Santali (,
Ol Chiki
The Ol Chiki () script, also known as Ol Chemetʼ (Santali: ''ol'' 'writing', ''chemet'' 'learning'), Ol Ciki, Ol, and sometimes as the Santali alphabet invented by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in the year 1925, is the official writing system for San ...
: ),
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
: ,
Odia: ,
Devanagari
Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...
: , also known as Santal, is the most widely spoken language of the
Munda subfamily of the
Austroasiatic languages
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are t ...
, related to
Ho and
Mundari, spoken mainly in the Indian states of
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
,
Bihar
Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
,
Jharkhand
Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...
,
Mizoram
Mizoram () is a state in Northeast India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city. The name of the state is derived from "Mizo people, Mizo", the endonym, self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo ...
,
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
,
Tripura
Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...
and
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
.
It is a recognised regional language of India per the
Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
It is spoken by around 7.0 million people in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
,
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
and
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
, making it the third most-spoken
Austroasiatic
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The te ...
language after
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
and
Khmer.
Santali was a mainly oral language until the development of
Ol Chiki
The Ol Chiki () script, also known as Ol Chemetʼ (Santali: ''ol'' 'writing', ''chemet'' 'learning'), Ol Ciki, Ol, and sometimes as the Santali alphabet invented by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in the year 1925, is the official writing system for San ...
by Pandit
Raghunath Murmu
Pandit Raghunath Murmu (May 1905 – 1 February 1982) was an Indian Santali writer and educator. He developed the Ol Chiki script for Santali language. Until the nineteenth century, Santali people had no written language and knowledge was tran ...
in 1925. Ol Chiki is alphabetic, sharing none of the syllabic properties of the other Indic scripts, and is now widely used to write Santali in India.
History
According to linguist
Paul Sidwell
Paul James Sidwell is an Australian linguist based in Canberra, Australia who has held research and lecturing positions at the Australian National University. Sidwell, who is also an expert and consultant in forensic linguistics, is most notab ...
,
Munda languages
The Munda languages are a group of closely related languages spoken by about nine million people in India and Bangladesh. Historically, they have been called the Kolarian languages. They constitute a branch of the Austroasiatic language famil ...
probably arrived on the coast of
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
from
Indochina
Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...
about 4000–3500 years ago,and spread after the
Indo-Aryan migration
The Indo-Aryan migrations were the migrations into the Indian subcontinent of Indo-Aryan peoples, an ethnolinguistic group that spoke Indo-Aryan languages, the predominant languages of today's North India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lank ...
to
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
.
Until the nineteenth century, Santali had no
written language
A written language is the representation of a spoken or gestural language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will pick up spoken language or sign language by exposure even i ...
and all shared knowledge was transmitted by word of mouth from generation to generation. European interest in the study of the
languages of India
Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families together are sometimes known ...
led to the first efforts at documenting the Santali language.
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
,
Odia and Roman scripts were first used to write Santali before the 1860s by European anthropologists, folklorists and missionaries including A. R. Campbell,
Lars Skrefsrud and
Paul Bodding. Their efforts resulted in Santali dictionaries, versions of folk tales, and the study of the morphology, syntax and phonetic structure of the language.
The
Ol Chiki script
The Ol Chiki () script, also known as Ol Chemetʼ (Santali: ''ol'' 'writing', ''chemet'' 'learning'), Ol Ciki, Ol, and sometimes as the Santali alphabet invented by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in the year 1925, is the official writing system for Sant ...
was created for Santali by
Mayurbhanj
Mayurbhanj district is one of the 30 districts in Odisha state in eastern India. It is the largest district of Odisha by area. Its headquarters are at Baripada. Other major towns are Rairangpur, Karanjia and Udala. , it is the third-most-popu ...
poet
Raghunath Murmu
Pandit Raghunath Murmu (May 1905 – 1 February 1982) was an Indian Santali writer and educator. He developed the Ol Chiki script for Santali language. Until the nineteenth century, Santali people had no written language and knowledge was tran ...
in 1925 and first publicised in 1939.
