Kurmali language

Language variation

The speakers of Kurmali are spread over a vast region of East India, especially in fringe areas of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. These states are mostly dominated by Bengali, Nagpuri and Odia speakers. Local dialectal change and language shift can be noticed in these areas. The Kurmi of West Bengal identify themselves as speakers of Kurmali, considering it part of their ethnic identity. But due to age-long settlement in the Bengali region their language is shifting towards the Manbhumi dialect of Bengali, as similarly occurred in northern Odisha with Bengali and Odia admixture. In the 1903 Linguistic survey of India, the shift was explained this way:

There are ... emigrants from ... highlands into the Bengali-speaking area. These have retained their own language, though ... borrowing words and grammatical forms from those amongst whom they live. The result is a kind of mixed dialect essentially Bihārī in its nature, but with a curious Bengali colouring. [...] In each case this dialect is the language of a strange people in a strange land. ... In Manbhum this [Kuṛmalī] language is principally spoken by people of the Kuṛmī caste, who are numerous in the districts of Chota Nagpur, and in the Orissa Tributary state of Mayurbhanja. ... [They] do not all speak corrupted Bihārī. Many of them speak Bengali and Oriya. ... In the Orissa Tributary States, the Kuṛmī nearly all talk Bengali, although living in an Oriya speaking country.

— G. A. Grierson (1903). Linguistic survey of India, Vol. V, Part II, pp. 145–146

Similarly, in the 1911 census, according to the Linguistic Survey of India and Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi the Panchpargania was noted as:

[Panch Pargania] closely resembles the Kurmali Thar of Manbhum. The principal apparent difference is the result of the characters employed in writing. In Manbhum the character adopted is the Bengali, and the language looked at, so to speak, through Bengali spectacles. Hence words are spelled as a Bengali would spell them. In the five Parganas, on the other hand, the Kaithi alphabet is used, and the language is looked at through Hindi spectacles. ... Panch Pargania or Tamaria is really a composition of language formed of Bengali, Oriya and Bihari words and terminations.

— Census of India : 1911, Vol. V, Part I, p. 389

The Kurmali language was initially recorded, notably by G.A. Grierson in the early 20th century, as the language of the Kuṛmi community, who were in a transitional phase to Bengali after settling in Bengali-speaking regions, bordering Hindi and Odia-speaking areas. Thus, it was commonly regarded as a variety of Bengali in the region, but Grierson (1903) classified Kurmali Thar (Thar means "style", i.e., the style of Kuṛmi vocabulary) and Panch Pargania within the Bihari group of languages as Eastern Magahi, based on its distinct structural features and vocabulary, which were shaped by substratal language, diverging from Bengali. On the basis of this categorization, Kurmali Thar and Panch Pargania was officially classified as a variety of Hindi (or Hindustani) in the 1911 census, a classification that continued in subsequent censuses. However, while the speaker remained in a transitional phase, Kurmali gained increasing recognition as a separate linguistic identity after the 1961 census, largely driven by growing sociopolitical consciousness among its speakers.

The Kurmali language bears between 61 and 86 per cent lexical similarity with Panchpargania; 58–72 per cent with Khortha; 51–73 per cent with Nagpuri (Sadri); 46–53 per cent with Odia; 41–55 per cent with Bengali; and 44–58 per cent with Hindi. Hence the Panchpargania is usually considered a major variety of the Kurmali language, although sometimes it is classified as a distinct language. Similarly, due to the great influence of the Bengali language on Kurmali (as the speakers of this language are in the process of shifting to dominant or prestige languages of the region), many linguists label it as Jharkhandi Bangla and sometimes it is clustered as a Manbhumi dialect. Kurmali also closely resembles the Khortha language and has a good number of loanwords from the Munda language family, specifically from the Santali language, although not as much as Khortha language.

It is believed that the early form of the Kurmali language was spoken by Kudmi Mahato, a group that was one of the original homesteaders of erstwhile Manbhum region of Bihar. Although the language is now Indo-Aryan in nature, it has some distinctive features like lexical items, grammatical markers and categories that are neither available in Indo-Aryan nor Dravidian, nor even in Munda languages. The language has its own traditional precedence, and Magahi is not generally regarded as its linguistic source by some authors. Thus it is believed that the language was once a separate, unrelated language. However, because of its long settlement in the Aryan belt, the native speakers gradually abandoned the original structure and switched to an Aryan form of the language, while retaining the substrate of the old. The language currently falls in 6b (threatened) and 7 (language shifting) level of the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), which correspond to the UNESCO language endangerment category level "Vulnerable" and "Definitely Endangered". However, Ethnologue place Kurmali at 6a (vigorous) level and its variety Panchpargania (widely used in Jharkhand) at level 3 (trade) of EGIDS, both of which correspond to "Safe" status of UNESCO language endangerment category level.

Variety

The language is transferred orally from generation to generation and the Kurmali language remains unstandardised due to influence of other Indo Aryan languages. Thus its speakers use different varieties and accents. However, the language can be classified on the basis of the speakers' territorial region, viz., Singhbhum Kudmali, Dhalbhum Kudmali, Ranchi Kudmali (Panchpargania), Manbhum Kudmali, Mayurbhanj Kudmali are the major regional varieties. All those varieties bear between 58 and 89 per cent lexical similarity with each other.

Numbers

The basic Kurmali cardinal numbers are:

Language use

The language Kurmali (Kudmali) is spoken by 555,465 people as a native language in India. The Kudmi (Kudmi Mahato), the native speakers of the language, are the main users. As per The People of India (1992), the language is spoken by ten communities as a mother tongue, including two Scheduled Tribe and three Scheduled Caste communities. Those ten communities include Bedia, Bagal, Dharua, Dom, Jolha, Kamar, Kumhar, Tanti, Nai, Ghasi, Karga, and Rautia. In addition, bilingual tribals like Bhumij, Ho, Kharia, Lohara (or Lohar), Mahli, Munda, Oraon, Santal, Savar and Bathudi communities speak the language as a second or subsequent language.

The language contributes to community identity in festivals like Bandna, Tusu, Karam and Jhumair, in which the songs are formatted in Kurmali. An example of this is the Jhumar song.

Education

There are some institutions, where the Kurmali language is a higher education core subject.

• Binod Bihari Mahto Koylanchal University, Dhanbad
• Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University, Ranchi
• Kolhan University, Chaibasa
• Kotshila Mahavidyalaya, Purulia
• Ranchi University, Ranchi
• Jhargram University, Jhargram
• Sidho Kanho Birsha University, Purulia
• Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribag