Chairel (), also spelled as Chairen (), is an extinct Sino-Tibetan language of Manipur, India. It is preserved notably in a word list from 1859, alongside the Chakpa language. Chairel speakers have undergone linguistic shifting to Meitei language.
Classification Benedict (1972) notes that the words sal 'sun' and phal 'fire' are shared with the Boro–Garo, Konyak, and Jingpho–Luish languages, which are said to constitute the Sal languages.
Matisoff (2013) argues that Chairel belongs to the Luish languages.Matisoff, James A. 2013. Re-examining the genetic position of Jingpho: putting flesh on the bones of the Jingpho/Luish relationship. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 36(2). 1–106.
Huziwara (2014) argues that Chairel lacks important characteristics of other Luish languages, a position maintained in Huziwara (2020).
Van Driem (2014) accepts Chairel's placement within Jingpho–Luish (referred to in his paper as "Kachinic"), though is agnostic about Jingpho–Luish's relation to Boro–Garo and Konyak.
References
Huziwara, Keisuke 藤原敬介 (2014). "A new look at the classification of the Chairel language チャイレル語の系統再考." Proceedings of The Linguistic Society of Japan 日本言語学会第148 回大会予稿集, 148:272-277.