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Kurukh language

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Kurukh (/ˈkʊrʊx/ or /ˈkʊrʊk/;[4] Devanagari: कुँड़ुख़, IPA: [kũɽux]), also Kurux, Oraon or Uranw (Devanagari: उराँव, IPA: [uraːũ̯]),[5] is a North Dravidian language spoken by the Kurukh (Oraon) and Kisan people of East India. It is spoken by about two million people in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam and Tripura, as well as by 65,000 in northern Bangladesh, 28,600 of a dialect called Uranw in Nepal and about 5,000 in Bhutan. The most closely related language to Kurukh is Malto; together with Brahui, all three languages form the North Dravidian branch of the Dravidian language family. It is marked as being in a "vulnerable" state in UNESCO's list of endangered languages.[6] The Kisan dialect has 206,100 speakers as of 2011.

Kurukh
Kurux, Oraon, Uraon
𑷊𑶲̃𑷗𑶲𑷖
कुँड़ुख़ (उराँव) , কুড়ুখ্ , କୁଡ଼ୁଖ୍
'Kuṛux' or 'Kuṁṛux' in Kurukh Banna alphabet (top) and Tolong Siki alphabet (bottom)
'Kuṛux' or 'Kuṁṛux' in Kurukh Banna alphabet (top) and Tolong Siki alphabet (bottom)
Pronunciation[kũɽux]
Native toIndia, Bangladesh, and Nepal
RegionJharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Bihar, Tripura, Odisha[1]
Ethnicity
Native speakers
2.28 million (2002–2011)[2][1][3]
Dialects
  • Oraon
  • Kisan
  • Dhangar
Official status
Official language in
India
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
kru – Kurux
kxl – Nepali Kurux (Dhangar)
xis – Kisan
Glottologkuru1301
ELPNepali Kurux
Distribution of Kurukh speakers in Blue.
Kurukh is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Kurukh
PersonKūr̤uk͟hāḷ
PeopleKūr̤uk͟haṟ
LanguageKūr̤uk͟h Kācchi
CountryKūr̤uk͟h Nāṛ

Etymology

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According to Edward Tuite Dalton, "Oraon" is an exonym assigned by neighbouring Munda people, meaning "to roam". They call themselves Kurukh.[7] According to Sten Konow, Uraon will mean man as in the Dravidian Kurukh language, the word Urapai, Urapo and Urang means Man. The word Kurukh may be derived from the word Kur or Kurcana means "shout" and "stammer". So Kurukh will mean 'a speaker'.[8]

Name

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The Kurukh language is also variously known as Kuṛux, Kuruḵẖ, Kurukh, Kunrukh, Kurka, Kadukali, Urang, Oraon, Uraon, Urāo, and Orāỗ.[9] Other designations include Dhakad, Dhangad, Dhanka, and Kuda, in Madhya Pradesh,[10] and Dhangar, and Kisan,[11][12] even Malto, Berga, Dhangri, Khendroi and Kisan, but some scholars consider them synonymous with Kurukh itself.[13] However, Dravidologist Kamil Zvelebil reported that Dhangar (alternatively, Jhanger, Jangad, Orau, Oraon, and Uraon), reported from South Nepal, differed from Kurux (Oraon) proper.[14] Ethnologue also treats the Dhangar from Nepal as "distinct" from the language spoken in India and Bangladesh.[15]

Classification

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Kurukh belongs to the Northern Dravidian group of the Dravidian family languages,[16] and is closely related to Sauria Paharia and Kumarbhag Paharia, which are often together referred to as Malto.[17]

Dravidian language tree

Writing systems

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Kurukh Banna script chart for the Kurukh language
Tolong Siki script (bold), next to Devanagari and Latin script

Kurukh is written in Devanagari, a script also used to write Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and other Indo-Aryan languages.

In 1991, Basudev Ram Khalkho from Odisha released the Kurukh Banna script. In Sundargarh district of Odisha, the Kurukh Banna alphabet is taught and promoted by Kurukh Parha. Fonts have been developed and people use it widely in books, magazines and other material. The alphabet is also used by Oraon people in the states of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Assam.[18]

In 1999, Narayan Oraon, a doctor, invented the alphabetic Tolong Siki script specifically for Kurukh. Many books and magazines have been published in Tolong Siki, and it saw official recognition by the state of Jharkhand in 2007. The Kurukh Literary Society of India has been instrumental in spreading the Tolong Siki script for Kurukh literature.[19][20]

Geographical distribution

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Distribution of Kurukh in India, 2011 census
  1. Jharkhand (47.9%)
  2. Chhattisgarh (26.0%)
  3. West Bengal (8.65%)
  4. Odisha (6.84%)
  5. Bihar (4.43%)
  6. Assam (3.69%)
  7. Other (2.51%)

In India, Kurukh is mostly spoken in Raigarh, Surguja, Jashpur of Chhattisgarh, Gumla, Ranchi, Lohardaga, Latehar, Simdega of Jharkhand; Jharsuguda, Sundargarh and Sambalpur district of Odisha.

