Mundari language
Mundari | |
---|---|
मुंडारी, মুন্ডারি, ମୁଣ୍ଡାରୀ, 𞓧𞓟𞓨𞓜𞓕𞓣𞓚 | |
![]() 'Mundari' in Mundari Bani script | |
Native to | India, Bangladesh, Nepal |
Ethnicity | Munda and Bhumij |
Native speakers | 1.7 million (2011 census)[a][2] |
Austroasiatic
| |
Dialects | |
Mundari Bani Ol Onal (Bhumij) Others: Odia, Devanagari, Bengali, Latin | |
Official status | |
Official language in | ![]()
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Either:unr – Mundariunx – Munda |
Glottolog | mund1320 |
ELP | Bhumij |
![]() Munadri (along with variety Bhumij) is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger[3] |
Mundari (Munɖari) is a Munda language of the Austroasiatic language family spoken by the Munda tribes in eastern Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal and northern Rangpur Division of Bangladesh.[4] It is closely related to Santali.[5] Mundari Bani, a script specifically to write Mundari, was invented by Rohidas Singh Nag.[6][7] It has also been written in the Devanagari, Odia, Bengali, and Latin writing systems.
History
[edit]According to linguist Paul Sidwell (2018), Munda languages probably arrived on coast of Odisha from Indochina about 4000–3500 years ago and spread after Indo-Aryan migration to Odisha.[8]
Geographical distribution
[edit]Census | Munda (±%) | Mundari (±%) | Bhumij (±%) | Total (±%) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1971 | 309,293 | 771,253 | 51,651 | 1,132,197 | ||||
1981 | 377,492 | (+22) | 742,739 | (-4) | 50,384 | (-2.5) | 1,170,615 | (+3.4) |
1991 | 413,894 | (+9.6) | 861,378 | (+16) | 45,302 | (-10.1) | 1,320,574 | (+12.8) |
2001 | 469,357 | (+13.5) | 1,061,352 | (+23) | 47,443 | (+4.7) | 1,578,152 | (+19.5) |
2011 | 505,922 | (+7.8) | 1,128,228 | (+6) | 27,506 | (-42) | 1,661,656 | (+5.3) |
Note: In the 2011 census, for the first time, 34,651 respondents (primarily in Odisha) recorded Bhumijali as their mother tongue, likely as an alternative name for the Bhumij language. However, for census purposes, it was categorized under the Odia language, which resulted in a 42 percent decline in the number of Bhumij speakers.[1] | ||||||||
Source: Census of India[9] |
Distribution of Mundari language (incl. Munda, Bhumij, and Bhumijali) in the state of India (2011)[1]
Mundari is spoken in the Ranchi, Khunti, Seraikela Kharsawan and West Singhbhum, East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, and in the Mayurbhanj, Kendujhar, Baleshwar, Sundargarh district of Odisha by at least 1.1 million people.[10] Another 500,000, mainly in Odisha and Assam, are recorded in the census as speaking "Munda," potentially another name for Mundari.
Dialects
[edit]Toshiki Osada (2008:99), citing the Encyclopaedia Mundarica (vol. 1, p. 6), lists the following dialects of Mundari, which are spoken mostly in Jharkhand state.
- Hasada ([hasa-daʔ]): east of the Ranchi-Chaibasa Road
- Naguri ([naɡuri]): west of the Ranchi-Chaibasa Road
- Tamaria ([tamaɽ-ia]) or Latar: Panchpargana area (Tamar, Bundu, Rahe, Sonahatu, Silli)
- Kera ([keraʔ]): ethnic Oraon who live in the Ranchi city area
- Bhumij, listed in many sources as a separate language, may in fact be a variety of the Latar (Tamaria) dialect of Mundari. It is spoken across Jharkhand state and in Mayurbhanj district, Odisha (Anderson 2008, pp. 196–197) . There may be around 50,000 Bhumij speakers, although the census records around 27,000.[11]
Phonology
[edit]The phonology of Mundari is similar to the surrounding closely related Austroasiatic languages but considerably different from either Indo-Aryan or Dravidian. Perhaps the most foreign phonological influence has been on the vowels. Whereas the branches of Austroasiatic in Southeast Asia are rich in vowel phonemes, Mundari has only five. The consonant inventory of Mundari is similar to other Austroasiatic languages with the exception of retroflex consonants, which seem to appear only in loanwords. (Osada 2008)
Vowels
[edit]Mundari has five vowel phonemes. All vowels have long and short as well as nasalized allophones, but neither length nor nasality are contrastive. All vowels in open monosyllables are quantitatively longer than those in closed syllables, and those following nasal consonants or /ɟ/ are nasalized. Vowels preceding or following /ɳ/ are also nasalized.
