| Kurukh | ||
|---|---|---|
| कुरुख़ | ||
| Spoken in | India, Bangladesh | |
| Total speakers | 2,053,000 (SIL 1997) | |
| Language family | Dravidian
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| Writing system | Devanagari script | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | kru | |
| ISO 639-3 | kru | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Kurukh (Devanagari: कुरुख़), also called Kurux, Kuṛux or Kuruḵẖ, is a Dravidian language spoken by the Oraon (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 Oraon.
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Classification
Kurukh 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 Sauria Paharia and Kumarbhag Paharia languages (which are sometimes together referred to as the Malto language) 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.
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] The Govt. of Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh has introduced Kurukh language in schools where Kurukhars or Oraon students are in a majority.
Literature
The Bible was translated into Kurukh in 2000. The language is being taught in colleges and universities like Ranchi University and Sidho Kanho University. Magazines like Nam Kurkhat, Singi Dai, and Jharkhand Dhara publish articles in the language. Kurukh books are being published from Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh (Sarna) and West Bengal.
Alternative names and dialects
Kurukh has a number of alternative names, some are: Uraon, Kurux, 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.
References
- ^ Fairservis, Walter Ashlin (1997). The Harappan Civilization and Its Writing: A Model for the Decipherment of the Indus Script. Asian Studies. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 16. ISBN 978-9004090668.
- ^ Stassen, Leon (1997). Intransitive Predication. Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory. Oxford University Press. p. 220. ISBN 978-0199258932.
- ^ Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine. Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Page 9.
External links
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