Languages Data
M. Phil./ Ph.D.
- Language Contact and Language Change: A Case of Kurukh Language Spoken in West Bengal and Jharkhand
- Health and nutritional status of Oraon labourers engaged in tea garden and agricultural sectors of Alipurduar district, West Bengal
- Social Organization of Oraon
- A Grammar of Kurukh Language
- The Mundas and Oraons of chotanagpur: A Comparative Ethnological Survey
- The Karam Festival of the Oraons: An Ethno Linguistic and Semiotic Analysis
- Exploring Development through Indigenous Perspectives A Study of Kurux Oraon Tribe of Central India
- Revisiting TLM and Professional Development Programme to Contextualise them from Pedagogical and Socio Cultural Perspective of Oraon Tribe in Jharkhand
- Word Formation Processes in Kurux(Oraon): A Study of Linguistic Typology and Language Change
- Causatives in Kharia, Kurux and Santhali: A Case of Language Convergence in Jharkhand
- Oraon in Barak Valley: A Sociological Study
- Writing Non-literary Languages in the Indian Context with Special Reference to Kurux
- Process of socio economic changes of the Oraons in West Bengal
- Impact of Developmental Programmes on Oraon Tribe in West Champaran District of Bihar State in India
- Kurukh Syntax with Special Reference to the Verbal System
- कुड़ुख तथा नागपुरी भाषा का तुलनात्मक अध्ययन
Research Paper
- Notes on Two Uroan Marriages
- Kudux Pronouns
- Kudux Nouns
- Some aspects of Kurux aspect
- The Oraons and Mundas: From the Time of Their Settlement in India
- Reconstruction of Verb Suffixes in Kurux and Malto
- Vitality and Endangerment of Contemporary Kurukh
- Household livelihood and coping mechanism during drought among Oraon Tribe of Sundargarh District of Orissa, India
- Preliminary technology to show emic relations between certain non-transitive clause structures in Dhangar (Kudux, Nepal)
- Culture change in Tribal Bihar: Munda & Oraons
- Nasal-Phonemes of
- Early Sources for South Asian Substrate Languages
Project
Book
- The Blue Grove: The Poetry of the Uraons
- The Leopard and the Dove: More Uraons Poetry
- Kurukh Naigas ( A Kurukh grammar in Devanagari script and in Kurukh language.)
- Sanika Khor (Khurukh-Hindi for Beginners.)
- Kurux Kattha Billi
- Land and People of Indian States and Union Territories: West Bengal
- An English-Uraon Dictionary
- A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages
- My Oraon Culture
- Dictionary of Languages: The definitive reference to more than 400 languages
- Social Structure in the Oraons of Sunderban
- The Orāons of Sunderban
- People’s Linguistic Survey of India: The Languages of West Bengal
- Bharatiya Bhasha Lok Sarvekshan : Odishara Bhasha Samooh
- People’s Linguistic Survey of India : The Languages of Jharkhand
- People’s Linguistic Survey of India : The Languages of Chhattisgarh
- People’s Linguistic Survey of India: The Languages of Bihar
- Mens and Womens Speech in Kurux
- Phonetic Reader Series Kurux
- Kurux (Karma) Songs: Analysis and Translation
- A phonology of Dhangar-Kurux
- Linguistic Survey of India
- A Grammar of the Oraon Language
- A grammar of the Oraon language and study in Oraon idiom
- Ethnologue: Languages of the World
- The Customary Laws of the Munda & the Oraon
- Grammar of the Kurukh Language
- Kurukh Grammar
- Kurukh Folk-lore, in the Original
- A Bibliographic Index of the Lesser Known Languages and Dialects of India and Nepal
- Language Shifts Among the Scheduled Tribes in India: A Geographical Study
- The gospel according to St. John in the Kurukh language
- Languages of South Asia: A Survey of Materials for the Study of the Uncommonly Taught Languages