Ol Chiki as a Santali script is widely accepted among Santal communities. Presently in
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
,
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
, and
Jharkhand
Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...
, Ol Chiki is the official script for Santali literature & language.
However, users from Bangladesh use Bengali script instead.
Santali was honoured in December 2013 when the
University Grants Commission of India
University Grants Commission (UGC) is a statutory body set up by the Department of Higher Education (India), Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development (India), Ministry of Education,
Government of India in accordan ...
decided to introduce the language in the
National Eligibility Test
UGC NET or NTA-UGC-NET, is the examination for determining the eligibility for the post of assistant professor and/or Junior Research Fellowship award in Indian universities and colleges. The examination is conducted by National Testing Agenc ...
to allow lecturers to use the language in colleges and universities.
Geographic distribution
![Geographic distribution of Santali language](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Geographic_distribution_of_Santali_language.png)
The highest concentrations of Santali language speakers are in
Santhal Pargana division
Santhal Pargana division constitutes one of the five district administration units known as the divisions of Jharkhand state in eastern India.
Origin of name
Santhal Pargana derives its name from two words: "Santhal", a major tribe of India a ...
, as well as
East Singhbhum
East Singhbhum is one of the 24 districts of Jharkhand, India. It was created on 16 January 1990. More than 50% of the district is covered by dense forests and mountains, where wild animals once roamed freely. It is known for being a centre of ind ...
and
Seraikela Kharsawan districts of
Jharkhand
Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...
, the
Jangalmahals region of
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
(
Jhargram
Jhargram is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Jhargram district. It is a popular tourist destination known for its forests, ancient temples and royal palaces.
Geography
Location
Jhargr ...
,
Bankura
Bankura () is a city and a municipality in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Bankura district.
Etymology
In the Mahabharata, Bankura was described as Suhmobhumi. The word or (in Nagari: rāḍh) was introduced af ...
and
Purulia
Purulia is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Purulia district. It is located on the north of the Kangsabati River.
Geography
Location
Purulia is located at . It has an average ele ...
districts) and
Mayurbhanj district
Mayurbhanj district is one of the 30 districts in Odisha state in eastern India. It is the largest district of Odisha by area. Its headquarters are at Baripada. Other major towns are Rairangpur, Karanjia and Udala. , it is the third-most-popu ...
of
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
.
Smaller pockets of Santali language speakers are found in the northern
Chota Nagpur plateau (
Hazaribagh
Hazaribagh is a city and a municipal corporation in Hazaribagh district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. It is the divisional headquarters of North Chotanagpur division. It is considered as a health resort and is also popular for Hazaribagh ...
,
Giridih
Giridih is headquarters of the Giridih district of Jharkhand state, India. The city of Giridih is known for its industrial and health sectors, as well as its scenic beauty. Giridih houses the Giridih Coalfield which is one of the oldest coalfi ...
,
Ramgarh
Ramgarh may refer to:
Bangladesh
* Ramgarh Upazila, a sub-district of Khagrachari District
India
* Ramgarh, Bihar, a village near Munger, Bihar
* Ramgarh, Kaimur, a town in Kaimur district, Bihar
* Ramgarh, Uttarakhand, a hill station in Nainital ...
,
Bokaro and
Dhanbad
Dhanbad is the second-most populated city in the Indian state of Jharkhand after Jamshedpur. It ranks as the 42nd largest city in India and is the 33rd largest million-plus urban agglomeration in India. Dhanbad shares its land borders with P ...
districts),
Balesore and
Kendujhar
Kendujhar is a town with municipality in Kendujhar District in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kendujhar district, and it is one of the fifth scheduled areas of Odisha.
