Santali language
Encyclopedia
Santhali is a language
in the Santhali subfamily of Austro-Asiatic, related to Ho
and Mundari
. It is spoken by about six million people in India
, Bangladesh
, Nepal
, and Bhutan
. Most of its speakers live in India, in the states of Jharkhand
, Assam
, Bihar
, Orissa
, Tripura
, and West Bengal
. It has its own alphabet
, known as Ol Chiki
, but literacy
is very low, between 10 and 30%. Santhali is spoken by the Santhals.
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
in the Santhali subfamily of Austro-Asiatic, related to Ho
Ho language
Ho is a Munda language of the Austroasiatic language family spoken primarily in India by about 3,803,126 people. It is written with the Devanagari and the Varang Kshiti scripts. It is spoken by the Ho people. 0.103% of India's Population speaks this language as per the 2001 census.The Script was...
and Mundari
Mundari language
The Mundari are a small ethnic group of South Sudan and one of the Nilotic peoples.The group is composed of cattle-herders and agriculturalists and are part of Karo people which also includes Bari, Pojulu, Kakwa, Kuku and Nyangwara...
. It is spoken by about six million people in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, and Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
. Most of its speakers live in India, in the states of Jharkhand
Jharkhand
Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east...
, Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
, Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
, Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
, Tripura
Tripura
Tripura is a state in North-East India, with an area of . It is the third smallest state of India, according to area. Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on the north, south, and west. The Indian states of Assam and Mizoram lie to the east. The capital is Agartala and the main languages spoken are...
, and West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
. It has its own alphabet
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
, known as Ol Chiki
Ol Chiki script
The Ol Chiki script, also known as Ol Cemetʼ , Ol Ciki, Ol , was created in 1925 by Raghunath Murmu for the Santali language. Previously, Santali had been written with the Bengali alphabet, Oriya alphabet, or Latin alphabet, on the rare occasions it was written at all...
, but literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
is very low, between 10 and 30%. Santhali is spoken by the Santhals.
See also
- Paul Olaf BoddingPaul Olaf BoddingPaul Olaf Bodding was a Norwegian missionary, linguist and folklorist. He served in India for 44 years , and operated mainly from the town Dumka in the Santhal Parganas-district...
- Byomkes ChakrabartiByomkes ChakrabartiDr. Byomkes Chakrabarti was a Bengali research worker on ethnic languages. He was also a renowned educationist and a poet. His major contribution to linguistics was in finding out some basic relationship between Santali and the Bengali language...
- Languages of IndiaLanguages of IndiaThe languages of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages—Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages...
- Languages with official status in India
- List of Indian languages by total speakers
- National Translation MissionNational Translation MissionNational Translation Mission is a Government of India initiative to make knowledge texts accessible, in all Indian languages listed in the VIII schedule of the Constitution, through translation. NTM was set up as per National Knowledge Commission's recommendation...
Further reading
- Hembram, P. C. (2002). Santhali, a natural language. New Delhi: U. Hembram.
- Minegishi, M., & Murmu, G. (2001). Santhali basic lexicon with grammatical notes. Tōkyō: Institute for the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. ISBN 4872977912
- Newberry, J. (2000). North Munda dialects: Mundari, Santhali, Bhumia. Victoria, B.C.: J. Newberry. ISBN 0921599684
- Murmu, G., & Das, A. K. (1998). Bibliography, Santhali literature. Calcutta: Biswajnan. ISBN 8175250801
- Muscat, George, Santhali: A New Approach. Sahibganj, Bihar.
- Ghosh, A. (1994). Santhali: a look into Santal morphology. New Delhi: Gyan Pub. House. ISBN 8121204518
- Chakrabarti, B. (1992). A comparative study of Santhali and Bengali. Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi & Co. ISBN 8170741289
- Mitra, P. C. (1988). Santhali, the base of world languages. Calcutta: Firma KLM.
- Paul Olaf Bodding (1929). A Santal dictionary. Oslo: J. Dybwad.
- Зограф Г. А. 1960/1990. Языки Южной Азии. М.: Наука (1-е изд., 1960).
- Лекомцев, Ю. K. 1968. Некоторые характерные черты сантальского предложения // Языки Индии, Пакистана, Непала и Цейлона: материалы научной конференции. М: Наука, 311—321.
- Bodding, Paul O. 1929/1952. A Santal Grammar for the Beginners, Benagaria: Santal Mission of the Northern Churches (1st edition, 1929).
- Grierson, Sir George A. (ed.) 1906 (reprinted 1967). The Linguistic Survey of India. Vol.IV. Delhi-Varanasi-Patna.
- Macphail, R. M. 1964. An Introduction to Santhali, Parts I & II. Benagaria: The Santhali Literature Board, Santhali Christian Council.
- Maspero, Henri. 1952. Les langues mounda. Meillet A., Cohen M. (dir.), Les langues du monde, P.: CNRS.
- Neukom, Lukas. 2001. Santhali. München: LINCOM Europa.
- Pinnow, Heinz-Jürgen. 1966. A comparative study of the verb in the Munda languages. Zide, Norman H. (ed.) Studies in comparative Austroasiatic linguistics. London—The Hague—Paris: Mouton, 96-193.
- Santhali Folk Tales: Ed. by Rev. P.O. Bodding. Oslo: Institutet for sammenlingenden kulturforskning, Publikationen. Vol. I—III. 1923—1929
- Skrefsrud, L.O. 1873. The Grammar of Santhali Language. Benares: Medical Hall Press.
- Vermeer, Hans J.Hans VermeerProf. Dr. h.c. Hans-Josef Vermeer , German linguist and translation scholar.He was appointed Professor of General and Applied Linguistics at the University of Mainz in Germersheim . After that he held the chair of Translation Studies with special reference to Portuguese at Heidelberg University...
1969. Untersuchungen zum Bau zentral-süd-asiatischer Sprachen (ein Beitrag zur Sprachbundfrage). Heidelberg: J. Groos.