- The Kurukh (Oraons)
- The Kurux language grammar, texts and lexicon
- Studies in Indian Linguistics
- The Dravidian Languages
- The Oraon Habitat: A Study in Cultural Geography
- Kurukha Kattha Sihhira ge Mudata Putthi
- Word Formation and Language Change in Kurux
- A Short Dictionary of Languages
- Folklore of Tribal Communities Oral Literature of the Santals, Kharias, Oraons and the Mundas of Orissa
- Elements of Kurux Historical Phonology
- Kurux Historical Phonology Reconsidered With a Reconstruction of Pre-Kurux-Malto Phonology
- English-Hindi-Bangla-Kurukh Dictionary
- Kurukh-Bangla-Hindi-English Dictionary
- Bibliography of Marginal Indian Languages
- Tribal Linguistics in India: A Bibliographical Survey of International Resources
- The Oraons of Chota Nagpur
- Oraon Religion and Customs
- Indias Communities
- The Dravidian Languages
- South Asian Languages: A Syntactic Typology
- Gandhi's Life in Kurukh Poems
- A Short-cut to Kurukh
- भारत में लोक साहित्य
- सिन्धु घाटी कुड़ुख सभ्यता और जनजातीय भूमिका
- सिन्धु-घाटी कुड़ुख़ सभ्यता
- कइलगा : तोलोङ्ग सिकि में कुड़ुख प्रवेशिका
- तोलोङ्ग सिकि का उद्भव एवं विकास
- उराँव
- इन्द मेला: एक अध्ययन
- कुँडुख कत्थपुन (कुँडुख व्याकरण)
- उराँव जन्म, विवाह एवं मृत्यु संस्कार
- आओ कुड़ुख़ (उराँव) सीखें
- उराँव समाज में अंधविश्वास
- कुंड़ुख़ लोक साहित्य
- हिन्दी भाषा और कुंड़ुख़ भाषा : क्रियाओं का प्रकारात्मक अध्ययन
- कुड़ुख़ की अनुगूंज
- उराँवों की ऐतिहासिक विरासत रोहतासगढ़
- उराँव संस्कृति : परिवर्तन एवं दिशाएँ
- उराँव एवं सदान संस्कृति
- कुड़ुख़ कत्थअइन अरा कत्थटूड़
- कुंड़ुख कत्थअइन
- कुडुख़ सीखें (कुडुख़ भाषा साहित्य)
- उराँव-सरना धर्म और संस्कृति
- रोहतासगढ़-रुइसगढ़ और उराँव
- चुरकी डहरे कुँड़ुख
- कुँड़ुख पुरखा खीरी
- उराँव भाषा और साहित्य
- भारत की जनजातियाँ
- भारतीय भाषा लोक सर्वेक्षण : छत्तीसगढ़ की भाषाएँ
- भारतीय भाषा लोक सर्वेक्षण : झारखंड की भाषाएँ
- भारतीय भाषा लोक सर्वेक्षण : बिहार की भाषाएँ
- छोटानागपुर के उराँव रीति-रिवाज
- कुड़ुख : भाषा व्याकरण एवं साहित्य
- कुँडुख लोक गीतों में नारी चित्रण
- कुड़ुख बेचना
- उराँव साहित्यकार
- झारखण्ड की प्रमुख जनजातीय लोक-कथाएँ
- আদিবাসী সংস্কৃতির রূপরেখা
- উত্তরবঙ্গের ভাষা
- কুড়ুখ্ কাতথা
- কুড়ুখ্ কাতথা
- কুড়ুখ কাতথা
- কুড়ুখ কাতথা : বিশেষ সংখ্যা
- কুড়ুখ্ কাতথা
Book Chapter
- The Treatment of Primitive Dravidian in Kurux and Malto
- Causative construction in Kurux
- Clause patterns in Dhangar-Kurux
- Paired Semantic Components, Paired Sentence Reversals and the Analysis of Dhangar-Kudux discourse
- The Scheduled Tribes and their languages
- कुँड़ुख भाषा-साहित्य में पीयूस लकड़ा का साहित्यिक योगदान
- कुँड़ुख सामाजिक प्रणाली एवं अनुष्ठान लोकगीत
- শুভযাত্রা
Dictionary
- An Oraon-English Dictionary
- Kurukh (Orao)-English Dictionary
- कुँड़ुख -हिन्दी कोश
- हिंदी-कुरुख शब्दकोश
Occasional Paper/Brochure
- Atlas of the Worlds Languages Danger
Journal/Seminar Proceedings/Souvenir
Web Resource
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| Birbhum | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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Kurukh is a non-scheduled language belongs from Dravidian linguistic family. Kurukh is spoken by Oraon tribe people. Oraon tribe people in India are mainly concentrated in Jharkhand, Orissa, Madhyapradesh, Chattisgarh and West Bengal. The word ‘oraon’ means ‘to roam’. Originally Oraon tribe belong from Chotonagpur plateau of East-Central India. Later, they were migrated to different parts of India searching for the source of livelihood. Kurukh is marked as ‘vulnerable’ in UNESCO’s endangered language list. However, compared to other endangered languages in India, Kurukh has a large number of speakers.
