Mundari language

According to linguist Paul Sidwell (2018), Munda languages probably arrived on coast of Odisha from Indochina about 4000–3500 years ago and spread after Indo-Aryan migration to Odisha.Sidwell, Paul. 2018. [https://www.academia.edu/36689736/Austroasiatic_Studies_state_of_the_art_in_2018 "Austroasiatic Studies: state of the art in 2018"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503013417/https://www.academia.edu/36689736/Austroasiatic_Studies_state_of_the_art_in_2018 |date=3 May 2019 }}. Presentation at the Graduate Institute of Linguistics, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, May 22, 2018.

{{Pie chart

|caption=Distribution of Mundari language (incl. Munda) in the state of India (2011)

|value1 = 57.62

|label1 = Jharkhand

|value2 = 29.46

|label2 = Odisha

|value3 = 5.7

|label3 = Assam

|value4 = 4.73

|label4 = West Bengal

|other = yes

|other-color = black

}}

Mundari is spoken in the Khunti, Ranchi, Seraikela Kharsawan and West Singhbhum, East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, and in the Mayurbhanj, Kendujhar, Sundargarh district of Odisha by at least 1.1 million people.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/UNR|title=Mundari|website=ethnologue}} Another 500,000, mainly in Odisha and Assam, are recorded in the census as speaking "Munda," potentially another name for Mundari.

Toshiki Osada (2008:99), citing the Encyclopaedia Mundarica (vol. 1, p. 6), lists the following dialects of Mundari, which are spoken mostly in Jharkhand state.

• Hasada ({{IPA|[hasa-daʔ]}}): east of the Ranchi-Chaibasa Road
• Naguri ({{IPA|[naɡuri]}}): west of the Ranchi-Chaibasa Road
• Tamaria ({{IPA|[tamaɽ-ia]}}) or Latar: Panchpargana area (Tamar, Bundu, Rahe, Sonahatu, Silli)
• Kera ({{IPA|[keraʔ]}}): ethnic Oraon who live in the Ranchi city area

The phonology of Mundari is similar to the surrounding closely related Austroasiatic languages but considerably different from either Indo-Aryan or Dravidian. Perhaps the most foreign phonological influence has been on the vowels. Whereas the branches of Austroasiatic in Southeast Asia are rich in vowel phonemes, Mundari has only five. The consonant inventory of Mundari is similar to other Austroasiatic languages with the exception of retroflex consonants, which seem to appear only in loanwords. (Osada 2008)

Mundari has five vowel phonemes. All vowels have long and short as well as nasalized allophones, but neither length nor nasality are contrastive. All vowels in open monosyllables are quantitatively longer than those in closed syllables, and those following nasal consonants or {{IPA|/ɟ/}} are nasalized. Vowels preceding or following {{IPA|/ɳ/}} are also nasalized.

Mundari's consonant inventory consists of 23 basic phonemes. The Naguri and Kera dialects include aspirated stops as additional phonemes, here enclosed in parentheses.

{{main|Mundari Bani}}

File:MundariLanguageScript.jpg

Mandari is also written in native Mundari Bani, invented in the 1980s by Rohidas Singh Nag.

It has been claimed the Mundari has no word classes, so that nouns, verbs, and adjectives are distinguished only by context. However, this has been disputed, notably by Evans and Osada in 2005.{{cite journal | url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/lity.2005.9.3.351/html?lang=en | doi=10.1515/lity.2005.9.3.351 | title=Mundari: The myth of a language without word classes | year=2005 | last1=Evans | first1=Nicholas | last2=Osada | first2=Toshiki | journal=Linguistic Typology | volume=9 | issue=3 | hdl=1885/54663 | s2cid=121706232 | hdl-access=free }}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |editor-last=Anderson |editor-first=Gregory D.S |date=2008 |title=The Munda languages |series=Routledge Language Family Series 3 |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-32890-X}}

• Evans, Nicholas & Toshki Osada. 2005a. Mundari: the myth of a language without word classes. In Linguistic Typology 9.3, pp. 351–390.
• Evans, Nicholas & Toshki Osada. 2005b. Mundari and argumentation in word-class analysis. In Linguistic Typology 9.3, pp. 442–457
• Hengeveld, Kees & Jan Rijkhoff. 2005. Mundari as a flexible language. In Linguistic Typology 9.3, pp. 406–431.
• Newberry, J. (2000). North Munda dialects: Mundari, Santali, Bhumia. Victoria, B.C.: J. Newberry. {{ISBN|0-921599-68-4}}
• Osada, Toshiki. 2008. "Mundari". In Anderson, Gregory D.S (ed). The Munda languages, 99–164. Routledge Language Family Series 3.New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-32890-X}}.

• {{cite book|author=Johann Hoffmann|title=Mundari grammar|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.280908|access-date=25 August 2012|year=1903|publisher=Bengal Secretariat Press}}
• {{cite book|author=J. C. Whitley|title=A Mundári Primer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QrowAQAAMAAJ|access-date=25 August 2012|year=1873|publisher=Bengal Secretariat Press}}
• {{cite book|author=Carl Gustav Rudolph Eduard Alfred Nottrott|title=Grammatik der Kolh-Sprache|url=https://archive.org/details/grammatikderkolh00nottuoft|access-date=25 August 2012|place=Gütersloh|year=1882|publisher=Druck von C. Bertelsmann}}
• {{cite book|title=Four gospels in Mundari|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KekpAAAAYAAJ|access-date=25 August 2012|year=1881|publisher=Bible Society}}
• {{cite book |title=Mundari Folk Tales |first=P. K. |last=Mitra |translator=P. K. Mitra |publisher=Education Press |date=1956}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928030710/http://www.southasiabibliography.de/Bibliography/Austroasiatic/Munda/Mundari/mundari.html Mundari Bibliography at Department of Linguistics, University of Osnabrueck, Germany]
• [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_map.asp?name=NP&seq=20 Detailed language map of eastern Nepal, see language #68 in green along eastern border]
• http://projekt.ht.lu.se/rwaai RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage)
• http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-A6AA-C@view Mundari language in RWAAI Digital Archive
• https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21031r-mundari.pdf
• https://omniglot.com/writing/mundaribani.htm
• https://omniglot.com/writing/mundari.htm

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{{Austro-Asiatic languages}}

Category:Munda languages

Category:Languages of Bangladesh

Category:Languages of India

Category:Languages of Jharkhand

Category:Languages of Odisha

Category:Languages of Nepal

Category:Endangered languages of India

Category:Languages written in Devanagari

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