It is also spoken in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, as well as Assam and Tripura states by Kurukh who are mostly tea-garden workers.[1]

Speakers

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It is spoken by 2,053,000 people from the Oraon and Kisan tribes, with 1,834,000 and 219,000 speakers respectively. The literacy rate is 23% in Oraon and 17% in Kisan. Despite the large number of speakers, the language is considered to be endangered.[21] The governments of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have introduced the Kurukh language in schools with majority Kurukhar students. Jharkhand and West Bengal both list Kurukh as an official language of their respective states.[22] Bangladesh also has some speakers.

Phonology

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Vowels

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Kurukh has five cardinal vowels. Each vowel has long, short nasalized and long nasalized counterparts.[23]

Kurukh simple vowels
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e o
Low a

Consonants

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The table below illustrates the articulation of the consonants.[24]

Kurukh consonants
Labial Dental/
Alveolar		 Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n (ɳ) ɲ ŋ
Plosive/
Affricate		 voiceless plain p t ʈ tʃ k ʔ
aspirated pʰ tʰ ʈʰ tʃʰ kʰ
voiced plain b d ɖ dʒ ɡ
aspirated bʱ dʱ ɖʱ dʒʱ ɡʱ
Fricative s (ʃ) x[A] h
Rhotic plain ɾ ɽ[B]
aspirated ɽʱ
Glide w l[C] j[D]
  1. ↑ In Kurukh, the modern voiceless velar fricative /x/ developed diachronically from an ancestral geminated voiceless velar plosive /kː/.
  2. ↑ In Kurukh, the modern voiced retroflex flap /ɽ/ developed diachronically from an ancestral geminated voiced retroflex plosive /ɖː/.
  3. ↑ Driven by intensive language contact with neighboring Indo-Aryan languages that lack the retroflex lateral, Kurukh underwent a phonemic merger where the voiced retroflex lateral */ɭ/ shifted entirely into the voiced alveolar lateral /l/.
  4. ↑ Driven by intensive language contact with neighboring Indo-Aryan languages that lack retroflex non-stops, Kurukh underwent a phonemic merger where the unique acoustic voiced retroflex approximant */ɻ/ shifted into the voiced palatal approximant /j/ or sometimes voiced retroflex flap /ɽ/ that can traced.
  • Medially voiced aspirates and voiced plosives + /h/ contrast, there are some minimal pairs like /dʱandha:/ "astonishment" and /dʱandʱa:/ "exertion". Clusters of voiced aspirates and /h/ are possible too as in /madʒʱhi:/ "middle" and /madʒʱis/ "zamindar's agent".[25]
  • Of the nasals, /m, n/ are phonemic; [ɳ] only occurs before retroflex plosives; /ŋ/ mostly occurs before other velars but can occur finally with deletion of previous /g/, there are cases where /ŋg/ and /ng/ contrast; /ɲ/ mostly occurs before post alveolars but /j/ can become /ɲ/ around nasal vowels as in /paɲɲa:/ (or /pãjja:/).[26]

Morphology

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Kurukh, like other Dravidian languages, is an agglutinative language. The sentence structure is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV). In its morphological construction, there is suffixation but there are no infixes or prefixes.[27]

Pronouns

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The pronominal system of Kurukh is highly regular, agglutinative, and strongly preserves ancient Proto-Dravidian structures, remaining free from neighboring Indo-Aryan grammatical influences. In Kurukh grammar, personal pronouns change based on singular and plural numbers, and their basic nominative forms historically feature long vowels. A complete structural analysis of these forms, including full case declension tables, internal increments, and sound changes, is documented on the dedicated pronouns sub-page.