Climate
Politics
Mohan char ...
districts of Odisha, and throughout western and northern
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
(
Birbhum
Birbhum district () is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the northernmost district of Burdwan division—one of the five administrative divisions of West Bengal. The district headquarters is in Suri. Other impor ...
,
Paschim Medinipur
Paschim Medinipur district or West Midnapore district (also known as Midnapore West) is one of the districts of the state of West Bengal, India. It was formed on 1 January 2002 after the Partition of Midnapore into Paschim Medinipur and Purba M ...
,
Hooghly,
Paschim Bardhaman
Paschim Bardhaman district is a predominantly urban mining-industrial district in West Bengal. The headquarter of the district is Asansol. It was formed on 7 April 2017 after bifurcation of the erstwhile Bardhaman district as the 23rd district o ...
,
Purba Bardhaman
Purba Bardhaman district is in West Bengal. Its headquarters is in Bardhaman. It was formed on 7 April 2017 after the division of the previous Bardhaman district. Great revolutionary Rash Behari Bose was born in village Subaldaha in the district ...
,
Malda,
Dakshin Dinajpur
Dakshin Dinajpur () or South Dinajpur is a district in the Indian state of West Bengal, India. It was created on 1 April 1992 by the division of the erstwhile West Dinajpur District. The Headquarter (sadar) of the district is at Balurghat. It ...
,
Uttar Dinajpur
Uttar Dinajpur () is a district of the Indian state of West Bengal. Created on 1 April 1992 by the division of the erstwhile West Dinajpur district, it comprises two subdivisions: Raiganj and Islampur.
History
Undivided Dinajpur district ...
,
Jalpaiguri
Jalpaiguri is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Jalpaiguri district as well as of the Jalpaiguri division of West Bengal, covering the jurisdiction of the five districts of North Bengal. The city is loca ...
and
Darjeeling
Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal, ...
districts),
Banka district
Banka is one of the thirty-eight districts of the state of Bihar in India. The district headquarters of Banka is situated in Banka town. The district was established on 21 February 1991.
History
Banka is the homeland of the revolutionary Sat ...
and
Purnia division
Purnia division is an administrative geographical unit of Bihar state of India. Purnia is the administrative headquarters of the division. The division consists of Purnia district, Katihar district, Araria district, and Kishanganj district. It ...
of Bihar (
Araria
Araria is a city and a municipality that is the headquarters of Araria district in the Indian state of Bihar. Araria is situated in the northern part of Bihar.
Etymology
During the British Raj the area was under the administration of a British ...
,
Katihar
Katihar is a city situated in the eastern part of the state of Bihar in India. It is the regional headquarter of Katihar district. It is one of the important cities of Bihar. Also it's a main route of Delhi - Guwahati railway line.
History
Ka ...
,
Purnia
Purnia ()(also romanized as Purnea) is a city that serves as the administrative headquarters of both Purnia district and Purnia division in the Indian state of Bihar.
Total geographical area of Purnia Urban Agglomeration is which is nex ...
and
Kishanganj
Kishanganj is a city and district headquarters of Kishanganj district in Purnia division of Bihar state.
History
Kishanganj, which was previously part of Purnia district, is part of the Mithila region.
Mithila first gained prominence after b ...
districts), and tea-garden regions of Assam (
Kokrajhar
Kokrajhar () is a town in the Bodoland Territorial Region, an autonomous territory in Assam, one of the North Eastern states of India.
Kokrajhar town is located along the bank of the river Gaurang. The North East Indian Railways divides the ci ...
,
Sonitpur
Sonitpur district ron: ˌsə(ʊ)nɪtˈpʊə or ˌʃə(ʊ)nɪtˈpʊəis an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters is located at Tezpur.
Etymology
The name of the is derived from a mythological story fo ...
,
Chirang and
Udalguri
Odalguri (; also spelt Udalguri) is a town and the headquarters of Udalguri district under the jurisdiction of Bodoland Territorial Council which controls the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts in the state of Assam.
