DOCSLIB.ORG

Overview of the Munda Languages

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Overview of the Munda Languages chapter 5 Overview of the Munda Languages Gregory D.S. Anderson 1 Introduction The Munda languages are a group of Austroasiatic languages spoken across portions of central and eastern India by perhaps as many as ten million people total. The Munda peoples are generally believed to represent autochthonous populations over much of their current areas of inhabitation. This is codified in one of the common terms used locally to describe them, adivasi or ‘aboriginal’. Approximate Distribution of N E P A Munda languages L Mundari UTTAR PRADESH Santali INDIA B BIHAR A N Agariya G L Korwa D A HAN Koda JHARK D MADHYA Santali E Agariya Koraku Asuri Turi S PRADESH 5 H KorwaAsuri 4 2 WEST 1 3 2 3 Santali1 BENGAL 5 4 Bhumij 1 5 2 3 Kharia 3 1 Korku H R A G Juang Mahali S 1. Birhor HARASHTRA I MA T ORISSA 2. Ho T A Gorum 3. Kharia H H Remo 4. Mundari C Sora 5. Turi ANDHRA Gutob PRADESH Gta 0 Miles 150 INDIAN OCEAN 0 Km 150 Map 5.1 Location of the Munda languages in India. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi ��.��63/9789004�8357�_006 overview of the munda languages 365 Originally, Munda-speaking peoples probably extended over a somewhat larger area before being marginalized into the relatively remote hill country and (formerly) forested areas primarily in the states of Odisha and Jharkhand; significant Munda-speaking groups are also to be found in Madhya Pradesh, and throughout remote areas of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra, and through migration to virtually all areas of India, especially in tea-producing regions like Assam. Of course much of the original Munda-speaking territory was subsequently settled or colonized by Indo-Aryan-speakers and Dravidian-speakers. 1.1 On the Prehistory of the Munda-Speaking Peoples The pre-history of the Munda languages remains obscure. Munda languages constitute the westernmost representatives of the far-flung Austroasiatic linguistic phylum. Two other Austroasiatic groups are found in the present- day territory of India, the Khasian-speaking groups of Meghalaya and the Nicobarese-speaking groups of the Nicobar Islands. The other subgroups of Austroasiatic are all found outside of India, and it is generally believed that the Austroasiatic ancestral language was not to be found in India but rather further to the east. Thus, at some point the ancestors of the Munda-speaking peoples must have migrated westward into the Subcontinent. When, how, and by what path they entered India remains a subject of considerable debate. Indeed, it is not even clear that there was a single migration of pre-Munda speakers, but there may even have been two or more such movements. 1.2 Internal Ρelationships among Languages of the Munda Family Concensus has not yet been reached on the internal relationships of the Munda languages, but several subgroups have been proposed and some of these appear to be sound. It is hoped that further work in comparative Munda grammar and lexicon may shed light on this issue. The northern-, eastern- and westernmost groups of Munda languages are clearly related and appear to fall into two broad groupings. The first of these is the westernmost Munda lan- guage Korku which appears to be a sister to the remainder of this subgroup, the large and complex Kherwarian dialect/language chain, the better known varieties of which are Santali, Mundari and Ho. Kherwarian also includes a number of minor varieties as well, e.g. Turi, Asuri, Birhor, Bhumij, Korwa, etc. Korku and Kherwarian together are conventionally known as North Munda. The remaining Munda languages are almost only found in the state of Odisha, which appears to be the epi-center of diversity of the family, although some Kharia speakers are found in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh as well and some of the southernmost groups like the Gtaʔ or the Gorum .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Journal Vol. LX. No. 2. 2018
