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North Dravidian languages

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North Dravidian
Northern Dravidian
Brahui–Kurukh
Geographic
distribution		Baluchistan and Eastern India
Linguistic classificationDravidian
  • North Dravidian
Proto-languageProto-Northern Dravidian
Subdivisions
Language codes
Glottolognort2698
Distribution of the Dravidian languages in South Asia

The North Dravidian languages are a branch[1] of the Dravidian languages that includes Brahui, Kurukh and Malto.[a]

Phonological features

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Northern Dravidian is characterized by the retraction of Proto Dravidian *k to /q/ before vowels other than /i(ː)/ and later spirantizing in Brahui and Kurukh, in return the *c also retracted to /k/ in the same environment.[5]

Initial *w became b likely due to influence from Eastern Indo-Aryan languages. Brahui also has a voiceless lateral which formed after the merge of *ḷ to *l as there are words from both of them but the conditions of the split are not clear.[5]

Classification

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The Dravidian languages form a close-knit family. Most scholars agree on four groups, North Dravidian being one of them:[6][7]

The most closely related language to Malto is Kurukh, and the closely connected to Kurukh is Malto; together with Brahui, all three languages form the North Dravidian branch of the Dravidian language family.[10]

Brahui

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Brahui: براہوئی (also known as Brahvi or Brohi) is a Dravidian language spoken by the Brahui people who are mainly found in the central Balochistan Province of Pakistan, with smaller communities of speakers scattered in parts of Iranian Baluchestan, Afghanistan,[11] and Turkmenistan (around Merv) and by expatriate Brahui communities in Iraq, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

It is isolated from the nearest Dravidian-speaking neighbouring population of South India by a distance of more than 1,500 kilometres (930 mi). The Kalat, Khuzdar, Mastung, Quetta, Bolan, Nasirabad, Nushki, and Kharan districts of Balochistan Province are predominantly Brahui-speaking.[12]

Kurukh

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Kurukh (Kurux, Oraon or Uranw) is a North Dravidian language spoken by the Kurukh (Oraon) and Kisan people of East India.[b] It is spoken by about two million people in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal,[14] Assam, Bihar and Tripura,[15] as well as about 5,000 in Bhutan. 28,600 speakers of a dialect called Uranw are reported to live in Nepal.[16] In Nepal, the language is called Dhangar or Jhangar,[17][18][c] being spoken alongside another Dravidian language called Kisan;[20] however, Kisan and Dhangar are treated as Kurukh dialects.[21] Kurux is also spoken by about 65,000 people in northern Bangladesh, in Barind and Sylhet.[22][d]

Malto

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Malto is a North Dravidian language spoken by the Malto or Maler people in Rajmahal Hills of western Jharkand and eastern Chhattisgarh, but also in West Bengal, Tripura and Orissa.[25] Scholarship identifies three dialects: Kumarbhag, Mal Paharia and Sawriya.[26][27][28][e] According to Sanford Steever, Malpaharia and Kumarbhag show "more affinity", while Sawriya is more conservative.[30]

Notes

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  1. ^ There have been slight differences in the way they are grouped by various Dravidian linguists.[2][3][4]
  2. ^ In some works Kisan is considered an independent language apart from Kurukh.[13]
  3. ^ According to Suren Sapkota, the people call themselves Uranw, while the designation Dhangar/Jhangar is an exonym which they do not like to be called.[19]
  4. ^ Xalxo (2024) cites a Malhar language as part of the North Dravidian group,[23] but it is otherwise generally grouped as within Kurukh.[24]
  5. ^ However, scholar B. P. Mahapatra, in his 1979 study, recognizes four groups of Pahariyas, namely, Marpaharia, Kumar Paharia (Kumarbhag), Malpaharia, and Sawriya Paharia. The Marpaharia (with an "r") is an Indo-Aryan speaking group and should not be confused with the Malpaharia (with an "l"), which is the Dravidian-speaking ethnic group.[29]