Geography
Odalguri is l ...
districts). Outside India, the language is spoken in pockets of
Rangpur and
Rajshahi
Rajshahi ( bn, রাজশাহী, ) is a metropolis, metropolitan city and a major urban, commercial and educational centre of Bangladesh. It is also the administrative seat of the eponymous Rajshahi Division, division and Rajshahi District ...
divisions of northern Bangladesh as well as the
Morang
Morang District ( ne, मोरङ जिल्ला ) is located in Province No. 1 in eastern Nepal. It is an Outer Terai district. It borders with Bihar, India to the South, Jhapa to the East, Dhankuta and Panchthar to the North, and Sunsar ...
and
Jhapa
Jhapa ( ne, झापा जिल्ला; ) is a district of Province No. 1 in eastern Nepal named after a Rajbanshi word "Jhapa" meaning "to cover" (verb). The latest official data, the 2021 Nepal Census, puts the total population of the d ...
districts in the
Terai
The Terai or Tarai is a lowland region in northern India and southern Nepal that lies south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas, the Sivalik Hills, and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. This lowland belt is characterised by tall grasslands, scr ...
of
Province No. 1
Province No. 1 (proposed names: Kirat Autonomous State, Kirat, Limbuwan, Khambuwan Rashtriya Morcha, Nepal, Khambuwan, Mount Everest, Sagarmatha, Virata, Birat and Koshi River, Koshi) is the easternmost of the seven Provinces of Nepal, province ...
in
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
.
Santali is spoken by over seven million people across
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
,
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
, and
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
.
According to
2011 census, India has a total of 7,368,192 Santali speakers (including 3,58,579
Karmali
Carambolim is a village in North Goa district, Goa, India.
Geography
It is located at an elevation of 5 m above MSL.http://www.fallingrain.com/world/IN/33/Carambolim.html Map and weather of Karmali
Location
The railway station at Carambolim ( ...
, 26,399
Mahli
The Mahli are a community in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th ...
). State wise distribution is
Jharkhand
Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...
(2.75 million),
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
(2.43 million),
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
(0.86 million),
Bihar
Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
(0.46 million),
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
(0.21 million) and a few thousand in each of
Chhattisgarh
Chhattisgarh (, ) is a landlocked state in Central India. It is the ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the seventeenth most populous. It borders seven states – Uttar Pradesh to the north, Madhya Prade ...
,
Mizoram
Mizoram () is a state in Northeast India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city. The name of the state is derived from "Mizo people, Mizo", the endonym, self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo ...
,
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...
and
Tripura
Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...
.
Official status
Santali is one of India's 22 scheduled languages.
It is also recognised as the additional official language of the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Dialects
Dialects of Santali include Kamari-Santali, Karmali (Khole), Lohari-Santali, Mahali, Manjhi, Paharia.
Phonology
Consonants
Santali has 21 consonants, not counting the 10 aspirated stops which occur primarily, but not exclusively, in
Indo-Aryan loanwords and are given in parentheses in the table below.
:
* only appears as an allophone of //
before //
.
In native words, the opposition between voiceless and voiced stops is neutralised in word-final position. A typical Munda feature is that word-final stops are "checked", i. e. glottalised and unreleased.
Vowels
Santali has eight oral and six
nasal vowel phonemes. With the exception of /e o/, all oral vowels have a nasalized counterpart.
There are numerous diphthongs.
Morphology
Santali, like all
Munda languages, is a suffixing
agglutinating language
An agglutinative language is a type of synthetic language with Morphology (linguistics), morphology that primarily uses agglutination. Words may contain different morphemes to determine their meanings, but all of these morphemes (including word st ...
.
Nouns
Nouns are inflected for number and case.
Number
Three numbers are distinguished: singular, dual and plural.