    JOURNAL OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY VOLUME LX No. 4 2018 THE ASIATIC SOCIETY 1 PARK STREET KOLKATA © The Asiatic Society ISSN 0368-3308 Edited and published by Dr. Satyabrata Chakrabarti General Secretary The Asiatic Society 1 Park Street Kolkata 700 016 Published in February 2019 Printed at Desktop Printers 3A, Garstin Place, 4th Floor Kolkata 700 001 Price : 400 (Complete vol. of four nos.) CONTENTS ARTICLES The East Asian Linguistic Phylum : A Reconstruction Based on Language and Genes George v an Driem ... ... 1 Situating Buddhism in Mithila Region : Presence or Absence ? Nisha Thakur ... ... 39 Another Inscribed Image Dated in the Reign of Vigrahapäla III Rajat Sanyal ... ... 63 A Scottish Watchmaker — Educationist and Bengal Renaissance Saptarshi Mallick ... ... 79 GLEANINGS FROM THE PAST Notes on Charaka Sanhitá Dr. Mahendra Lal Sircar ... ... 97 Review on Dr. Mahendra Lal Sircar’s studies on Äyurveda Anjalika Mukhopadhyay ... ... 101 BOOK REVIEW Coin Hoards of the Bengal Sultans 1205-1576 AD from West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam and Bangladesh by Sutapa Sinha Danish Moin ... ... 107 THE EAST ASIAN LINGUISTIC PHYLUM : A RECONSTRUCTION BASED ON LANGUAGE AND GENES GEORGE VAN DRIEM 1. Trans-Himalayan Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Xiâng, Hokkien, Teochew, Pínghuà, Gàn, Jìn, Wú and a number of other languages and dialects together comprise the Sinitic branch of the Trans-Himalayan language family. These languages all collectively descend from a prehistorical Sinitic language, the earliest reconstructible form of which was called Archaic Chinese by Bernard Karlgren and is currently referred to in the anglophone literature as Old Chinese. Today, Sinitic linguistic diversity is under threat by the advance of Mandarin as a standard language throughout China because Mandarin is gradually taking over domains of language use that were originally conducted primarily in the local Sinitic languages.
    [Show full text]
  • Grammaticalization Processes in the Languages of South Asia
    This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Grammaticalization processes in the languages of South Asia Coupe, Alexander R. 2018 Coupe, A. R. (2018). Grammaticalization processes in the languages of South Asia. In H. Narrog, & B. Heine (Eds.), Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective (pp. 189‑218). doi:10.1093/oso/9780198795841.003.0010 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/146316 https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198795841.003.0010 © 2018 Alexander R. Coupe. First published 2018 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Downloaded on 28 Sep 2021 13:23:43 SGT OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 22/9/2018, SPi 10 Grammaticalization processes in the languages of South Asia ALEXANDER R. COUPE . INTRODUCTION This chapter addresses some patterns of grammaticalization in a broad selection of languages of South Asia, a region of considerable cultural and linguistic diversity inhabited by approximately . billion people living in eight countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) and speaking known languages (Simons and Fennig ). The primary purpose of the chapter is to present representative examples of grammaticalization in the languages of the region—a task that also offers the opportunity to discuss correlations between the South Asian linguistic area and evidence suggestive of contact-induced grammat- icalization. With this secondary objective in mind, the chapter intentionally focuses upon processes that either target semantically equivalent lexical roots and construc- tions or replicate syntactic structures across genetically unrelated languages. The theoretical concept of ‘grammaticalization’ adopted here is consistent with descriptions of the phenomenon first proposed by Meillet (), and subsequently developed by e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Tribes in India
    SIXTH SEMESTER (HONS) PAPER: DSE3T/ UNIT-I TRIBES IN INDIA Brief History: The tribal population is found in almost all parts of the world. India is one of the two largest concentrations of tribal population. The tribal community constitutes an important part of Indian social structure. Tribes are earliest communities as they are the first settlers. The tribal are said to be the original inhabitants of this land. These groups are still in primitive stage and often referred to as Primitive or Adavasis, Aborigines or Girijans and so on. The tribal population in India, according to 2011 census is 8.6%. At present India has the second largest population in the world next to Africa. Our most of the tribal population is concentrated in the eastern (West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand) and central (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattishgarh, Andhra Pradesh) tribal belt. Among the major tribes, the population of Bhil is about six million followed by