Bishnupuriya
[également appelé Bishnupriya,Bisna Puriya, Bishnupria Manipuri]Classification : Indo-European
·vulnérable
The Bishnupriya Manipuri language is the furthest development of the Indo-Aryan Language in the eastern part of India, It is confined to a small number of people, nearly one lakh living in parts of Manipur, Cachar, Tripura and Bangladesh. This language, which greatly differs from the Meitei (Manipuri) language, a language of the Tibeto-Burman group is little known abroad for the paucity of a rich literature. Scholars have so far shown little interest in the study of thie language, and, excepting a few pages by G.A. Grierson (in his Linguistic Sarvey of India) and a few references here and there by Dr SK. Chatterji (in bis Origin and Development of the Bengali Language), no attempt has been made to represent the salient traits of this language. The author Dr.Kali Prasad Sinha, a renowned philosopher, lingust and academician from the community itself showed interest in the study of the language. For this purpose, be visited every village of the Bishnupriya-Manipuri-speaking people within Cachar, Tripura and Manipur; studied dialectal differences and collected the vocabulary of the language. With all this material he also worked out a thesis, entitled ‘A Study in the Bishnupriya Manipuri Language’, for which he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the Jadavpur University, Calcutta in 1968. In this work, an attempt has been made for the first time to bring out the characteristic features of Bishnupriya Manipuri which, though unfamiliar, is of no less importance from the stand-point of the study of the linguistic history of India. In the preparation of the dissertation, the author is guided by Dr Suniti Kumar Chatterji, the renowned linguist of international fame.