The plural in the case of human beings is formed by adding "sing"/"shing" (meitei: -ꯁꯤꯡ) to the word and declining in the same manner as in the singular, as:-
mising, ꯃꯤꯁꯤꯡ - men.
Misinggi, ꯃꯤꯁꯤꯡꯒꯤ - of men, etc.
There is no plural form for animals and other things. "Kheibik" and "pumnamak", all, or "yamna", many, are used to indicate plurality.[6]
Gender
Gender, in the case of animals, is indicated by the addition of "laba" (meitei: ꯂꯥꯕ) for the masculine and "amom" (meitei: ꯑꯃꫭꯝ) for the feminine, as:--
In the case of human beings, gender is indicated by the addition of "nupa"/"nipa" and "nupi"/"nipi", but only when the same word is used for both male and female, as:-
The form ending in "hak" is honorific. The plural is formed by adding "khoi" to the singular non-honorific form. Pronouns are declined in the same way, as "mi", a man.[7]
It was very good "masi yamna phare," where "phaba" has been changed into "phare" to give the word a past meaning. "Ba" is changed into "bi" in the feminine. Adjectives have no plural form.[6]
Verbs
The conjugation of the Meitei verb is very complex. According to Arthur John Primrose (1888), no language has such a variety of tense forms to express present, past, or future action as found in Meitei language. Most of the varieties have distinct meanings of their own. Every verb has also a negative and interrogative form conjugated in all tenses except the interrogative future like the simple verb. The Meitei linguistic system divides the verb into present, past, and future tenses. They also have an imperative tense form under the present tense forms they classify what in English grammar is called the perfect tense. There are no less than eight different present tense forms with corresponding forms for the past and future tenses.[8]
There is no difference in the terminations of a tense, singular or plural, for the first, second, and third persons except in the imperative, which is irregular.[8]
The subjunctive mood is expressed by a participle ending in "labadi" or "rabadi". The "labadi" is used when the verb root ends in a consonant, "rabadi" when the root ends in vowel.[8]
The rule for the interchange of "l" and "r" is also observed in other tenses, "r" is always used after a vowel, "l" after a consonant.[8]
The future participle ends in "laga" or "raga" as "chatlaga," "touraga."[9]
The participle ending in "lingaida" or "ringaida" means at the time of doing a thing, as "when I was going there I saw him" = "aina asida chatlingaida maboo aina uram-mi."[9]
The participle in "kadabagi" or "nanaba" is used to express a purpose, as, "you make preparations to go" = "nang chatna-naba thourang tou."[9]
Participle in "ringaida" or "lingaida" - at the time of doing a thing.[9]
These verbal nouns can be used in the different tense forms, but the three forms given above are in general use, the other forms are rarely used.[9]
In sentences such as the following: "the work which is being done is good," "the work which has been done is good," the passive tense forms are expressed by participle forms preceding the noun to which they are related, as,[9]
the work which is being done is good - "touriba thabak adu fei;"
"the work which has been done is good" - "toukhriba thabak adu fei."[9]
After words like "kari" (what), "karam" (why), and other interrogative adverbs, a form is used ending in "page" or "bage", for example,[9]
Each of the eight forms for the present and past tenses have corresponding negative and interrogative forms. There is only one future negative and interrogative form. It is unnecessary to give all the different negative and interrogative forms for the present and past tenses as only two or three forms are in general use. The conjugation of the verbs "touba" and "chatpa" in their negative and interrogative forms is given below:[10]
↑ "Manipuri language | Manipuri language | Meitei, India, Tibeto-Burman | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2025-03-24. Manipuri clearly has the genetic features of the Tibeto-Burman group. These include three positional occurrences of the velar nasals, widespread stem homophony, semantic bleaching of verbs, duplication or elaboration, final particles, the predominance of aspect rather than tense, a lack of gender marking verb-final word order, and agglutinative verb morphology, with extensive suffixation and more limited prefixation.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Primrose, Arthur John. A Manipuri Grammar, Vocabulary, and Phrase Book: To which are Added Some Manipuri Proverbs and Specimens of Manipuri Correspondence. India: Assam Secretariat Press, 1888. p. 2, 3
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Primrose, Arthur John. A Manipuri Grammar, Vocabulary, and Phrase Book: To which are Added Some Manipuri Proverbs and Specimens of Manipuri Correspondence. India: Assam Secretariat Press, 1888. p. 4
1 2 3 4 Primrose, Arthur John. A Manipuri Grammar, Vocabulary, and Phrase Book: To which are Added Some Manipuri Proverbs and Specimens of Manipuri Correspondence. India: Assam Secretariat Press, 1888. p. 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Primrose, Arthur John. A Manipuri Grammar, Vocabulary, and Phrase Book: To which are Added Some Manipuri Proverbs and Specimens of Manipuri Correspondence. India: Assam Secretariat Press, 1888. p. 9
1 2 3 4 5 Primrose, Arthur John. A Manipuri Grammar, Vocabulary, and Phrase Book: To which are Added Some Manipuri Proverbs and Specimens of Manipuri Correspondence. India: Assam Secretariat Press, 1888. p. 10
1 2 3 4 Primrose, Arthur John. A Manipuri Grammar, Vocabulary, and Phrase Book: To which are Added Some Manipuri Proverbs and Specimens of Manipuri Correspondence. India: Assam Secretariat Press, 1888. p. 35, 36, 37
1 2 3 4 Primrose, Arthur John. A Manipuri Grammar, Vocabulary, and Phrase Book: To which are Added Some Manipuri Proverbs and Specimens of Manipuri Correspondence. India: Assam Secretariat Press, 1888. p. 38
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