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Mid | e | o | |
Open | a |
Consonants
[edit]Mundari's consonant inventory consists of 23 basic phonemes. The Naguri and Kera dialects include aspirated stops as additional phonemes, here enclosed in parentheses.
Labial | Dental | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n̪ | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ | ||
Plosive | voiceless | p | t̪ | ʈ | t͡ɕ | k | ʔ |
aspirated | (pʰ) | (t̪ʰ) | (ʈʰ) | (t͡ɕʰ) | (kʰ) | ||
voiced | b | d̪ | ɖ | d͡ʑ | ɡ | ||
Fricative | s̪ | h | |||||
Approximant | w | l | ɽ | j | |||
Trill | r |
Counting
[edit]S.No. | Mundari | Transliteration | Translation |
---|---|---|---|
1 | मियद | Miyad | One |
2 | बारिया | Baria | Two |
3 | आपिया | Apia | Three |
4 | उपनिआ | Upnia | four |
5 | मोड़ेया | Modea | Five |
6 | तुरिया | Turia | Six |
7 | एया | Are | Seven |
8 | इरलिया | Erlia | Eight |
9 | आरेया | Area | Nine |
10 | गेलेया | Galea | Ten |
11 | Gel Miyad | Eleven | |
12 | Gel Bariya | Twelve | |
13 | Apiya | Thirteen | |
14 | Upuna | Fourteen | |
15 | Modeya | Fifteen | |
16 | Turiya | Sixteen | |
17 | Eya | Seventeen | |
18 | Iriliya | Eighteen | |
19 | Areya | Nineteen | |
20 | Mid Hisi | Twenty | |
21 | Hisi Miyad | Twenty-one | |
30 | Mid hisi Gel | Thirty | |
31 | Hisi Gel Miyad | Thirty-one | |
40 | Bar Hisi | Forty | |
41 | Bar Hisi Miyad | Forty-one | |
50 | Bar Hisi Gel | Fifty | |
60 | Aapi Hisi | Sixty | |
70 | Aapi Hisi Gel | Seventy | |
80 | Upun Hisi | Eighty | |
90 | Upun Hisi Gel | Ninety | |
100 | Mid Saaye | One hundred | |
200 | Bar Saaye | Two hundred | |
1000 | Mid Hazar | One thousand | |
1,00,000 | Mid Lak | One lakh |
Relations
[edit]Mundari | Transliteration | Translation |
---|---|---|
एङ्गा | Eṅga | Mother |
आपु | Apu | Father |
हागा | Haga | Brother |
मिसि | Misi | Sister |
गुया | Guya | Sister/brother of sister/brother in law |
गति | Gati | Friend |
Hon koṛa | Son | |
Hon Kuṛi | Daughter |
Verb
[edit]Mundari | Transliteration | Translation |
---|---|---|
रिकाएआ | Rikā'ē'ā | Does |
ओलेआ | Ol'ē'ā | Write |
जगरेआ | Jagor'ē'ā | Talk |
पढ़वएआ | Padv'ē'ā | Read |
लेलेआ | Lel'ē'ā | Look / see |
सेनेआ | Sen'ē'ā | Come along with |
नमेआ | Nem'ē'ā | Found |
निरेआ | Nir'ē'ā | Run |
सबेआ | Sab'ē'ā | Hold |
लेका एआ | Leka'ē'ā | Count |
मुकाएआ | Muka'ē'ā | Measure |
रिका एआ | Rika'ē'ā | Cut |
হেড়েম | Hedem | Sweet |
Kete-e | Hard | |
Lebe-e | Soft | |
Singi | Sun | |
Chandu-u | Moon | |
Ipil | Stars | |
Sirma | Sky | |
Ote Dishum | Earth | |
Rimil | cloud | |
Hoyo | Air/Wind | |
Gitil | Sands | |
Dhudi | Dust | |
Losod | Muddy | |
Hodomo | Body | |
Tasad | Grass | |
Daru | Tree | |
Sakam | Leaf | |
Dayir | Branches of Tree |
Writing system
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/MundariLanguageScript.jpg/220px-MundariLanguageScript.jpg)
Mandari is also written in native Mundari Bani, invented in the 1980s by Rohidas Singh Nag.
