Gorum, or Parengi, is a nearly-extinct minor

Munda language 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 family ...

of India.

Names

The name ''Gorum'' most likely comes from an animal/people prefix ''go''- and root -''rum'' meaning 'people', and is possibly related to the ethnonym

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(Anderson 2008:381). ''Parengi'', or ''Parenga'', is of obscure origin.

Status

Gorum is 60% endangered, it is very likely that it might soon be extinct majority of the people under 30 years cannot understand the language. In addition those who know it are likely to deny knowing it. This language seems to have been first researched in 1933, that being the earliest scholarly reference.

Origins

While Gorum is a member of the Munda family, it has taken some things from Dravidian, a language spoken nearby. For example, they tend to doubly inflect on certain types of

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structures. Another derivation from the Munda language is the use of some Glottals being " creaky voiced"Anderson, Gregory D.S. & Felix Rau. 2008. “Gorum.” In: Gregory D.S. Anderson

Distribution

Gorum speakers are located in the following areas of eastern India (Anderson 2008:381). *

Koraput district Koraput is a district of India in southern Odisha, with headquarters at Koraput. The district is located in the Eastern Ghats and is known for its hilly terrain, rich and diverse types of mineral deposits and its tribal culture and traditions. Th ...

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 ...

: the former Nandapur and Pottangi taluks *

Visakhapatnam district Visakhapatnam district (formerly known as Vizagapatam district) is one of the six districts in the Uttarandhra region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, headquartered at Visakhapatnam. It is one of th ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

: Munchingput block Gutob is spoken to the north of Gorum, and Gta to the west of Gorum.

References

*Anderson, Gregory D.S (ed). 2008. ''The Munda languages''. Routledge Language Family Series 3.New York: Routledge. .

External links

Endangered Language Project Database

World Language Movies

Opino Gomango on Sora language

Bibliography on the Gorum language

Gorum Dictionary
Munda languages Endangered languages of India {{AustroAsiatic-lang-stub