With at least 30 recognized languages in Manipur, the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Manipur (IIIT-M) is working to support the preservation and continued study of Manipur’s linguistic diversity. Partnering with the Computational Resource for South Asian Languages (CoRSAL), IIIT-M computational linguists and linguists are creating a curriculum to provide specialized training for language archiving. The efforts are spearheaded by Sarbajit Leihaorambam and Kabita Thaoroijam at IIIT-M, and Shobhana Chelliah and Mary Burke of CoRSAL, UNT. 

In 2020, the team offered a week-long workshop spreading awareness of language documentation and conservation to community language documenters in Manipur. As a result, the Kom Language Resource in the CoRSAL archive was created. Now in 2022, the team jointly undertook a site visit to Purum Pantha and Thamlapokpi villages in the Chandel district of Manipur to discuss a lexical database for the Lamkang language. 

Stay tuned for our next steps!