Santali language

Santali (, , , , ) is a Kherwarian Munda language spoken natively by the Santal people of South Asia. It is the most widely-spoken language of the Munda subfamily of the Austroasiatic languages, related to Ho and Mundari, spoken mainly in the Indian states of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Odisha, Tripura and West Bengal. It is a recognised regional language of India as per the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. It is spoken by around 7.6 million people in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, making it the third most-spoken Austroasiatic language after Vietnamese and Khmer.

Santali was a mainly oral language until developments were made by European missionaries to write it in Bengali, Odia and Roman scripts. Eventually, the Ol Chiki script was developed by Raghunath Murmu 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, proto-Munda language speakers ancestral of Santali probably arrived on the coast of Odisha from Indochina about 4000–3500 years ago, and spread before the Indo-Aryan migration to the Chota Nagpur Plateau and adjacent areas.

Until the nineteenth century, Santali had no written language and all shared knowledge was transmitted by word of mouth from generation to generation. European interest in the study of the languages of India led to the first efforts at documenting the Santali language. Bengali, 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 was created for Santali by Mayurbhanj poet Raghunath Murmu in 1925 and first publicised in 1939.

Ol Chiki as a Santali script is widely accepted among Santal communities. Presently in West Bengal, Odisha, and Jharkhand, 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 decided to introduce the language in the National Eligibility Test to allow lecturers to use the language in colleges and universities.

Geographic distribution

Santali is spoken by over seven million people across India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal, with India being its native country and having the largest number of speakers. According to 2011 census, India has a total of 7,368,192 Santali speakers (including 358,579 Karmali, 26,399 Mahli). State wise distribution is Jharkhand (2.75 million), West Bengal (2.43 million), Odisha (0.86 million), Bihar (0.46 million), Assam (0.21 million) and a few thousand in each of Chhattisgarh, and in north-eastern states Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram.

The highest concentrations of Santali language speakers are in Santhal Pargana division, as well as East Singhbhum and Seraikela Kharsawan districts of Jharkhand, the Jangalmahals region of West Bengal ( Jhargram, Bankura and Purulia districts) and Mayurbhanj district of Odisha.

Smaller pockets of Santali language speakers are found in the northern Chota Nagpur plateau (Hazaribagh, Giridih, Ramgarh, Bokaro and Dhanbad districts), Balesore and Kendujhar districts of Odisha, and throughout western and northern West Bengal (Birbhum, Paschim Medinipur, Hooghly, Paschim Bardhaman, Purba Bardhaman, Malda, Dakshin Dinajpur, Uttar Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts), Banka district and Purnia division of Bihar ( Araria, Katihar, Purnia and Kishanganj districts), and tea-garden regions of Assam (Kokrajhar, Sonitpur, Chirang and Udalguri districts). Outside India, the language is spoken in pockets of Rangpur and Rajshahi divisions of northern Bangladesh as well as the Morang and Jhapa districts in the Terai of Koshi Province in Nepal.

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, 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.

Bodding (1929) noted that in the vowel space between an open syllable and a syllable that starts with a vowel, if both vowels are of the same height, approximant // is inserted in between cues of two low vowels, and // for mid-high and high vowels.

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.

Word prominence

Santali prosody exhibits iambic patterns with stress is always released in the second syllable in most disyllabic words, excepting loan words from Hindi, Bihari, Bengali and Assamese.

Vowel harmony

Like all Kherwarian languages, vowel harmony in Santali is a morphological triggered process.

Morphology

Santali, like all Munda languages, is a suffixing agglutinating language.

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:

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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.

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The interrogative pronouns have different forms for animate ('who?') and inanimate ('what?'), and referential ('which?') vs. non-referential.

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The indefinite pronouns are:

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The demonstratives distinguish three degrees of deixis (proximate, distal, remote) and simple ('this', 'that', etc.) and particular ('just this', 'just that') forms.

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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. 'two each'.

Numbers basically follow a base-10 pattern. Numbers from 11 to 19 are formed by addition, ('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 ('10'). Some numbers are part of a base-20 number system. 20 can be or .

