Kurukh language

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Kurukh
Spoken in: India, Bangladesh
Total speakers: 2,053,000 (SIL 1997)
Language family: Dravidian
 Northern Dravidian
  Kurukh
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: –
ISO 639-3: kru
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Kurukh (also Kurux, Kuṛux or Kuruḵẖ) is a Dravidian language spoken by the Oraon (or Oṛāōn) or Kurukh tribe, a tribal (Adivasi) people of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, India, as well as in northern Bangladesh. It is most closely related to Brahui and Malto (Paharia). It is also known as the Oṛāōn.

Contents

[edit] Classification

Kurux is one of the Dravidian family of languages.[1][2] It is further classified into the Northern Dravidian family. It is closely related to the language Malto but should not be confused with Nepali Kurux.

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

[edit] 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 for extinction.[3]

[edit] Literature

The Bible was translated into Kurux in 2000. Nowadays a lot of literature is being written in Kurukh Language. The Language is being taught in various colleges and universities like Ranchi University, Sidho Kanho University. Magazines are being published in Kurukh from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Assam where a sizable number of Kurukh (Oraon) live. Few magazines like NAM KURKHAT, JHARKHAND DHARA publish articles in the language. Kurukh books are being published from Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh ,Madhya Pradesh (SARNA)and West Bengal. The Govt. of Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh has introduced Kurukh language in Schools where Kurukhars or Oraon students are in majority in School.

[edit] Alternative names and dialects

Kurux has a number of alternative names, some are: Uraon, Kurukh, 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.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Fairservis, Walter Ashlin (1997). The Harappan Civilization and Its Writing: A Model for the Decipherment of the Indus Script, Asian Studies. Brill Academic Publishers, 16. ISBN 978-9004090668. 
  2. ^ Stassen, Leon (1997). Intransitive Predication, Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory. Oxford University Press, 220. ISBN 978-0199258932. 
  3. ^ Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine. Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Page 9.

[edit] External links

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