Population:
According to the CENSUS-2001 report, Kurukh is spoken by 17lakh people in India. It is reported that nearly 65000 Kurukh speakers in Bangladesh is found. However, in spite of the large number of speakers in this language, Kurukh has been given the status of ‘vulnerable’ language in UNESCO’s list as it is claimed from earlier studies that it shows a decline rate of 12% in the number of speakers. The number of Kurukh community people is 3658 in Barddhaman district and 2750 in Birbhum district which is less than 0.1% of total population of Birbhum and Barddhaman districts, respectively (CENSUS-2001).
Survey Area:
The present study is based on the collected data from the people of Oraon community in Kamardangal village, Birbhum district and Simruli in Bardhaman district. In Simruli there are around 50 Oraon families stay. Koda/ Kora and Oraon families stay together in this village. Kamardangal is a small village in Birbhum district. Around 35 Oraon families stay in this village. According to them they are residing in this village for last 3 generations or more than that. They were original inhabitants of Jharkhand (than Bihar). Their ancestors came into different parts of West Bengal to work as daily-wage labour.
Literacy:
Literacy rate is not very high among Kurukh speakers. Jharkhand and Chattisgarh government have introduced Kurukh language in school-level but, in West Bengal Kurukh is not being taught in school level. Thus, school drop-out rate is very high among them as the children do not get opportunity to learn in their mother-tongue. Being economically backward is also another reason of poor literacy rate among Kurukh speakers.
Occupation
Oraon people in Birbhum and Barddhaman districts are mainly engaged in agriculture or work as daily-wage labour in small industries or as helping hand of masons. Though they are engaged in farming, but most of them do not own their own land and work in other’s land as daily-wage labour.
Concluding Remarks
Kurukh speakers have a positive attitude towards their language. Community people are aware of their linguistic rights and they are working towards the revitalization and retain of their language and culture. All India Oraon Welfare Association and many individuals within the community are raising fund, arranging programmes to save and their language. Their strong community driven will definitely help the language not to be extinct. In spite of these consistent efforts, language documentation, language revitalization and introducing mother-tongue education in Kurukh are some necessity steps which will help the speakers to survive with their linguistic identity.
Though Kurukh has a comparatively larger population, but the speakers, specifically the younger generations are either-i.) not able to speak their mother-tongue and use Bangla at home domain even with their parental and grand-parental generation, or ii) the parental and Young generation speak at home domain in Bangla and Kurukh both and iii) even the grand-parental generation do not speak their language always at home and thus lost most of the vocabulary items, the language is considered as vulnerable and needs to be preserved.
Sample Word-list of Kurukh-Oraon
|
Serial No. |
English |
Bangla |
Kurukh |
IPA |
|
1 |
Father |
বাবা |
বাবা |
bɑbɑ |
|
2 |
Mother |
মা |
আয়ো |
ɑyo: |
|
3 |
Sister |
বোন |
ইংড়ি |
iŋɽi |
|
4 |
Son |