Derivation

To derive new nominals, the stems of lexical verbs, adjectives, and other nouns can employ many different methods, including affixation, reduplication, and compounding.

''Suffixation'': Two nominalizing suffixes ''-ic'' for animate, and ''-ak'' for inanimate noun class, are used to form referential nominals.

Verbs → nouns: ''jɔm'' ('eat') > ''jɔmak'' ('food')

adjectives → nouns: ''nɔtɛ'' ('this side') > ''nɔtɛn'' ('belonging to this side') > ''nɔtɛnak'' ('thing of this side') / ''nɔtɛnic'' ('one of this side')

''ponɖ'' ('white') > ''ponɖak'' ('white thing') / ''ponɖic'' ('white one')

suffixes → nouns: ''ɔl-tɛ'' (write-INS) > ''ɔltɛak'' ('that with which is written(pen)')

''Infixation'' is the most productive derivation method in Santali. Infixes ''-tV-'', ''-nV-'', ''-mV-'', ''-ɽV-'', and ''-pV-'' are often inserted into nouns, verbs, adjectives to derive new words.

''ɛhɔp'' ('begin') > ''ɛtɔhɔp'' ('beginning')

''rakap'' ('rise', 'ascend') > ''ranakap'' ('development')

''Prefixation'' in North Munda has been reduced to a very few restricted exceptions.

''cɛt'' ('teach') > ''macɛt'' ('teacher')

Verbs

Verbs in Santali inflect for tense, aspect and mood, voice and the person and number of the subject and sometimes of the object.

Santali TAMs

There are no specific markers for the Imperative.

Applicative TAMs

Applicative voice in Santali is represented by adding the applicative marker ''-a-'' to four tenses (Future, Imperfective, Past 1, Perfect) with an additional and rare Past 2 tense in the cases of inanimate objects. The transitive set serve polyvalent predicates, while the intransitive set mark for monovalent ones.

Subject markers

Object markers

Transitive verbs with pronominal objects take infixed object markers.

In applicative constructions, inanimate objects are marked with a pronominal suffix, a checked ''-k''.

Possessor argument indexing

Transitive verbs may form agreements with non-arguments/outside/indirect objects. To denote inalienable possession of the concerned indirect object, prefix ''-t-'' is attached to the applicative forms of the pronouns; otherwise it is marked in the noun phrase and functions as an attribute.

Limitations of Santali indexation

In Santali as well as Kherwarian languages, the pronominal subject markers are highly mobile clitics that tend to attach to the word preceding the verb stem. If the subjects and objects are not considered topical to the discourse and dropped, then the subject marker may appear at the end of the verbal complex. Subbarao & Everaert (2021) and Koshy (2021) categorized Kherwarian subject markers as phrasal clitics, as their functions encompass the entire verbal construction rather than affecting single individual verb.

Indexing arguments in Santali is essentially intertwined with the distinction of animacy of arguments. Distinction between animate/inanimate is not marked on nouns at all, but is conveyed through morphosyntax, such as in genitive and locative cases and verbal agreement. That is, if an argument of the verb does not belong to the animate noun class, the verb will not index that argument. Inanimate entities such as flower, tree, rice, book, food,... and objects that cannot move by themselves like vehicles (eg. motorbike, Tesla, airplane) are never indexed by the verb. The following examples illustrate the distinction between inanimate and animate versions of the same noun in two different contexts.

However, there are some notable exceptions of inanimate objects that are significant ('sun', 'moon', 'star') or culturally important ('doll') are considered animate in Santali. Nouns like 'Government' is also considered a single body of animate entities and is marked with third person singular. Even mushroom, thorn being pricked, puff-ball, earwax are perceived as animate and are indexed by pronominal markers as such, showing the unpredictability of the Santali animacy-based indexation system.

Imperative

As described by Ghosh (2008), there are no specific markers for the imperative series. However, in the affirmative imperative, the indicative/finite marker ''-a'' is replaced by second person markers. In the negative imperative, verb (TAM/person-syntagma) takes ''-a'' while the imperative subject marker moves to the enclitic position behind the negative particle, right before the verb (See ##Negation).

Finiteness

Any finite verbs will attach ''-a'', except the imperative and in the subordinate clause.

