Kurukh language
Kurukh, also Kurux, Oraon or Uranw, is a North Dravidian language spoken by the Kurukh 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. The Kisan dialect has 206,100 speakers as of 2011.
Etymology
According to Edward Tuite Dalton, "Oraon" is an exonym assigned by neighbouring Munda people, meaning "to roam". They call themselves Kurukh. 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'.Classification
Kurukh belongs to the Northern Dravidian group of the Dravidian family languages, and is closely related to Sauria Paharia and Kumarbhag Paharia, which are often together referred to as Malto.Writing systems
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 are using it widely in books, magazines and other material. The alphabet is also used by Oraon people in the states of Chhattisgarh, Bengal, Jharkhand and Assam.
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 script, 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.
Geographical distribution
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, Assam and Tripura states by Kurukh who are mostly Tea-garden workers.
Speakers
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. 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. Bangladesh also has some speakers.Phonology
Vowels
Kurukh has five cardinal vowels. Each vowel has long, short nasalized and long nasalized counterparts.| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | |||
| Mid | |||
| Low |
Consonants
The table below illustrates the articulation of the consonants.- 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".
- Of the nasals, /m, n/ are phonemic; 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:/.
Morphology
Kurukh, like other Dravidian languages, is an agglutinative language. The sentence structure is Subject-Object-Verb. In its morphological construction, there is suffixation but there are no infixes or prefixes.Nouns
Kurukh nouns have three grammatical genders, namely masculine, feminine and neuter. To the Kurukh only men are masculine ; women and goddesses 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,.There are only two grammatical numbers, the singular and the plural.
The following is an example declension table for a masculine noun "āl", meaning "man"
| Case | Singular | Definite | Plural |
| Nominative | āl | ālas | ālar |
| Genitive | āl | ālas gahi | ālar gahi |
| Dative | āl | ālas gē | ālar gē |
| Accusative | ālan | ālasin | ālarin |
| Ablative | āltī | ālas tī | ālartī, ālarintī |
| Instrumental | āl 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".
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | mukkā | mukkar |
| Genitive | mukkā gahi | mukkar gahi |
| Dative | mukkāgē | mukkar gē |
| Accusative | mukkan | mukkarin |
| Ablative | mukkantī | mukkartī, mukkarintī |
| Instrumental | mukkā trī, mukkā trū | mukkar trī, mukkar trū |
| Vocative | ē mukkai | ē mukkarо̄ |
| Locative | mukkā nū | mukkar nū |
The neuter declension for "allā" shows almost identical singular forms, but a difference in pluralization.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | allā | allā guṭhi |
| Genitive | allā gahi | allā guṭhi gahi |
| Dative | allā gē | allā guṭhi gē |
| Accusative | allan | allā guṭhin |
| Ablative | allantī | allā guṭhi tī, allā guṭhintī |
| Instrumental | allā trī, allā trū | allā guṭhi trī, allā guṭhi trū |
| Vocative | ē allā | ē allā guṭhi |
| Locative | allā nū | allā guṭhi nū |