Kurukh language
| Kurukh | |
|---|---|
| Kurux, Oraon | |
| कुड़ुख़ | |
| Native to | India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan |
| Region | Odisha |
| Ethnicity | Kurukh people |
Native speakers | 2.0 million (2001 census)[1] |
Dravidian
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Tolong Siki, Devanagari script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | kru |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:kru – Kurukhkxl – Nepali Kurux (Dhangar)xis – Kisan |
| Glottolog | kuru1301 |
| ELP | Nepali Kurux |
Kurukh /ˈkʊrʊx/[2] (also Kurux and Oraon or Uranw;[3] Devanagari: कुड़ुख़) is a Dravidian language spoken by nearly two million Oraon and Kisan tribal peoples of Odisha and surrounding areas of India (Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal), as well as by 50,000 in northern Bangladesh, 28,600 a dialect called Dhangar in Nepal, and about 5,000 in Bhutan. It is most closely related to Brahui and Malto (Paharia). The language is marked as being in a "vulnerable" state in UNESCO's list of endangered languages.[4]
Classification
Kurukh belongs to the Northern Dravidian group of the Dravidian family of languages,[5] and is closely related to Sauria Paharia and Kumarbhag Paharia, which are often together referred to as Malto.[6]
Kurukh is written in the Devanagari script, a script used to write Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and other Indo-Aryan languages. Dr. Narayan Oraon, a medical doctor, has invented the Tolong Siki script for Kurukh language. Many books and magazine have been published in Tolong Siki script. The Kurukh Literary Society of India have been instrumental to spread the Tolong Siki script for Kurukh literature.
Speakers
It is spoken by 2,053,000 people from the Oraon and Kisan tribes, having 1,834,000 and 219,000 speakers, respectively. The literacy rate is 23% Oraon and 17% Kisan. Despite the large number of speakers, the language is considered at risk of extinction.[7] The governments of Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh have introduced the Kurukh language in schools where Kurukhars or Oraon students are in a majority.
Alternative names and dialects
Kurukh has a number of alternative names, some are: Uraon, Kurux, Kunrukh, Kunna, Urang, Morva, and Birhor. There are also two dialects, Oraon and Kisan, that have 73% intelligibility between them. Oraon is currently being standardized, Kisan is not.
Phonology
Kurukh contrasts oral and nasal vowels.[8]
References
- ^ Kurukh at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Nepali Kurux (Dhangar) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Kisan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) - ^ "Kurukh". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/nepa1253
- ^ Evans, Lisa. "Endangered Languages: The Full List". The Guardian.
- ^ Stassen, Leon (1997). Intransitive Predication. Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory. Oxford University Press. p. 220. ISBN 978-0199258932.
- ^ PS Subrahmanyam, "Kurukh", in ELL2. Ethnologue assigns Nepali Kurux a separate iso code, kxl.
- ^ Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine. Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Page 9.
- ^ Masica, Colin P. (2003). "South Asian Languages". International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
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External links
- Ferdinand Hahn (1903). Kuruḵh̲ (Orā̃ō)-English dictionary. Bengal Secretariat Press. pp. 126–. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
- Ferdinand Hahn (1900). Kuruḵẖ grammar. Bengal Secretariat Press. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
- Kuruk̲h̲ folk-lore: in the original. The Bengal Secretariat Book Depot. 1905. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
- Kurukh basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
- Omniglot's page on Tolong Siki
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