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Munda languages


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Jump to: navigation , search Munda Geographic distribution:  India ,
Bangladesh Genetic classification :  Austro-Asiatic * Munda* Subdivisions:  
Kherwari Korku Kharia-Juang Koraput ISO 639-2 and 639-5 :  mun

The *Munda languages* are a language family spoken by about nine million
people in central and eastern India and Bangladesh . They constitute a
branch of the Austroasiatic language family , generally placed in
opposition to the Mon-Khmer languages of Southeast Asia , which means they
are distantly related to Vietnamese and Khmer . The origins of the Munda
languages are not known, though it is generally thought that they are
autochthonous languages of eastern India. Ho , Mundari , and Santali are
notable languages of this group.

The family is generally divided into two branches: North Munda, spoken in
the Chota Nagpur Plateau of Jharkhand , Chhattisgarh , Bengal , and Orissa
, and South Munda, spoken in central Orissa and along the border between
Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

North Munda, of which Santali is the chief language, is the larger of the
two groups; its languages are spoken by about nine-tenths of Munda
speakers. After Santhali, the Mundari and Ho languages rank next in number
of speakers, followed by Korku and Sora. The remaining Munda languages are
spoken by small, isolated groups of people and are little known.

Characteristics of the Munda languages include three grammatical numbers
(singular, dual, and plural), two genders (animate and inanimate), a
distinction between inclusive and exclusive first person plural pronouns ,
and the use of either suffixes or auxiliaries to indicate tense . In Munda
sound systems, consonant sequences are infrequent except in the middle of
a word. Other than in Korku, where syllables show a distinction between
high and low tone, accent is predictable in the Munda languages.


Contents

[hide ]

* 1 Classification 
o 1.1 Diffloth (1974) 
o 1.2 Diffloth (2005) 
o 1.3 Anderson (2001) 
* 2 References 
* 3 Further reading 
* 4 External links 


[edit ] Diffloth (1974)

The bipartite Diffloth (1974) classification is widely cited:

* North Munda o Korku o Kherwarian + Kherwari branch: Agariya , Bijori ,
Koraku + Mundari branch: Mundari , Bhumij , Asuri, Koda , Ho , Birhor +
Santali branch: Santali , Mahali , Turi

* South Munda o Kharia-Juang: Kharia , Juang

o Koraput Munda + Remo branch: Gata (Gta), Bondo (Remo), Bodo Gadaba
(Gutob) + Savara branch[Sora-Juray-Gorum] : Parengi

(Gorum) [in Koraput District] , Sora (Savara), Juray , Lodhi



[edit ] Diffloth (2005)

Gérard Diffloth (2005) shows a somewhat more complex picture:

Munda Koraput

	

Remo



	

Savara



Core Munda

	

Kharian-Juang


North   Munda  	

	

Korku 



	

Kherwarian





[edit ]
Anderson (2001)

Contrary to either of Diffloth's classifications, Gregory D. S. Anderson
(2001) rejects the existence of the "Koraput" clade and proposes, on the
basis of morphological comparisons, that Proto-South Munda split directly
into three sister groups: Kharia-Juang, Sora-Gorum, and
Gutob-Remo-Gtaʔ.^[1]


[edit ] References

* Diffloth, Gérard. 1974. Austro-Asiatic Languages. Encyclopaedia
Britannica. 480-484. * Diffloth, Gérard. 2005. The contribution of
linguistic palaeontology to the homeland of Austro-asiatic. In: Sagart,
Laurent, Roger Blench and Alicia Sanchez-Mazas (eds.). The Peopling of
East Asia: Putting Together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics.
RoutledgeCurzon. pp79–82.

1. *^ * Anderson, Gregory D S. /A New Classification of
South Munda: Evidence from Comparative Verb Morphology/. Indian
Linguistics. *62*. Poona: Linguistic Society of India. pp. 21–36.