Mundari language

For other uses, see Mundari (disambiguation).

Mundari
Native to	India, Bangladesh, Nepal
Ethnicity	Munda
Native speakers	1.6 million (2001 census)
Language family	Austroasiatic Munda North Munda Kherwari Mundari languages Mundari
Dialects	Bhumij
Language codes
ISO 639-3	unr – inclusive code Individual code: unx – "Munda" (Killi; duplicate code)
Glottolog	mund1320

Mundari (Muɳɖa) is a Munda language of the Austroasiatic language family spoken by the Munda people, and is closely related to Santali. Mundari is primarily spoken by Munda tribal people in east India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. "Mundari Bani", a script to write Mundari Language was invented by Rohidas Singh Nag.

Dialects

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 ([hasa-daʔ]): east of the Ranchi-Chaibasa Road
• Naguri ([naguri]): west of the Ranchi-Chaibasa Road
• Tamaria ([tamaɽ-ia]) or Latar: Panchpargana area (Bundu, Tamar, Silli, Baranda, and Rahe)
• Kera ([keraʔ]): ethnic Oraon who live in the Ranchi city area

Bhumij, listed in many sources as a separate language, may in fact be a variety of the Latar (Tamaria) dialect of Mundari. It is spoken across Jharkhand state and in Mayurbhanj district, Odisha (Anderson 2008:196). There may be around 50,000 Bhumij speakers.

Samples

Mundari	Transliteration	Translation
अमा नुतुम चिकना ?	Amā nutuma cikanā	What is your name?
अियन नुतुम रिमिल तना ।	A̔iyana nutuma Rimil tanā.	My name is Rimil.
अम कोते सेनो तना?	Ama kōtē sēnō tanā	Where are you going?
नेते हुजू में	Nētē hujū mēṁ	Come here.
अम चिल्का मेना ?	Ama cilkā mēnā	How are you?
		Hey kid! Don't waste our time.
?		Do you only want to disturb things?
अम नाक खुजाओ मैं	Ālama nāka khujā'ō maiṁ	Don't penetrate finger into nose.
जागर लाई पैसा लॉगो।	Jāgara lā'ī paisā lŏgō	Talking costs money.
अम सिनेमा लाई सेनो तना चि का ?	Āma sinēmā lā'i sēnō tanā cī kā.	Will you go to Cinema?
	'	Your face looks like eggplant.
?	'	Why are you making your mouth as that of a moron?
अम चिकम चिका ताना ?	Ama cikama cikā tānā?	What are you doing?
एमके चिकना मेना ?	Ēmakē cikanā mēnā?	you have any problem
अम कोते ते हिजु ताना ?	Āma kōtē tē hiju tānā?	Where did you go?
अम कोते ते हिजु ताना ?	kaṭhū ān lāga rahyo ha	Where are you coming from?
थड़ीआ	Thaṛī'ā	Utensils.
बहा	Bahā	Flower.

References

• Anderson, Gregory D.S (ed). 2008. The Munda languages. Routledge Language Family Series 3.New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-32890-X.
• 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.

Further reading

• 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

External links

• Mundari Bibliography at Department of Linguistics, University of Osnabrueck, Germany
• 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