ছেলে |
এংদাস |
eŋdɑs |
|
5 |
Relative |
আত্মীয় |
পায়হার |
pɑyhɑr |
|
6 |
Daughter |
মেয়ে |
এংদা |
eŋdɑ |
|
7 |
Brother |
ভাই |
ইংড়িস |
iŋɽis |
|
8 |
Brother-in-law (Sister’s husband) |
জামাইবাবু |
ভাটু |
bhɑTu |
|
9 |
Fish |
মাছ |
ইঞ্জ |
iɲj |
|
10 |
Alcoholic beverage |
মদ |
আরখি |
ɑrkhi |
|
11 |
Salt |
নুন |
বেক |
bek |
|
12 |
Rice (uncooked) |
চাল |
তিখিল |
tikhil |
|
13 |
Guava |
পেয়ারা |
টামরাস |
Tɑmrɑs |
|
14 |
Mango |
আম |
টাটখা |
TɑTkhɑ |
|
15 |
Ginger |
আদা |
আদখি |
ɑdkhi |
|
16 |
Gram |
ছোলা |
বুঃট |
bu:T |
|
17 |
Egg |
ডিম |
বিঃআ |
bi:ɑ |
|
18 |
Oil |
তেল |
ইসুম |
isum |
|
19 |
Eye |
চোখ |
খান্নে |
khanne |
|
20 |
Nose |
নাক |
মুই |
mui |
|
21 |
Leg |
পা |
খাড্ডে |
khɑɖɖe |
|
22 |
Mouth |
মুখ |
বাই |
bai |
|
23 |
Head |
মাথা |
কুক্কু |
Kuku |
|
24 |
Neck |
ঘাড় |
খোসগা |
khosgɑ |
|
25 |
Nail |
নখ |
অরখ |
ᴐrokh |
|
26 |
Blood |
রক্ত |
খেঁস |
khẽs |
|
27 |
Sun |
সূর্য |
বিহড়ি |
bihᴐɽi |
|
28 |
Night |
রাত্রি |
মাখা |
mɑkhɑ |
|
29 |
Rain |
বৃষ্টি |
ঝাড়ি |
jhɑɽi |
|
30 |
Earth |
মাটি |
খাজ্জে |
khɑjje |
|
31 |
Storm |
ঝড় |
আঁধার |
ɑ̃dhɑr |
|
32 |
Home |
বাড়ি |
এড়পা |
eɽpɑ |
|
33 |
Comb |
চিরুনি |
বগরকা |
bᴐgɑrkɑ |
|
34 |
Tabor |
মাদল |
খেল |
khel |
|
35 |
Leaf |
পাতা |
আতখা |
ɑtkhɑ |
|
36 |
Fever |
জ্বর |
নাড়ি |
nɑɽi |
|
37 |
Song |
গান |
ডানডী |
ɖɑ̃ɖi: |
|
38 |
Cough |
কাশি |
খুকি |
khuki |
|
39 |
Sweeper |
ঝাড়ুদার |
এড়ুস |
eɽus |
|
40 |
Teacher |
শিক্ষক |
পাড়তুস |
pɑɽtus |
|
41 |
Player |
খেলোয়াড় |
বিচুস |
bicus |
|
42 |
Priest |
পুরোহিত |
বামনাস |
bɑmnɑs |
|
43 |
Keep |
রাখা |
উইনা |
uinɑ |
|
44 |
Come |
আসা |
বারনা |
bɑrnɑ |
|
45 |
Drink |
পান করা |
অন্না |
ᴐnnɑ |
|
46 |
Buy |
কেনা |
খেঁদনা |
khẽdnɑ |
|
47 |
Cut |
কাটা |
খাঁদনা |
khɑ̃ɖnɑ |
|
48 |
Die |
মরে যাওয়া |
খেহেনো |
kheHeno |
|
49 |
Drop |
পড়া |
হেবড়না |
hebᴐɽnɑ |
|
50 |
cook |
রান্না করা |
বিতনা |
bitnɑ |
|
51 |
Sit |
বসা |
ওকনা |
oknɑ |
|
52 |
Smile |
হাসা |
আলখনা |
ɑlᴐkhnɑ |
Phaggu is a festival which is observed towards the end of February or the beginning of March. On the evening previous to the feast, palma christi plant and a semar branch are planted in an open place. After that hen, arwa rice, hadiya are offered to the plant. Soon after, the hen is sacrificed and cooked there. The whole process is done by naigas or main priest. Women are not allowed to participate in this ritual. After the sacred offering is done, naiga sets fire to the hay and villagers are offered the cooked hen. Another festival widely celebrated by the community is Sarhul or harvest festival by the end of March or in the beginning of April. At the Sarhul festival the marriage of the sun-god and earth-mother is celebrated, and this cannot be done till the sal tree gives the flowers for the ceremony. Some other festivals are asma parab,ind karam, jitiya karam, dasai karam, gohali puja etc. Flute, Nagada and Mandar are main musical instruments accompanied their dances and songs.
Language
Kurukh is a language belongs from Dravidian linguistic family. Kurukh is a SOV language. The language exhibits gender and person agreement with verb.
Vowels: The Kurukh language has six vowel sounds: |ᵊ|, |ᵅ|, |ᵋ|, |ᵢ|, |ᵒ|, |ᵘ|. These six vowel sounds can be pronounced and perceived as short and long sounds.
Diphthongs: There are four diphthongs identified in Kurukh languages in our survey so far- |ai|, |ui| and IuaI and |ui|.
Wife-kᵊsai
Floor-majhaia
Ghee-ghiu
Potato-alua
Mouth-muihi.