Case
The case suffix follows the number suffix. The following cases are distinguished:
Possession
Santali has possessive suffixes which are only used with kinship terms: 1st person ''-ɲ'', 2nd person ''-m'', 3rd person ''-t''. The suffixes do not distinguish possessor number.
Pronouns
The personal pronouns in Santali distinguish inclusive and exclusive first person and anaphoric and demonstrative third person.
The interrogative pronouns have different forms for animate ('who?') and inanimate ('what?'), and referential ('which?') vs. non-referential.
The indefinite pronouns are:
The demonstratives distinguish three degrees of deixis (proximate, distal, remote) and simple ('this', 'that', etc.) and particular ('just this', 'just that') forms.
Numerals
The basic cardinal numbers (transcribed into Latin script IPA)
are:
The numerals are used with
numeral classifiers. Distributive numerals are formed by reduplicating the first consonant and vowel, e.g. ''babar'' 'two each'.
Numbers basically follow a
base-10
The decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers of the Hindu–Arabic numeral ...
pattern. Numbers from 11 to 19 are formed by addition, "gel" ('10') followed by the single-digit number (1 through 9). Multiples of ten are formed by multiplication: the single-digit number (2 through 9) is followed by "gel" ('10'). Some numbers are part of a base-20 number system. 20 can be "bar gel" or "isi".
Verbs
Verbs in Santali inflect for tense, aspect and mood, voice and the person and number of the subject and sometimes of the object.
Subject markers
Object markers
Transitive verbs with pronominal objects take infixed object markers.
Syntax
Santali is an
SOV language, though topics can be fronted.
Influence on other languages
Borrowing between Santali and other Indian languages has not yet been studied fully. In modern Indian languages like Western Hindi the steps of evolution from Midland Prakrit Sauraseni could be traced clearly. In the case of
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
such steps of evolution are not always clear and distinct, and one has to look at other influences that moulded Bengali's essential characteristics.
A notable work in this field was initiated by linguist
Byomkes Chakrabarti
Byomkes Chakrabarti (also spelled Byomkesh Chakraborty or Byomkesh Chakrabarty) (1923–1981) was a Bengali research worker on ethnic languages. He was also a educationist and a poet. His major contribution to linguistics was in finding out some ...
in the 1960s. Chakrabarti investigated the complex process of
assimilation of
Austroasiatic
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The te ...
family, particularly Santali elements, into
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
. He showed the overwhelming influence of
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
on Santali. His formulations are based on the detailed study of two-way influences on all aspects of both languages and tried to bring out the unique features of the languages. More research is awaited in this area.
Notable linguist
Khudiram Das authored the Santali Bangla Samashabda Abhidhan'
'' (), a book focusing on the influence of the Santali language on Bengali and providing a basis for further research on this subject.
Bangla Santali Bhasha Samparka() is a collection of essays in
E-book
An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...
format authored by him and dedicated to linguist
Suniti Kumar Chatterji
Bhashacharya Acharya Suniti Kumar Chatterjee (26 November 1890 – 29 May 1977) was an Indian linguist, educationist and litterateur. He was a recipient of the second-highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Vibhushan.
Life Childhood
Chatterji ...
on the relationship between the Bengali and Santali languages.
See also
*
Languages of India
Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families together are sometimes known ...
*
Languages with official status in India
There is no national language in India. However, article 343(1) of the Indian constitution specifically mentions that, "The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official pur ...
*
List of Indian languages by total speakers
India is home to several hundred languages. Most Indians speak a language belonging to the families of the Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European (c. 77%), the Dravidian (c. 20.61%), the Austroasiatic ( Munda) (c. 1.2%), or the Sino-Tibetan (c. 0.8 ...
*
National Translation Mission
National Translation Mission is a Government of India initiative to make knowledge texts accessible, in all 22 official languages of India listed in the VIII schedule of the Constitution, through translation. NTM was set up on the recommendation ...