The language maintains a strict clusivity distinction in the first-person plural, separating the exclusive form ēm (we, excluding the listener) and the inclusive form nām (we, including the listener). Structurally, because an inclusive meaning naturally requires a group of speech participants, an inclusive singular form is morphologically impossible. Furthermore, personal and reflexive pronouns do not take case suffixes directly onto their nominative forms. Instead, the language uses a systematic sound mutation where the underlying long vowels undergo shortening, and specific internal consonants are added based on number; singular forms add a nasal velar augment -ṅ(g)-, while plural forms undergo nasal labial gemination -m(m)- to act as an oblique base buffer before case markers are attached.[28]

Third-person references function entirely through a five-vowel demonstrative system inherited from Proto-Dravidian, as the language lacks independent third-person roots. This system coordinates physical distance using distal ā-, proximal ī-, and medial ū- bases, while handling conversational awareness through interrogative ē- and relative ō- bases. Additionally, the reflexive pronouns tān (singular) and tām (plural) serve a dual purpose. Beyond normal self-reference, they function as logophoric pronouns in reported speech to track identity across long narratives, eliminating any syntactic ambiguity about whether a speaker is referring to themselves or someone else.[28]

Kurukh pronouns[28]
Person / Type Singular Plural (exclusive) Plural (inclusive)
First person ēn
(I)		 ēm
(We, excluding you)		 nām
(We, including you)
Second person nīn
(You)		 nīm
(You all)
Third person (distal) ās (Masc.)
ād (Fem./Neut.)		 ār / abṛar (Human)
abṛā (Non-human)
Reflexive / Logophoric tān
(Oneself)		 tām
(Themselves)

Nouns

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Kurukh nouns have three grammatical genders, namely masculine, feminine and neuter. To the Kurukh only men are masculine ; women and goddesses (evil spirits) are feminine ; all others are neutral. Masculine nouns of the third person singular have two forms, the indefinite and the definite. The indefinite is the simplest form of the noun, thus āl man. The definite form is made by adding -as for the singular, thus ālas, ("the man").[29]

There are only two grammatical numbers, the singular and the plural.[29]

The following is an example declension table for a masculine noun "āl", meaning "man" [30]

CaseSingularDefinitePlural
Nominativeālālasālar
Genitiveālālas gahiālar gahi
Dativeālālas gēālar gē
Accusativeālanālasinālarin
Ablativeāltīālas tīālartī , ālarintī
Instrumentalāl trī, āl trū-ālar ṭrī, ālar trū
Vocative ē ālayо̄ - ē ālarо̄
Locative āl ālas nū ālar nū

The feminine declension is almost identical to the masculine, but lacks a definite form. The following example is for "mukkā" ("woman").[30]

CaseSingularPlural
Nominativemukkāmukkar
Genitivemukkā gahimukkar gahi
Dativemukkāgēmukkar gē
Accusativemukkanmukkarin
Ablativemukkantīmukkartī , mukkarintī
Instrumentalmukkā trī, mukkā trūmukkar trī, mukkar trū
Vocative ē mukkai ē mukkarо̄
Locative mukkā nū mukkar nū

The neuter declension for "allā" ("dog") shows almost identical singular forms, but a difference in pluralization.[30]

CaseSingularPlural
Nominativeallāallā guṭhi
Genitiveallā gahiallā guṭhi gahi
Dativeallā gēallā guṭhi gē
Accusativeallanallā guṭhin
Ablativeallantīallā guṭhi tī , allā guṭhintī
Instrumentalallā trī, allā trūallā guṭhi trī, allā guṭhi trū
Vocative ē allā ē allā guṭhi
Locative allā nū allā guṭhi nū


Education

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The Kurukh language is taught as a subject in the schools of Jharkhand, Chhattishgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam.[31]

Sample phrases

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PhrasesEnglish Translation
Nighai endra naame?What is your name?
Neen ekase ra'din?How are you? (Girl)
Neen ekase ra'dai? How are you? (Boy)
Een korem ra'dan. I am fine.
Neen ekshan kalalagdin? Where are you going? (Girl)
Neen ekshan kalalagday? Where are you going? (Boy)
Endra manja?What happened?
Ha'anYes
MallaNo
Een mokha Lagdan.I am eating.
Neen mokha.You eat.
Neen ona.You drink
Aar mokha lagnar.They are eating.
Daw makha Good Night

Sample text

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English

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All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Devanagari script

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होर्मा आलारिन् हक् गहि बारे नू मल्लिन्ता अजादि अरा आण्टें मन्ना गहि हक़् ख़खर्कि रै। आरिन् लुर् अरा जिया गहि दव् बौसा ख़खकि रै अरा तम्है मझि नू मेल्-प्रें गहि बेव्हार् नन्ना चहि।

Latin script

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Hōrmā ālārin hak gahi bāre nū mallintā azādi arā aṅṭēm mannā gahi haq xakharki raī. Ārin lur arā jiyā gahi dav bausā xakhakī raī arā tamhai majhi nū mēl-prēm gahi bēvhār nannā nā cahi.

