The Poumai Naga Dialects Dictionary is a living, community-built lexicon documenting the vocabulary of Poula (Poumai Naga), a Tibeto-Burman language spoken across Senapati district in Manipur, India. Poula is not a single uniform variety — it is a cluster of related village dialects, and this dictionary exists to record and compare vocabulary across all of them side by side, before that diversity is lost.
Rather than a single fixed wordlist, every entry here can carry a different form in each dialect — so the same gloss might show one word in Koide, a related-but-distinct word in Phuba, and yet another in Purul. That comparative record is the core purpose of the project.
The core goal is to help develop the Poula language: this archive lets writers and students choose words confidently and write in Poula — supporting the ongoing process of Poula standardisation.
Poula is taught as a subject up to Class 12 under the Manipur Board, Board of Secondary Education, Manipur (BSEM), making a consistent, well-documented vocabulary especially valuable for students and teachers alike.
This project was initiated in 2021 by Prof. Sahiinii Veikho at IIT Delhi, in collaboration with the Poumai Literature Society, chaired by Dr. Ngupani Tao, under the aegis of the Poumai Naga Union. It is managed technically by the Speech Lab, IIT Delhi.
Over 20 contributors from each village take part on a volunteer basis, registering for the dialect(s) they speak and submitting entries that are reviewed by an editorial team before they go live.
Contributors register for one or more dialects they can speak to, then submit new words or corrections through the Contribute page — including, where possible, a short audio recording of the pronunciation. Every submission is reviewed by an admin before it's published, to keep the dictionary accurate.
Poula syllables are CV (consonant + vowel). No final consonants in native words. No onset clusters. Each syllable carries one tone. Syllable boundaries marked with . in IPA.
Veikho, Sahiinii Lemaina, and Ngupani Tao (eds.). Poumai Naga Dictionary. First Edition. Senapati: Poumai Literature Society, 2026. Compiled with the contributions of the Poula Dictionary Project Contributors.
@book{veikho2026poumai,
editor = {Veikho, Sahiinii Lemaina and Tao, Ngupani},
title = {Poumai Naga Dictionary},
edition = {First},
publisher = {Poumai Literature Society},
address = {Senapati},
year = {2026},
note = {Compiled with the contributions of
the Poula Dictionary Project Contributors}
}
| Rank | Contributor | Village | Dialect(s) | Words submitted | Words approved | Award |
|---|
| Gloss | Dialect | Word | IPA | Audio | POS (old → new) | Type | By | Action |
|---|
| Name | Registered dialects | Village | Phone | Status | Action |
|---|
| # | Gloss | Word | Dialect | POS | Contributor | Date | Action |
|---|
| Name | Registered dialects | Village | Phone | Action |
|---|
I, ___________, of ___________, hereby voluntarily agree to contribute linguistic data to the Poumai Naga Dialects Dictionary, a community lexicon archive documenting the dialects of the Poumai Naga language.
I understand and agree to the following:
- My contributions, including dialect words, phonetic transcriptions, definitions, and example sentences, will be reviewed by the editorial team and, upon approval, published in the Poumai Naga Dictionary.
- All approved contributions will be published by the Poumai Literature Society, Senapati, Manipur, India, under the citation: Veikho, Sahiinii Lemaina, and Ngupani Tao (eds.). Poumai Naga Dictionary. First Edition. Senapati: Poumai Literature Society, 2026.
- My name will be acknowledged as a contributor in the dictionary, unless I request otherwise.
- I am contributing this data willingly and without coercion, and I have the right and knowledge to contribute the linguistic data I submit.
- The data I contribute may be used for linguistic research, language preservation, and educational purposes by the Poumai Literature Society and its partners, including the Speech Lab, IIT Delhi.
- I understand that once published, contributions become part of the public linguistic record of the Poumai Naga language community.
- I may withdraw my future contributions at any time by contacting the editorial team, though previously published entries cannot be removed from the printed edition.
By signing below, I confirm that I have read, understood, and agree to all the terms stated above.
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