References

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  1. ^ Zvelebil 1990:56
  2. ^ Subrahmanyam 1983
  3. ^ Zvelebil 1990
  4. ^ Krishnamurthi 2003
  5. ^ a b Krishnamurti (2003).
  6. ^ Krishnamurti (2003), pp. 19–20.
  7. ^ Rama, Taraka; Kolachina, Sudheer (2013). "Distance-based phylogenetic inference algorithms in the subgrouping of Dravidian languages". In Lars Borin; Anju Saxena (eds.). Approaches to Measuring Linguistic Differences. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 141-174 [145-148]. doi:10.1515/9783110305258.141.
  8. ^ Krishnamurti (2003), p. 21.
  9. ^ Zvelebil (1990), p. 58.
  10. ^ Kobayashi, Masato (2022). "Proto-Dravidian Origins of the Kuṛux-Malto Past Stems". Bhasa: Journal of South Asian Linguistics, Philology and Grammatical Traditions. 1 (2): 263-282 [264]. doi:10.30687/bhasha/2785-5953/2022/01/004.
  11. ^ van Driem, George (2001). "Zagrosians and Indo-Europeans". Languages of the Himalayas. Vol. 2. Brill. pp. 994–1176 [1026]. ISBN 978-90-04-51492-8.
  12. ^ Elfenbein, Josef (2019). "Brahui". In Sanford B. Steever (ed.). The Dravidian Languages (Second ed.). London & New York: Routledge. pp. 495-519 [495].
  13. ^ Xalxo, Albin Rico (2024). Documentation of the Kurux, an endangered Dravidian language (PhD). University of Hyderabad. pp. 5–6. hdl:10603/642551.
  14. ^ Kobayashi, Masato; Oraon, Tetru (2019). "Kuṛux". In Sanford B. Steever (ed.). The Dravidian Languages (Second ed.). London & New York: Routledge. pp. 469-494 [469].
  15. ^ Driem, George (2007). "14. Endangered Languages of South Asia". In Matthias Brenzinger (ed.). Language Diversity Endangered. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 303-341 [310]. doi:10.1515/9783110197129.303.
  16. ^ National Population and Housing Census 2021: Languages in Nepal. Thapathali, Kathmandu: National Statistics Office. 2025. p. 32. ISBN 978-9937-9844-5-4.
  17. ^ van Driem, George (2012). "Glimpses of the Ethnolinguistic Prehistory of Northeastern India". In Toni Huber; Stuart Blackburn (eds.). Origins and Migrations in the Extended Eastern Himalayas. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. p. 187–211 [187]. doi:10.1163/9789004228368_011. The Dravidian tongues Dhangar and Jhangar, which are basically dialects of Kurukh or Uraon, are spoken in Nepal's eastern Terai.
  18. ^ Balasubramanian, G.; Arulmozi, S. (2024). "Sociolinguistics of Dravidian Languages in South Asia". In Martin J. Ball; Rajend Mesthrie; Chiara Meluzzi (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics Around the World (Second ed.). Routledge. pp. 170-183 [177]. doi:10.4324/9781003198345-16. The Kurux language, also known as Jhangar/Dhangar, is spoken by the Uranw (Oraon) community living in the Terai area of Southwestern Nepal.
  19. ^ Sapkota, Suren (2009). "A morphosyntax of relativization in Uranw (Dhangar/Jhangar): a functional typological perspective" (PDF). Nepalese Linguistics. 24: 317-326 [317fn1].
  20. ^ Sapkota, Suren (2008). "Personal pronouns in Dhangar/Jhangar" (PDF). Nepalese Linguistics. 23: 343-354 [343].
  21. ^ van Driem, George (2001). "Zagrosians and Indo-Europeans". Languages of the Himalayas. Vol. 2. Brill. pp. 994–1176 [1026, 1028]. ISBN 978-90-04-51492-8. Kurukh [is spoken] ... a[t] the foot of the Himalayas in the eastern Nepalese Terai, where about 15,000 people speak the Dhangar and Jhangar dialect. ... Dhangar, the western dialect of the [Kurukh] language ...
  22. ^ Balasubramanian, G.; Arulmozi, S. (2024). "Sociolinguistics of Dravidian Languages in South Asia". In Martin J. Ball; Rajend Mesthrie; Chiara Meluzzi (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics Around the World (Second ed.). Routledge. pp. 170-183 [176-177]. doi:10.4324/9781003198345-16. Kurux (Kurukh/Urang), the mother tongue of the ethnic community called Oraons/Uranw, believed to have migrated from Chota Nagpur of India, is spoken in the Barind and Sylhet regions of Bangladesh.
  23. ^ Xalxo, Albin Rico (2024). Documentation of the Kurux, an endangered Dravidian language (PhD). University of Hyderabad. pp. 5–6. hdl:10603/642551.
  24. ^ K. S. Singh; S. Manoharan, eds. (1993). Languages and Scripts. Vol. 9. Anthropological Survey of India. p. 315. ISBN 9780195633528. MALHAR (KURUKΗ) - A language of the Dravidian family (North Dravidian group). According to the 1961 Census language speakers were 77. Area: West Bengal.
  25. ^ Steever, Sanford B. (2019). "Malto". In Sanford B. Steever (ed.). The Dravidian Languages (Second ed.). London & New York: Routledge. pp. 433-468 [433].
  26. ^ Steever, Sanford B. (2019). "Introduction to the Dravidian languages". In Sanford B. Steever (ed.). The Dravidian Languages (Second ed.). London & New York: Routledge. pp. 1-44 [9]. [Malto] has at least three dialects distinguished according to phonology, morphology and lexicon: Kumarbhag, Malpaharia and Sawriya.
  27. ^ Steever, Sanford B. (2019). "Malto". In Sanford B. Steever (ed.). The Dravidian Languages (Second ed.). London & New York: Routledge. pp. 433-468 [433].
  28. ^ Kakali Mukherjee (2021). "Malpaharia". The Linguistic Survey of India: Jharkhand. India: Language Division, Office of the Registrar General. pp. 870-939 [872]. The languages used by Malpaharias and other Pahariyas are not the same. The Malpaharias speak an Indo-Aryan language, but the speech used by Kumarbhag and Sauriyas is a Dravidion one- the language name being Malto.
  29. ^ Mahapatra, B. P. (1979). Malto: An Ethnosemantic Study. Central Institute of Indian Languages occasional monographs series. Vol. 15. Central Institute of Indian Languages. pp. 4–6.
  30. ^ Steever, Sanford B. (2019). "Malto". In Sanford B. Steever (ed.). The Dravidian Languages (Second ed.). London & New York: Routledge. pp. 433-468 [466].

Bibliography

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Further reading

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