the Gond (about 5 million), the Santal (about 4 million), and the Oraon (about 2 million). Tribals are called variously in different countries. For instance, in the United States of America, they are known as ‘Red Indians’, in Australia as ‘Aborigines’, in the European countries as ‘Gypsys’ , in the African and Asian countries as ‘Tribals’. The term ‘tribes’ in the Indian context today are referred as ‘Scheduled Tribes’. These communities are regarded as the earliest among the present inhabitants of India. And it is considered that they have survived here with their unchanging ways of life for centuries. Many of the tribals are still in a primitive stage and far from the impact of modern civilization.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of South Asian Linguistics
    Volume 8, Issue 1 July 2018 Journal of South Asian Linguistics Volume 8 Published by CSLI Publications Contents 1 Review of The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia: A Contemporary Guide 3 Farhat Jabeen 1 JSAL volume 8, issue 1 July 2018 Review of The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia: A Contemporary Guide Farhat Jabeen, University of Konstanz Received December 2018; Revised January 2019 Bibliographic Information: The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia: A Contemporary Guide. Edited by Hans Heinrich Hock and Elena Bashir. De Gruyter Mouton. 2016. 1 Introduction With its amazing linguistic diversity and the language contact situation caused by centuries of mi- gration, invasion, and cultural incorporation, South Asia offers an excellent opportunity for linguists to exercise their skill and challenge established theoretical linguistic claims. South Asian languages, with their unique array of linguistic features, have offered interesting challenges to prevalent formal linguistic theories and emphasized the need to expand their horizons and modify their theoretical assumptions. This book is the 7th volume of The World of Linguistics series edited by Hans Heinrich Hock. The current book is jointly edited by Hans Heinrich Hock and Elena Bashir, two excellent South Asian linguists with extensive experience of working in the field on a number of South Asian languages. At more than 900 pages, the volume is divided into ten sections pertaining to different linguistic levels (morphology, phonetics and phonology, syntax and semantics), grammatical traditions to study South Asian languages, sociological phenomena (contact and convergence) and sociolinguistics of South Asia, writing systems, as well as the use of computational linguistics approach to study South Asian languages in the twentieth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Bangladesh Public Disclosure Authorized
    SFG2305 GPOBA for OBA Sanitation Microfinance Program in Bangladesh Public Disclosure Authorized Small Ethnic Communities and Vulnerable Peoples Development Framework (SECVPDF) May 2016 Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh Public Disclosure Authorized TABLE OF CONTENTS Page A. Executive Summary 3 B. Introduction 5 1. Background and context 5 2. The GPOBA Sanitation Microfinance Programme 6 C. Social Impact Assessment 7 1. Ethnic Minorities/Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh 7 2. Purpose of the Small Ethnic Communities and Vulnerable Peoples Development Framework (SECVPDF) 11 D. Information Disclosure, Consultation and Participation 11 E. Beneficial measures/unintended consequences 11 F. Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) 12 G. Monitoring and reporting 12 H. Institutional arrangement 12 A. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY With the Government of Bangladesh driving its National Sanitation Campaign from 2003-2012, Bangladesh has made significant progress in reducing open defecation, from 34 percent in 1990 to just once percent of the national population in 20151. Despite these achievements, much remains to be done if Bangladesh is to achieve universal improved2 sanitation coverage by 2030, in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Bangladesh’s current rate of improved sanitation is 61 percent, growing at only 1.1 percent annually. To achieve the SDGs, Bangladesh will need to provide almost 50 million rural people with access to improved sanitation, and ensure services are extended to Bangladesh’s rural poor. Many households in rural Bangladesh do not have sufficient cash on hand to upgrade sanitation systems, but can afford the cost if they are able to spread the cost over time.
