Scholar Renews Case Against Meiteilon's Tibeto-Burman Label

Dr Irengbam Mohendra Singh, author of *Meiteilon is not a Tibeto-Burman Language* (2009), revisits his long-standing argument that Manipuri, or Meiteilon, does not genuinely belong to the Tibeto-Burman family. Despite new developments such as the *Meitei RoBERTa* language model and continuing script-standardisation efforts around Meitei Mayek, he insists these advances do not resolve the deeper question of linguistic classification.

He contends that the Tibeto-Burman label rests on outdated missionary word lists and broad typological resemblance rather than rigorous genetic reconstruction. Citing phonological, morphological, and lexical divergences, he argues Meiteilon aligns more closely with Southeast Asian and Austroasiatic patterns than with Tibeto-Burman ones.

Proposing his own linguistic model, the author places Meiteilon as an independent branch or part of a "Southeast Asian convergence zone," emphasising its distinct script history and civilizational identity. He frames the mainstream classification as an act of academic convenience rather than settled science, urging renewed scholarly scrutiny of Meiteilon's true linguistic lineage.