Grammar
[edit]It has been claimed the Mundari has no word classes, so that nouns, verbs, and adjectives are distinguished only by context. However, this has been disputed, notably by Evans and Osada in 2005.[12]
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c "C-16: Population by mother tongue, India - 2011". Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India.
- ^ "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues – 2011" (PDF). www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 6 March 2021. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ^ Moseley, Christopher; Nicolas, Alexander, eds. (2010). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (PDF) (3rd ed.). Paris: UNESCO. pp. 46–47. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022.
- ^ "Mundari alphabet, pronunciation and description".
- ^ "Mundari Bani".
- ^ "BMS to intensify agitation on Mundari language". oneindia.com. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
- ^ "Adivasi. Volume 52. Number 1&2. June&December 2012". Page 22
- ^ Sidwell, Paul. 2018. "Austroasiatic Studies: state of the art in 2018" Archived 3 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Presentation at the Graduate Institute of Linguistics, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, May 22, 2018.
- ^ "Statement 8 : Growth of Non-Scheduled Languages - 1971, 1981, 1991,2001 and 2011" (PDF). censusindia.gov.in. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 June 2021.
- ^ "Mundari". ethnologue.
- ^ "Keeping Munda in mind". Pune Mirror. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
- ^ Evans, Nicholas; Osada, Toshiki (2005). "Mundari: The myth of a language without word classes". Linguistic Typology. 9 (3). doi:10.1515/lity.2005.9.3.351. hdl:1885/54663. S2CID 121706232.
Further reading
[edit]- Anderson, Gregory D.S (ed). 2008. The Munda languages. Routledge Language Family Series 3.New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-32890-X.
- Evans, Nicholas & Toshki Osada. 2005a. Mundari: the myth of a language without word classes. In Linguistic Typology 9.3, pp. 351–390.
- Evans, Nicholas & Toshki Osada. 2005b. Mundari and argumentation in word-class analysis. In Linguistic Typology 9.3, pp. 442–457
- Hengeveld, Kees & Jan Rijkhoff. 2005. Mundari as a flexible language. In Linguistic Typology 9.3, pp. 406–431.
- Newberry, J. (2000). North Munda dialects: Mundari, Santali, Bhumia. Victoria, B.C.: J. Newberry. ISBN 0-921599-68-4
- Osada Toshiki. 2008. "Mundari". In Anderson, Gregory D.S (ed). The Munda languages, 99–164. Routledge Language Family Series 3.New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-32890-X.
Texts
[edit]- Johann Hoffmann (1903). Mundari grammar. Bengal Secretariat Press. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
- J. C. Whitley (1873). A Mundári Primer. Bengal Secretariat Press. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
- Carl Gustav Rudolph Eduard Alfred Nottrott (1882). Grammatik der Kolh-Sprache. Gütersloh: Druck von C. Bertelsmann. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
- Four gospels in Mundari. Bible Society. 1881. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
External links
[edit]- Mundari Bibliography at Department of Linguistics, University of Osnabrueck, Germany
- Detailed language map of eastern Nepal, see language #68 in green along eastern border
- http://projekt.ht.lu.se/rwaai RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage)
- http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-A6AA-C@view Mundari language in RWAAI Digital Archive
- https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21031r-mundari.pdf
- https://omniglot.com/writing/mundaribani.htm
- https://omniglot.com/writing/mundari.htm