Alternative names and dialects

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Kurukh has a number of alternative names such as Uraon, Kurux, Kunrukh, Kunna, Urang, Morva, and Birhor. Two dialects, Oraon and Kisan, have 73% intelligibility between them. Oraon but not Kisan is currently being standardised. Kisan is currently endangered, with a rate of decline of 12.3% from 1991 to 2001.[32]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 "Kurux". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-07-11.
  2. ↑ "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  3. ↑ "Kurux, Nepali". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-07-11.
  4. ↑ "Kurukh". Oxford English Dictionary (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  5. ↑ "Glottolog 4.5 - Nepali Kurux".
  6. ↑ Evans, Lisa (15 April 2011). "Endangered Languages: The Full List". The Guardian.
  7. ↑ Dalton E. T. The Oraons: Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal. 1872. Section 1, page 215.
  8. ↑ Ferdinand Hahn (1985). Grammar of the Kurukh Language. Mittal Publications. p. xii. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  9. ↑ Zvelebil, Kamil V. (1997). "Language List for Dravidian". Archiv orientální. 65 (2): 175-190 [180].
  10. ↑ Hira Lal Shukla (1986). Tribal Heritage of Madhya Pradesh: An Annotated Bibliography. B.R. Publishing Corporation. p. 36. ISBN 9788170183419. The Oraon tribe has five synonymous groups: Kurukh, Dhangad, Dhanka, Kunda and Kisan. Of these Dhangad and Dhanka are included in the list of scheduled tribes.
  11. ↑ Bulletin of the Tribal Research and Development Institute. Vol. 6. Tribal Research and Development Institute. 1967. p. 72. The [Oraon] tribe is known by other names also, for example, Kurukh, Kuda, Dhangad, Dhanka and Kisan.
  12. ↑ K. S. Singh, ed. (1996). "Oraon". Communities, Segments, Synonyms, Surnames and Titles. People of India: National series. Vol. VIII. Delhi Bombay, Calcutta, Madras: Anthropological Survey of India; Oxford University Press. p. 1649.
  13. ↑ Gopal Bhargava, ed. (2003). Encyclopaedia Of Art And Culture In India (in 27 volumes). Vol. 18: Jharkhand. Delhi: Isha Books. p. 270.
  14. ↑ Zvelebil, Kamil V. (1997). "Language List for Dravidian". Archiv orientální. 65 (2): 175-190 [178].
  15. ↑ Ethnologue : languages of the world. Dallas, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc. 1992. pp. 506, 548–549, 692.
  16. ↑ Stassen, Leon (1997). Intransitive Predication. Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory. Oxford University Press. p. 220. ISBN 978-0199258932.
  17. ↑ PS Subrahmanyam, "Kurukh", in ELL2. Ethnologue assigns Nepali Kurux a separate iso code, kxl.
  18. ↑ Mandal, Biswajit. "Kurukh Banna". Omniglot.
  19. ↑ Ager, Simon. "Tolong Siki alphabet and the Kurukh language". Omniglot. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  20. ↑ Pandey, Anshuman (8 April 2010). "Preliminary Proposal to Encode the Tolong Siki Script in the UCS" (PDF). Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  21. ↑ Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine. Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Page 9.
  22. ↑ "Kurukh given official language status in West Bengal". Jagranjosh.com. 2017-03-06. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  23. ↑ Kobayashi & Tirkey 2017, pp. 23–24.
  24. ↑ Kobayashi & Tirkey 2017, p. 33.
  25. ↑ Kobayashi & Tirkey (2017), p. 35.
  26. ↑ Kobayashi & Tirkey (2017), p. 36.
  27. ↑ "Vitality and Endangerment of Contemporary Kurukh" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-09-03.
  28. 1 2 3 Hahn 1911.
  29. 1 2 "Kurukh grammar". Calcutta Bengal Secretariat Press. 1911.
  30. 1 2 3 "Kurukh grammar". Calcutta Bengal Secretariat Press. 1911.
  31. ↑ Singh, Shiv Sahay (2017-03-02). "Kurukh gets official language status in West Bengal". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2022-05-02.
  32. ↑ ORGI. "Census of India: Growth of Non-Scheduled Languages-1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001". www.censusindia.gov.in. Retrieved 2017-10-15.

Sources

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Further reading

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Current issues
About the Dhangar (Oraon or Kurukh) in Nepal
Folktale collections
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