] According to linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, the ancient Meitei literature dates back to 1500 to 2000 years before present.

[21] The earliest known Meitei language compositions is the ritual song Ougri (ꯑꯧꯒ꯭ꯔꯤ), which was used in religious and coronation ceremonies of Kangleipak.

[22] Numit Kappa (Meitei: ꯅꯨꯃꯤꯠ ꯀꯥꯞꯄ, transl: The Shooting of the Sun), a religious epic that tells the tale of how the night was divided from the day, was also composed in the first century.

It is a rare work of dharmashastra, covering sexuality, the relationships between husbands and wives, and instructions on how to run a household.

[25] The Khencho (ꯈꯦꯟꯆꯣ), an early Meitei work of poetry was composed by the beginning of the 7th century CE.

[26] Although it is obscure and unintelligible to present-day Meiteis, it is still recited as part of the Lai Haraoba festival.

[27] One of the best-preserved early Meitei language epigraphic records is a copper plate inscription dating to the reign of King Khongtekcha (r. c. 763 – 773 CE).

[3] Myanmar has a significant Meitei speaking population in the states of Kachin and Shan and the regions of Yangon, Sagaing, and Ayeyarwady, among others.

[36] According to the Ethnologue, the alternative names of Meitei language are Kathe, Kathi, Manipuri, Meetei, Meeteilon, Meiteilon, Meiteiron, Meithe, Meithei, Menipuri, Mitei, Mithe, Ponna.

[40] The Meitei language exhibits a degree of regional variation; however, in recent years the broadening of communication, as well as intermarriage, has caused the dialectal differences to become relatively insignificant.

[49] A language movement, spearheaded by organisations including the Manipuri Sahitya Parishad and the All Manipur Students' Union demanded that Meitei be made an official language for more than 40 years, until Meitei was finally added to the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India in 1992.

[72] Meitei has a dissimilatory process similar to Grassmann's law found in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit, though occurring on the second aspirate.

[80] In 2021, the use of Meetei Mayek to write Manipuri was officially adopted by the Government of Manipur, alongside Bengali script.

[82][83] More recently, the Board has issued a directive that no more Manipuri textbooks using the Latin alphabet be published.

[84] Meitei language editions of the Bible in Roman script are very commonly used by the Christians in Manipur.

Examples are demonstrated below:[88] When adjectives are used to be more clear, Meitei utilises separate words and does not add a suffix to the noun.

[91][92] It is a classical Meitei language epic poem based on the ancient romantic adventure tale of Khamba and Thoibi of Moirang.

[96][97][98] Various annual events are organised to promote, protect and develop Meitei language, in the sovereign states of India and Bangladesh in particular as well as in other parts of the world in general.

It was crawled and collected from thesangaiexpress.com – the news website of "The Sangai Express", a daily newspaper of Manipur from August 2020 to 2021.

[109][110][111] The following is a sample text in Modern Meitei of the Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (by the United Nations):[112][a] ꯃꯤꯑꯣꯏꯕ ꯈꯨꯗꯤꯡꯃꯛ ꯄꯣꯛꯄ ꯃꯇꯝꯗ ꯅꯤꯡꯇꯝꯃꯤ, ꯑꯃꯗꯤ ꯏꯖꯖꯠ ꯑꯃꯁꯨꯡ ꯍꯛ ꯃꯥꯟꯅꯅ ꯂꯧꯖꯩ ꯫ ꯃꯈꯣꯏ ꯄꯨꯝꯅꯃꯛ ꯋꯥꯈꯜ ꯂꯧꯁꯤꯡ ꯁꯦꯡꯏ, ꯑꯐ ꯐꯠꯇ ꯈꯪꯏ, ꯑꯗꯨꯅ ꯑꯃꯅ ꯑꯃꯒ ꯂꯣꯏꯅꯕ ꯃꯇꯝꯗ ꯃꯆꯤꯟ ꯃꯅꯥꯎꯒꯨꯝꯅ ꯂꯣꯏꯅꯒꯗꯕꯅꯤ ꯫ (in Meitei script) মিওইবা খুদিংমক পোকপা মতমদা নিংতম্মী, অমদি ইজ্জৎ অমসুং হক মান্ননা লৌজৈ । মখোই পুম্নমক ৱাখল লৌশিং শেঙই, অফ ফত্তা খঙই, অদুনা অমনা অমগা লোইনবদা মচীন মনাওগুম্না লোইনগদবনি । (in Bengali script) Mioiba khudingmak pokpa matamda ningtammi amadi ijjat amasung hak mānnana leijei, makhoi pumnamak wākhal loushing shengi, apha phatta khangi, aduna amana amaga loinabada machin manāogumna loinagadabani.