Munda Languages | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

In many ways it is simpler and calls for far less memory than Indo-European languages do.

Munda languages characteristically have three numbers (singular, dual, and plural), two classes (animate and inanimate) for nouns, and the use of either suffixes or auxiliaries for indicating tenses of verb forms. Munda languages possess nothing corresponding to the cases of direct and indirect objects. These relations find their expression in the verb.

In Munda sound systems, consonant sequences are infrequent, except in the middle of a word. Hard and soft consonants are freely used, and both classes can be aspirated. Another characteristic feature of the Munda languages is the presence of semiconsonants. Except in Korku, in which syllables show a distinction between high and low tone, accent is even in the Munda languages. Words are formed from bases or other words through reduplication or by adding affixes. The most important method of modifying a root is by the insertion of infixes. The Munda languages possess a rich stock of words denoting individual things and ideas but are poor in general and abstract terms.

Santali

Santali is the most important of the Munda languages. Santali is spoken over a vast region extending from the south of Bhagalpur and Monghyr in Bihar to Birbhum and west of Burdwan in West Bengal; almost the whole of Bankura; western Midnapore; the greater part of Mayurbhanj and northeast of Keonjhar in Orissa; and Seraikela, Kharsawan, Manbhum, and the Sonthal Parganas in Jharkhand.

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