Gorum, or Parengi, is a nearly-extinct minor

Munda language The Munda languages are a group of closely related languages spoken by about eleven million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Historically, they have been called the Kolarian languages. They constitute a branch of the Austroasiatic langu ...

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

Remo Remo Inc. is an American musical instruments manufacturing company based in Valencia, California, and founded by Remo Belli in 1957. Products manufactured include drum kits, drumheads, drums, and drum hardware, hardware, and various percussio ...

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

Status

Gorum is 60 percent endangered and may soon become extinct. Few people under the age of thirty years can understand the language, while those who do know it are likely to deny knowing it. This language seems to have been first researched in 1933.

Origins

Gorum is a member of the Munda family, as shown by the

glottal consonant Glottal consonants are consonants using the glottis as their primary articulation. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the glottal fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants ...

s that are used in

creaky voice In linguistics, creaky voice (sometimes called laryngealisation, pulse phonation, vocal fry, or glottal fry) refers to a low, scratchy sound that occupies the vocal range below the common vocal register. It is a special kind of phonation in which ...

. However, it has borrowed some elements from nearby

Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages are a language family, family of languages spoken by 250 million people, primarily in South India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan, with pockets elsewhere in South Asia. The most commonly spoken Dravidian l ...

, such as doubly inflected AVC structures.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 district is a districts of India, district of India in southern Odisha, with its headquarters at the town of Koraput. The district is located in the Eastern Ghats and is known for its hilly terrain, rich and diverse mineral deposits and ...

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

: the former Nandapur and Pottangi taluks *

Visakhapatnam district Visakhapatnam district is one of the six districts in the Uttarandhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, headquartered at Visakhapatnam. It is one of the twenty-six districts in Andhra Pradesh state. The district shares borders wi ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

: 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