Nasalization: Kurukh has four nasalization sounds:
|ŋ|, |ɲ|, |n| and the nasalized vowel sounds, such as |ẽ| in ẽbhra.ɽ
Along with voiceless and voiced stop sounds, Kurukh phonology has voiceless and Fricative glottal sounds, e.g.- |Ɂ| and |h| respectively.
Kurukh morpho-syntax exhibits the formation of words with suffixation of ‘us’ with the base-word or the verb when they indicate to the person engaged with some particular occupation, such as- pɑɽtus ‘ teacher’ when the verb teach is pɑɽ.
Kurukh sentencial structure exhibits SOV word order.
ɑs mɑnɖi onalagiias
he rice eat.
‘He is eating rice.’
ɑd mɑnɖi onalaggi
she rice eat.
‘She is eating rice.’
Kurukh shows gender agreement on verb or the subject-verb agreement. For 3rd person singular number, in simple present tense, the gender markers are ‘das’ and ‘ɑ/e’ for masculine and feminine gender respectively.
as kadas
he go.
‘He goes.’
ad kali
she go.
‘She goes.’
For 1st person singular number the markers are ‘dɑn’ and ‘en’ respectively for masculine and feminine gender.
en boi pɑɽden
I book read.
Í am reading a book.’ (Male)
en boi pɑɽen
I book read.
‘I am reading a book.’(Female)
In future tense, there is no evidence of subject-verb agreement.
en kɑm nɑnon
I work do.
‘I shall do the work.’
Em mɑThnu becəm
We ground.Loc play.
‘we will play in the ground.’
In Kurukh, the negative morphemes are mɑllɑ or ɑmɑ. The negative morpheme appears at a pre-verbal position.
en onTa chɑtrɑ hikden
I one student be.
Í am a student.’
en onTa chɑtrɑ mɑlkɑn
I one student neg.
Í am not a student.’
For the interrogative sentences, they use |kɑ| for masculine gender and |ki| for feminine gender, which are in-situ or in-fixed in the verbal morphology.
ɑs mɑnɖi enɖekɑradɑs
he rice eat.wh’.
‘Has he eaten rice?’
ɑd mɑnɖi enɖekirii
she rice eat.
“Has she eaten rice?’
Some riddles and proverbs collected during the field in Kurukh languages are as following:
ɑslinəti sud embɑ- Interest is sweeter than the capital.
ɑmRa mɑnnenu TɑTkhɑ mɑlɑ mɑni- you cannot make a silk’s purse out of a sow’s car.
ɑllɑgi kulnu ghiu mɑlɑ sɑhi- Habit is the second nature.
Though, Kurukh is not being taught in any school in West Bengal, but native speakers are retaining their language at home and village domain. Younger generation and children can understand Kurukh, but cannot speak Kurukh with mother-tongue proficiency. Most of the older people believe that shifting towards the dominant language will help them to be in a better position in the society. However, some ‘aware’ people are consciously trying to revitalize their language and culture.
Script
Kurukh was written in Devnagari. In 1999 Dr. Narayan Oraon from Orissa has invented the Tolong Siki script for Kurukh language. Dr. Narayan Oraon, a paediatrician by profession and a mother-tongue speaker of Kurukh, in assistance with Francis Ekka, the former director of Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru, Ramdayal Munda, the former Vice-Chancellor of Ranchi University and Nirmal Minz, devised the Tolong Siki alphabet. They started working on the script in 1989 and the script was published on 15th May, 1999. The script resembles any of Dravidian language and reflects the socio-cultural aspects of the Oraon community. Tolong Siki scrip was formally recognised by Jharkhand Government in 2007. The script is now introduced by Kurukh Literary Society and quite a few books and magazines already have been published in Tolong Siki script. Dr. Narayan Oraon in an interview said that at least in two private schools in Jharkhand, students write their examinations in Tolong Siki script.
In Kamardangal village in Birbhum, two villagers who can write Tolang Siki script run an evening-school in the village for the community people to make the young generation familiar with the script as well as language. Mr. Nimai Kumar Sardar, a person from Oraon community and a resident of Bolpur, Birbhum district has taken the initiative and publishes a magazine called Kurukh-Barta (three volumes have been published already) and an annual magazine called Kurukh-kattha for the cultural and linguistic revival of the community.
Recognizition of Kurukh Language
In March, 2017, West Bengal government declares the official recognition of Kurukh in the state. . In 2003, Jharkhand officially recognised Kurukh language and its script. In February, 2016, Jharkhand government decided to allow students to write their school-final examination in Kurukh. Chattisgarh government also have introduced Kurukh language in school-level education.