*
Santali Wikipedia
*
Ol Chiki script
The Ol Chiki () script, also known as Ol Chemetʼ (Santali: ''ol'' 'writing', ''chemet'' 'learning'), Ol Ciki, Ol, and sometimes as the Santali alphabet invented by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in the year 1925, is the official writing system for Sant ...
References
Works cited
*
Further reading
*
Byomkes Chakrabarti
Byomkes Chakrabarti (also spelled Byomkesh Chakraborty or Byomkesh Chakrabarty) (1923–1981) was a Bengali research worker on ethnic languages. He was also a educationist and a poet. His major contribution to linguistics was in finding out some ...
(1992). ''A comparative study of Santali and Bengali''. Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi & Co.
* Hansda, Kali Charan (2015). ''Fundamental of Santhal Language''. Sambalpur.
* Hembram, P. C. (2002). ''Santali, a natural language''. New Delhi: U. Hembram.
* Newberry, J. (2000). ''North Munda dialects: Mundari, Santali, Bhumia''. Victoria, B.C.: J. Newberry.
* Mitra, P. C. (1988). ''Santali, the base of world languages''. Calcutta: Firma KLM.
* 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.
*
* Maspero, Henri. (1952). ''Les langues mounda''. Meillet A., Cohen M. (dir.), Les langues du monde, P.: CNRS.
* Neukom, Lukas. (2001). ''Santali''. 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.
*
*
Vermeer, Hans J. (1969). ''Untersuchungen zum Bau zentral-süd-asiatischer Sprachen (ein Beitrag zur Sprachbundfrage)''. Heidelberg: J. Groos.
* 2006-d. Santali. In E. K. Brown (ed.) Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics. Oxford: Elsevier Press.
Dictionaries
*
Bodding, Paul O. (1929). ''A Santal dictionary''. Oslo: J. Dybwad.
*
English-Santali/Santali-English dictionaries* Macphail, R. M. (1964). ''An Introduction to Santali'', Parts I & II. Benagaria: The Santali Literature Board, Santali Christian Council.
* Minegishi, M., & Murmu, G. (2001). ''Santali basic lexicon with grammatical notes''. Tōkyō: Institute for the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Grammars and primers
* Bodding, Paul O. 1929/1952. ''A Santal Grammar for the Beginners'', Benagaria: Santal Mission of the Northern Churches (1st edition, 1929).
*
* Macphail, R. M. (1953) ''An Introduction to Santali''. Firma KLM Private Ltd.
* Muscat, George. (1989) ''Santali: A New Approach''. Sahibganj, Bihar : Santali Book Depot.
*
* Saren, Jagneswar "Ranakap Santali Ronor" (Progressive Santali Grammar), 1st edition, 2012.
Literature
* Pandit Raghunath Murmu (1925) ronor : Mayurbhanj, Odisha Publisher ASECA, Mayurbhanj
* Bodding, Paul O., (ed.) (1923—1929) ''Santali Folk Tales''. Oslo: Institutet for sammenlingenden kulturforskning, Publikationen. Vol. I—III.
*
* Murmu, G., & Das, A. K. (1998). ''Bibliography, Santali literature''. Calcutta: Biswajnan.
*
* ''The Dishom Beura'', India's First Santali Daily News Paper. Publisher, Managobinda Beshra, National Correspondent: Mr. Somenath Patnaik
External links
National Translation Mission's (NTM) Santali PagesOLAC resources in and about the Santali languageOLAC resources in and about the Mahali languageRWAAI Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible HeritageSantali language in RWAAI Digital Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santali Language
Munda languages
Santhal
Official languages of India
Languages of Assam
Languages of Bihar
Languages of Jharkhand
Languages of Mizoram
Languages of Odisha
Languages of Tripura
Languages of West Bengal
Languages of Bangladesh
Languages with own distinct writing systems
Languages written in Indic scripts
Languages attested from the 19th century
Santali people
Sahitya Akademi recognised languages