    [Show full text]
  • An Ethnographic Study on Traditional Marietal Rituals & Practices Among Bhumij Tribe of Bankura District, West Bengal, India
    International Journal of Research in Social Sciences Vol. 8 Issue 9, September 2018, ISSN: 2249-2496 Impact Factor: 7.081 Journal Homepage: http://www.ijmra.us, Email: [email protected] Double-Blind Peer Reviewed Refereed Open Access International Journal - Included in the International Serial Directories Indexed & Listed at: Ulrich's Periodicals Directory ©, U.S.A., Open J-Gage as well as in Cabell‟s Directories of Publishing Opportunities, U.S.A An Ethnographic Study on Traditional Marietal Rituals & Practices among Bhumij Tribe of Bankura District, West Bengal, India Priyanka Kanrar* ABSTRACT: Marriage is the physical, mental and spiritual union of two souls. It brings significant stability and substance to human relationships. Every ethnic community follows their own traditional marietal rituals and practices. Any ethnographic study of a ethnic group is incomplete without the knowledge of marietal practices of that community. So, the main objectives of the present study is to find out the types of marriages which was held among this Bhumij tribes. Also o find out the rules of marriage of this village. Know about the detail description about Bhumij traditional marriage rituals and practices. And also to find out the step by step marital rituals practices of this tribal population- from Pre-marital rituals to the Post-marital rituals practices. Mainly case study method is used for primary data collection. Case study method is very much useful for collect a very detail data from a particular individual. This method is very much applicable for this present study. Another method is observation method. It is simply used when primary data were collected.
    [Show full text]
  • Prayer Cards | Joshua Project
    Pray for the Nations Pray for the Nations Abdul in Bangladesh Ansari in Bangladesh Population: 30,000 Population: 14,000 World Popl: 66,200 World Popl: 14,792,500 Total Countries: 3 Total Countries: 6 People Cluster: South Asia Muslim - other People Cluster: South Asia Muslim - Ansari Main Language: Bengali Main Language: Bengali Main Religion: Islam Main Religion: Islam Status: Unreached Status: Unreached Evangelicals: 0.00% Evangelicals: 0.00% Chr Adherents: 0.00% Chr Adherents: 0.00% Scripture: Complete Bible Scripture: Complete Bible www.joshuaproject.net www.joshuaproject.net Source: Isudas Source: Biswarup Ganguly "Declare his glory among the nations." Psalm 96:3 "Declare his glory among the nations." Psalm 96:3 Pray for the Nations Pray for the Nations Arleng in Bangladesh Asur in Bangladesh Population: 900 Population: 1,200 World Popl: 500,900 World Popl: 33,200 Total Countries: 2 Total Countries: 2 People Cluster: South Asia Tribal - other People Cluster: South Asia Tribal - other Main Language: Karbi Main Language: Sylheti Main Religion: Hinduism Main Religion: Hinduism Status: Unreached Status: Minimally Reached Evangelicals: 0.00% Evangelicals: Unknown % Chr Adherents: 0.00% Chr Adherents: 9.26% Scripture: Complete Bible Scripture: New Testament www.joshuaproject.net www.joshuaproject.net Source: Mangal Rongphar "Declare his glory among the nations." Psalm 96:3 "Declare his glory among the nations." Psalm 96:3 Pray for the Nations Pray for the Nations Baiga in Bangladesh Bairagi (Hindu traditions) in Bangladesh Population:
    [Show full text]
  • China Genetics
    Stratification in the peopling of China: how far does the linguistic evidence match genetics and archaeology? Paper for the Symposium : Human migrations in continental East Asia and Taiwan: genetic, linguistic and archaeological evidence Geneva June 10-13, 2004. Université de Genève [DRAFT CIRCULATED FOR COMMENT] Roger Blench Mallam Dendo 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/Answerphone/Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 E-mail [email protected] http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roger_blench/RBOP.htm Cambridge, Sunday, 06 June 2004 TABLE OF CONTENTS FIGURES.......................................................................................................................................................... i 1. Introduction................................................................................................................................................. 3 1.1 The problem: linking linguistics, archaeology and genetics ................................................................... 3 1.2 Methodological issues............................................................................................................................. 3 2. The linguistic pattern of present-day China............................................................................................. 5 2.1 General .................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 Sino-Tibetan...........................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 'Goose' Among Language Phyla in China and Southeast Asia
    Citation Mark J. ALVES. 2015. Etyma for ‘Chicken’, ‘Duck’, & ‘Goose’ among Language Phyla in China & Southeast Asia Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 8:39-55 URL http://hdl.handle.net/1885/16086 Reviewed Received 6/6/15, revised text accepted 11/10/2015, published October 2015 Editors Editor-In-Chief Dr Mark Alves | Managing Eds. Dr Peter Jenks, Dr Sigrid Lew, Dr Paul Sidwell Web http://jseals.org ISSN 1836-6821 www.jseals.org | Volume 8 | 2015 | Asia-Pacific Linguistics, ANU Copyright vested in the author; Creative Commons Attribution Licence ETYMA FOR ‘CHICKEN’, ‘DUCK’, AND ‘GOOSE’ AMONG LANGUAGE PHYLA IN CHINA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA Mark J. Alves Montgomery College <[email protected]> Abstract This paper considers the history of words for domesticated poultry, including ‘chicken’, ‘goose’, and ‘duck’, in China and mainland Southeast Asia to try to relate associated domestication events with specific language groups. Linguistic, archaeological and historical evidence supports Sinitic as one linguistic source, but in other cases, Tai and Austroasiatic1 form additional centers of lexical forms which were borrowed by neighboring phyla. It is hypothesized that these geographic regions of etyma for domesticated birds may represent instances of bird domestication, or possibly advances in bird husbandry, by speech communities in the region in the Neolithic Era, followed by spread of both words and cultural practices. Keywords: etymology, animal domestication, archaeology, Southeast Asia, China ISO 639-3 codes: aav, hmx, map, mch, mkh, och, sit 1 On Etyma for Domestic Birds in the Region: Borrowing and Onomatopoeia Cultural exchange often leads to lexical exchange, and it is thus probable that the borrowing of a word for a domesticated animal involves at least trade of the animal, and perhaps borrowing of related animal husbandry practices.
    [Show full text]
  • Linguistics Development Team
    Development Team Principal Investigator: Prof. Pramod Pandey Centre for Linguistics / SLL&CS Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Email: [email protected] Paper Coordinator: Prof. K. S. Nagaraja Department of Linguistics, Deccan College Post-Graduate Research Institute, Pune- 411006, [email protected] Content Writer: Prof. K. S. Nagaraja Prof H. S. Ananthanarayana Content Reviewer: Retd Prof, Department of Linguistics Osmania University, Hyderabad 500007 Paper : Historical and Comparative Linguistics Linguistics Module : Austro-Asiatic family – I Description of Module Subject Name Linguistics Paper Name Historical and Comparative Linguistics Module Title Austro-Asiatic family – I Module ID Lings_P7_M25 Quadrant 1 E-Text Paper : Historical and Comparative Linguistics Linguistics Module : Austro-Asiatic family – I 21.AUSTRO - ASIATIC LANGUAGE FAMILY Austroasiatic language family is one of the five important language families found in the Indian sub- continent. The others are Indo-Aryan (of Indo-European), Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Andamanese. The term 'Austroasiatic’ comes from the Latin word for south and the Greek name of Asia, hence South Asia. The speakers of this family are scattered across south and South-east Asia, starting from central and eastern parts of India spreading to Bangladesh, Burma, southern China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, South and North Vietnam and Malaysia. The languages of this family are generally grouped into three sub- branches, namely, Munda, Nicobarese and Mon-Khmer. However some scholars include Nicobarese within Mon-Khmer. While the Munda sub-branch is wholly located in the Indian-subcontinent, Mon- Khmer branch is found in most of South-east Asia starting with eastern India. The family comprises about 150 languages, most of them having numerous dialects and the speakers numbering more than 100 million.
    [Show full text]
  • Life in a Bhumij Village During Lockdown: an Explorative Study
    SJIF Impact Factor: 7.001| ISI I.F.Value:1.241| Journal DOI: 10.36713/epra2016 ISSN: 2455-7838(Online) EPRA International Journal of Research and Development (IJRD) Volume: 5 | Issue: 8 | August 2020 - Peer Reviewed Journal LIFE IN A BHUMIJ VILLAGE DURING LOCKDOWN: AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY Dr. Nizamuddin Ahmed1 1Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Haldia Govt. College, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India Biswajit Goswami2 2Ph.D. Research Scholar, Swami Vivekananda Centre for Multidisciplinary Research in Educational Studies, University of Calcutta recognized Research Centre under Ramakrishna Mission Sikshanamandira, Belur Math, Howrah, West Bengal, India Swami Tattwasarananda3 3 Professor, Ramakrishna Mission Sikshanamandira, Belur Math, Howrah, West Bengal, India Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.36713/epra4902 ABSTRACT Since midnight of March 25, 2020, India's 1.3 billion people had gone under total lockdown to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and this prolonged countrywide lockdown has a serious impact on the life of the Indian tribes like their income, occupation, social life, personal life etc., as they are the most vulnerable and poor marginalized people of India, having neglected through the ages in every aspect of their life and livelihood. Bhumij tribe is one of them. They mainly reside in the Indian state of Odisha, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. Lutia is a typical Bhumij concentrated village in the area of Simlabandh under Hirbandh community development block of Khatra sub-division in the district of Bankura of the Indian state of West Bengal. By maintaining proper social distance and wearing face mask we have taken in-depth interview of 25 villagers of different age group and gender belong to Bhumij tribal community in this village on the various aspects of their day to day life, their education, their health awareness especially about the awareness regarding COVID- 19, their culture, religious and supernatural beliefs, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Adivasis of India ASIS of INDIA the ADIV • 98/1 T TIONAL REPOR an MRG INTERNA
    Minority Rights Group International R E P O R T The Adivasis of India ASIS OF INDIA THE ADIV • 98/1 T TIONAL REPOR AN MRG INTERNA BY RATNAKER BHENGRA, C.R. BIJOY and SHIMREICHON LUITHUI THE ADIVASIS OF INDIA © Minority Rights Group 1998. Acknowledgements All rights reserved. Minority Rights Group International gratefully acknowl- Material from this publication may be reproduced for teaching or other non- edges the support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign commercial purposes. No part of it may be reproduced in any form for com- Affairs (Danida), Hivos, the Irish Foreign Ministry (Irish mercial purposes without the prior express permission of the copyright holders. Aid) and of all the organizations and individuals who gave For further information please contact MRG. financial and other assistance for this Report. A CIP catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. ISBN 1 897693 32 X This Report has been commissioned and is published by ISSN 0305 6252 MRG as a contribution to public understanding of the Published January 1999 issue which forms its subject. The text and views of the Typeset by Texture. authors do not necessarily represent, in every detail and Printed in the UK on bleach-free paper. in all its aspects, the collective view of MRG. THE AUTHORS RATNAKER BHENGRA M. Phil. is an advocate and SHIMREICHON LUITHUI has been an active member consultant engaged in indigenous struggles, particularly of the Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights in Jharkhand. He is convenor of the Jharkhandis Organi- (NPMHR). She has worked on indigenous peoples’ issues sation for Human Rights (JOHAR), Ranchi unit and co- within The Other Media (an organization of grassroots- founder member of the Delhi Domestic Working based mass movements, academics and media of India), Women Forum.
    [Show full text]