Gondi language

Gondi language
Gondi
Gōndi
Spoken in India
Ethnicity Gondi people
Native speakers 2 million  (date missing)
Language family
Dravidian
  • Central
    • Telugu–Kui
      • Gondi–Kui
        • Gondi languages
          • Gondi
Writing system Devanagari script, Telugu script, Gondi script
Language codes
ISO 639-2 gon
ISO 639-3 gon – Macrolanguage
individual codes:
ggo – Southern Gondi
gno – Northern Gondi

Gondi (Gōndi) is spoken by the Gondi people. It is a Central-Dravidian language, spoken by about two million people[1] – chiefly in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattishgarh and in various adjoining areas of neighbouring states. Although it is the language of the Gond people, only about half of them still speak it.

Gondi has no written literature, but it has a rich folk literature, examples of which are marriage songs and narrations. The language has a two-gender system, substantives being either masculine or nonmasculine. Gondi departed from the parent Proto-Dravidian language by developing initial voiced stops (g, j, ḍ, d, b) and aspirated stops (kh, gh, jh, dh, ph).

Most of the Gondi dialects are still inadequately recorded and described. The more important dialects are Dorla, Koya, Maria, Muria, and Raj Gond. Some basic phonologic features separate the northwestern dialects from the southeastern. One is the treatment of the original initial s, which is preserved in northern and western Gondi, while farther to the south and east it has been changed to h; in some other dialects it has been lost completely. Other dialectal variations in the Gondi language are the alteration of initial r with initial l and a change of e and o to a.

Contents

Script

Gondi is typically written in the Devanagari script or Telugu script but actually has its own writing system, the Gondi script, which was designed by a Gond in 1928. Most Gonds are illiterate, and do not use any script, however some adopt the Devanagari or Telugu scripts as their own and the Gonds’ own script is being used far less than before[2]

Further reading

  • Beine, David K. 1994. A sociolinguistic survey of the Gondi-speaking communities of central India. M.A. thesis. San Diego State University. 516 p.
  • Chenevix Trench, Charles. Grammar of Gondi: As Spoken in the Betul District, Central Provinces, India ; with Vocabulary, Folk-Tales, Stories and Songs of the Gonds / Volume 1 - Grammar. Madras: Government Press, 1919.
  • Hivale, Shamrao, and Verrier Elwin. Songs of the Forest; The Folk Poetry of the Gonds. London: G. Allen & Unwin, ltd, 1935.
  • Moss, Clement F. An Introduction to the Grammar of the Gondi Language. [Jubbalpore?]: Literature Committee of the Evangelical National Missionary Society of Sweden, 1950.
  • Pagdi, Setumadhava Rao. A Grammar of the Gondi Language. [Hyderabad-Dn: s.n, 1954.
  • Subrahmanyam, P. S. Descriptive Grammar of GondiAnnamalainagar: Annamalai University, 1968.
  • [Gondi–Telugu–English–Hindi Dictionary and Phrasebook]http://www.gondwana.in/ap/index.htm by New Zealanders – Mark and Joanna Penny
  • [Gondi–Telugu–English–Hindi-Marathi Dictionary] http://www.gondwana.in/mh/index.htm by Benny and Mary Kurian

References

  1. ^ Beine, David K. 1994. A sociolinguistic survey of the Gondi-speaking communities of central India. M.A. thesis. San Diego State University. chpt. 1
  2. ^ http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/n3841.pdf

External links



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  • Gondi language —       one of the Dravidian languages of India. In the early 21st century it was spoken by about 2.7 million people, mostly Gonds. Gondi has many dialects (dialect), some of which are mutually unintelligible. It is not a written language and as… …   Universalium

  • Gondi — may refer to *The Gondi people, an ethnic group of central India *The Gondi language, the language of the Gondi people *Gondi dumplings, a traditional Iranian Jewish food *The French aristocratic de Gondi family whose most famous member was Jean… …   Wikipedia

  • Gondi people — Infobox Ethnic group group = Gondi pop = 4 million region1 = flag|India pop1 = ref1 = region2 = spaces|11 Madhya Pradesh pop2 = 4,357,718 [cite web |url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Tables Published/SCST/dh st madhya pradesh.pdf |title=Madhya… …   Wikipedia

  • Gondi — [gän′dē, gōn′dē] n. the Dravidian language spoken by the Gonds, consisting of many dialects …   English World dictionary

  • Gondi — ISO 639 3 Code : gon ISO 639 2/B Code : gon ISO 639 2/T Code : gon ISO 639 1 Code : Scope : Macrolanguage Language Type : Living Individual languages : Identifier : ggo Name: Southern Gondi Individual languages : Identifier : gno Name: Northern …   Names of Languages ISO 639-3

  • Gondi — /gon dee/, n. a Dravidian language, the language of the Gonds. * * * …   Universalium

  • language — Synonyms and related words: Abnaki, Afghan, Afghani, Afrikaans, Afro Asiatic, Ainu, Akan, Akkadian, Albanian, Aleut, Algonquian, Algonquin, Amharic, Anatolian, Anatolic, Andaman, Annamese, Anzanite, Apache, Arabic, Aramaic, Araucanian, Arawak,… …   Moby Thesaurus

  • Gondi — /ˈgɒndi/ (say gondee) noun the language spoken by the Gonds; one of the Dravidian language family …  

  • Gondi — noun Date: 1848 the Dravidian language of the Gonds …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Gondi — noun a) A tribe of India. b) The language spoken by this tribe …   Wiktionary

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