People may think that everyone in India speaks Hindi, but that’s not true at all. Hindi is only spoken widely in the northern central area of the vast land of India, with other regions being populated with vastly different ethnic groups with their own languages and cultures. For example, the Meitei people, who account for more than half the population in the northeastern state of Manipur, speak their own Meitei language and certainly don’t encompass an outsider’s stereotypical image of an Indian.
The Meitei language is considered “vulnerable” by UNESCO, even though it’s the lingua franca of Manipur. With around 1.7 million speakers, however, it does face threats from English and Hindi, which are much more widespread and prestigious within India. Rare is the translation agency that offers specialized services for languages generally unknown on the world stage, such as Meitei—but TranslationServices.com is that rare translation company. The Meitei people deserve high-quality translation services as much as anyone else, and we’ve compiled a professional Meitei translation team to this end.
If you’d like a quote for our Meitei translation services, just reach out. Quotes are free!
Let’s discover the intricacies of Meitei!
Outsiders may assume that Meitei, being an Indian language, is either an Indo–Aryan or Dravidian language, as most Indian languages are. But Meitei is different. It’s a Sino–Tibetan language, meaning it’s related to Tibetan and, more distantly, the Chinese languages. It bears a strong resemblance to Kuki and Tangkhul Naga, other Sino–Tibetan languages spoken by ethnic minorities in India. Outside of Manipur, Meitei is also spoken in the Indian states of Assam and Tripura, as well as parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Meitei is a tonal language, as is typical in the Sino–Tibetan family, although there’s debate as to whether Meitei has two or three tones. Meitei word order is subject-object-verb, with the verb at the end of a sentence. Unlike Tibetan and Sinitic languages, Meitei marks nouns with a plural suffix, although not when a number or adjective such as “some” or “many” is used. Verbs are not marked for number. However, compound verbs can be created with the suffixes -thok (“out” or “come out”) and -ning (“want”), which are combined with a tense marker at the end of the verb. The language was traditionally written in its own script, the Meitei script, or Meetei Mayek, but was replaced by the Bengali script in the 18th century. Since 1980, efforts to revert back to the Meitei script have increased.
Our Meitei translators understand all the intricacies of this unique Sino–Tibetan language and are passionate about providing translations both to and from the language.
Dedicated Meitei translators ready to serve you
What are you looking for in a Meitei translation? It could be that you want to bring Meitei culture to other parts of India or the world by translating traditional stories or literature. Maybe you’re a Meitei academic with papers or notes in Meitei that you’d like to share with international peers. In the other direction, you could be a researcher who wants to distribute a survey to the Meitei people or a business that wants to set up shop in Manipur, or perhaps you’re a creator who wants to make your work available to the Meitei people. Whatever your mission, our Meitei translators are here to help.
Feel free to reach out anytime and tell us what you need in your Meitei translation.