Causative

There are two causative markers: ''a-'' and ''-oco''. ''-oco'' is attached on every type of verb stems, and ''a-'' is restricted to two transitive verbs ''jɔm'' ('eat') and ''ɲu'' ('drink').

Permissive

While both the causative and the permissive share the same suffix ''-oco'', the permissive is different as an applicative marker is combined with the causative morpheme, resulting in the shift of the concerned person from the accusative to the dative position.

Reciprocal

Infix ''-pV-'' turns transitive and ditransitive verb roots into reciprocal meaning, but in many verbs it also conveys that the action is done together by two participants.

''dal'' ('beat') > ''dapal'' ('beat each other')

''landa'' ('laugh') > ''lapanda'' ('laugh together')

Benefactive

The benefactive for transitive and ditransitive stems is ''-ka'' in Northern Santali dialect and ''-ka-k'' in Southern Santali. In Southern Santali, if the object is animate, the last ''-k'' will be replaced by pronominal clitics.

''tɔl'' ('bind') > ''tɔlka'' ('to bind for somebody')

Medio-passive

Transitive verbs and a limited number of intransitive and intransitive-transitive verb roots will take ''-jɔn'' to form the Medio-passive voice.

Passive and Reflexive

Transitive roots, transitive-intransitive roots, and causative stems will take ''-ok'' to derive passive stems. In the transitive-intransitive roots, it denotes the prominence of transitivity. Attaching it to transitive verbs will create reflexivity.

''ɲɛl'' ('see') > ''ɲɛlok'' ('be seen') (passive)

''ranoco'' ('cause to medicate') > ''ranocok'' ('be caused to medicate') (causative > passive)

''mak'' ('cut') > ''makok'' ('cut oneself') (reflexive)

The intransitive applicative TAM set is also interpreted as expressing reflexivity and used to emphasize the action directed toward the subject themselves.

Nominal verbalisation

In daily speeches, nominal roots can be found functioning as verbs with appropriate inflection. The verbalization of nominals extends to interrogatives and indefinites. Adjectives that are derived from nominals can take inflection as well as person indexation, too.

Serial verb constructions

Two or more verbs and modifiers can combine together to derive a compound verb. Normally they are combinations of two transitive verbs or two intransitive verbs and limited numbers of transitive+intransitive and intransitive+transitive combinations.

Auxiliary verb constructions

Complex predicates are pervasive in Munda clause structure. In Santali, there are univerbated auxiliary constructions to mark many functions, such as denoting a quick, sudden, or intense action. Santali AVCs exhibit split-doubled pattern: the lexical verb may index the object argument, and the auxiliary verb may index the subject argument.

Negation

There are three particles in Santali used to express negation: ''baŋ'', ''ɔhɔ'' and ''alo''. ''baŋ'' and ''ba'' (shortened form) are the negatives for interrogative and declarative sentences; ''ɔhɔ'' is the emphatic negative of declarative sentences; ''alo'' is the prohibitive negative in the imperative. These negation particles will take away the subject marker from the verb.

Syntax

The unmarked word order of Santali is SOV, though topics can be fronted. The subject marker may appear enclitic to the verb itself if there is no preceding word.

Vocabulary

In daily conversations, Santali speakers generally employ high percentages of words of native Austroasiatic/Munda/Santali origins, compared to other Munda languages such as Kharia and Juang. Loan words, mostly borrowed from Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Nepali, Oriya and even English may account for almost 20% of the lexemes of daily needs. Younger generation who have opportunities to engage in higher education tend to be more accustomed with lexical influence from neighboring languages as well as English.

See also

* Languages of India
* Languages with official status in India
* List of Indian languages by total speakers
* National Translation Mission
* Santali Wikipedia
* Ol Chiki script

References

Works cited

*

Further reading

* Byomkes Chakrabarti (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 Pages

OLAC resources in and about the Santali language

OLAC resources in and about the Mahali language

RWAAI Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage

Santali language in RWAAI Digital Archive

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santali Language

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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 written in Brahmic scripts
Languages attested from the 19th century
Santali people
Languages of Koshi Province
Languages written in Devanagari