Modern Meitei/Genders

Meitei language (Manipuri language) has nouns of only two genders, masculine and feminine. The names of menfolk and male gods are always masculine. The names of womenfolk and female gods are always feminine. A group consisting of people where both men and women are assembled together, is grammatically masculine (showing the signs of male dominated ancient society).

The grammatical genders are not always related to the actual real life genders. Non living things are usually considered as masculine but they can also be feminine in some cases. One can sometimes, but not always, infer the gender of a noun from its ending. If the noun ends with "ꯕ" ("-ba") or "ꯄ" ("-pa") or "ꯕꯥ" ("-bā" / "-baa") or "ꯄꯥ" ("-pā" / "-paa"), then it is usually masculine. If the noun ends with "ꯕꯤ" ("-bi" / "-bee") or "ꯄꯤ" ("-pi" / "-pee"), then it is usually feminine. For example, the term for man is "ꯅꯨꯄꯥ" ("nupa") and the term for woman is "ꯅꯨꯄꯤ" ("nupi").