Bishnupriya still retains its basic Bengali structural and morphological features. Bishnupriya as a dialect of Assamese Several Irish and Indian linguists and scholars including George Abraham Grierson, Maheswar Neog and Banikanta Kakati opine Bishnupriya as a dialect of Assamese language. Linguistic survey of India According to the Linguistic Survey of India led by Grierson, "Bishnupriya" alias "Mayang" (Code no. 555) is a dialect of Assamese language (Code no. 552). Meitei elements in Bishnupriya Bishnupriya has 4000 borrowed root words from Meitei language. Bishnupriya Manipuri retains the old eighteen sounds of Meitei. Of them, there were three vowels, such as ɑ, i and u, thirteen consonants such as p, t, k, pʰ, tʰ, kʰ, c͡ʃ, m, n, ŋ, l, ʃ, h and two semi-vowels, such as w and j. In later stage nine more sounds added to Meitei but Bishnupriya is not concerned with them, because the Bishnupriyas left Manipur during the first part of 19th century. That is why Bishnupriya Manipuri retains the older sounds of Meitei, whereas in Meitei itself the sound system has under-gone various changes. Vocabulary Like other Indic languages, the core vocabulary of Bishnupriya Manipuri is made up of tadbhava words (i.e. words inherited over time from older Indic languages, including Sanskrit, including many historical changes in grammar and pronunciation), although thousands of tatsama words (i.e. words that were re-borrowed directly from Sanskrit with little phonetic or grammatical change) augment the vocabulary greatly. In addition, many other words were borrowed from languages spoken in the region either natively or as a colonial language, including Meitei, English, and Perso-Arabic. Inherited/native Indic words (tadbhava): 10,000 (Of these, 2,000 are only found in Bishnupriya Manipuri, and have not been inherited by other Indic languages) Words re-borrowed from Sanskrit (tatsama): 10,000 Words re-borrowed from Sanskrit, partially modified (ardhatatsama): 1,500 Words borrowed from Meitei: 4000 Words borrowed from other indigenous non-Indic languages (desi): 1,500 Words borrowed from Perso-Arabic: 2,000 Words borrowed from English: 700 Hybrid words: 1,000 Words of obscure origin: 1,300 Notes and references Further reading Vasatatvar Ruprekha/ Dr. K. P. Sinha, Silchar, 1977 Manipuri jaatisotta bitorko: ekti niropekkho paath /Ashim Kumar Singha, Sylhet, 2001 G. K. Ghose / Tribals and Their Culture in Manipur and Nagaland, 1982 Raj Mohan Nath / The Background of Assamese Culture, 2nd edn, 1978 Sir G. A. Grierson / Linguistic Survey of India, Vol-5, 1903 Dr. K. P. Sinha / An Etymological Dictionary of