Santali language

Santali
ᱥᱟᱱᱛᱟᱲᱤ
The word Santali in Ol Chiki script
Native to	India, Bangladesh, Nepal
Ethnicity	Santal
Native speakers	7.6 million (2011 census)
Language family	Austroasiatic Munda East Kherwarian Santal Santali
Dialects	Mahali (Mahili) Kamari-Santali Khole Lohari-Santali Manjhi Paharia
Writing system	Ol Chiki script Bengali-Assamese script Odia script Devanagari Roman script
Official status
Official language in	India Jharkhand (additional) West Bengal (additional)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	sat
ISO 639-3	Either: sat – Santali mjx – Mahali
Glottolog	sant1410  Santali maha1291  Mahali
States where Santali is additional official language — Jharkhand and West Bengal
Distribution map of Santali language and other Munda languages

A girl speaking Santali.

Santali books in Mayurbhanj Book Fair

Santali (Pronounced: [santaɽi], Ol Chiki: ᱥᱟᱱᱛᱟᱲᱤ, Bengali: সাঁওতালী, Odia: ସାନ୍ତାଳୀ, Devanagari: संताली), also known as Santal or Santhali, 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 by Santals. 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, Munda languages probably arrived on the coast of Odisha from Indochina about 4000–3500 years ago, and spread after the Indo-Aryan migration to Odisha.

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

Distribution of Santali language in the states of India

  Jharkhand (44.4%)

  West Bengal (33%)

  Odisha (11.7%)

  Bihar (6.2%)

  Assam (2.9%)

  Maharashtra (1.4%)

  Chattisgarh (0.2%)

  Tripura (0.1%)

  Other states (0.1%)

District-wise distribution of Santali language. (Greater shade implies a greater percentage.)

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.

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	(ɳ)*	ɲ	ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p (pʰ)	t (tʰ)	ʈ (ʈʰ)	c (cʰ)	k (kʰ)
	voiced	b (bʱ)	d (dʱ)	ɖ (ɖʱ)	ɟ (ɟʱ)	ɡ (ɡʱ)
Fricative			s				h
Trill/Flap			r	ɽ
Approximant		w	l		j

*ɳ only appears as an allophone of /n/ before /ɖ/.

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.

Vowels

Santali has eight oral and six nasal vowel phonemes. With the exception of /e o/, all oral vowels have a nasalized counterpart.

	Front	Central	Back
High	i ĩ		u ũ
Mid-high	e	ə ə̃	o
Mid-low	ɛ ɛ̃		ɔ ɔ̃
Low		a ã

There are numerous diphthongs.

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.

Singular	ᱥᱮᱛᱟ (seta)	'dog'
Dual	ᱥᱮᱛᱟᱼᱠᱤᱱ(seta-ken)	'two dogs'
Plural	ᱥᱮᱛᱟᱼᱠᱚ(seta-kɔ)	'dogs'

Case

The case suffix follows the number suffix. The following cases are distinguished:

Case	Marker	Function
Nominative	-Ø	Subject and object
Genitive	ᱼᱨᱮᱱ (animate) ᱼᱟᱜ, ᱼᱨᱮᱭᱟᱜ (inanimate)	Possessor
Comitative	ᱼᱴᱷᱮᱱ/ -ᱴᱷᱮᱡ	Goal, place
Instrumental-Locative	ᱼᱛᱮ	Instrument, cause, motion
Sociative	ᱼᱥᱟᱶ	Association
Allative	ᱼᱥᱮᱱ/ᱼᱥᱮᱡ	Direction
Ablative	ᱼᱠᱷᱚᱱ/ᱼᱠᱷᱚᱡ	Source, origen
Locative	ᱼᱨᱮ	Spatio-temporal location

Transcript version:

Case	Marker	Function
Nominative	-Ø	Subject and object
Genitive	-rɛn (animate) -ak', -rɛak' (inanimate)	Possessor
Comitative	-ʈhɛn/-ʈhɛc'	Goal, place
Instrumental-Locative	-tɛ	Instrument, cause, motion
Sociative	-são	Association
Allative	-sɛn/-sɛc'	Direction
Ablative	-khɔn/-khɔc'	Source, origen
Locative	-rɛ	Spatio-temporal location

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.

Personal pronouns

		Singular	Dual	Plural
1st person	exclusive	iɲ	əliɲ	alɛ
	inclusive		alaŋ	abo
2nd person		am	aben	apɛ
3rd person	Anaphoric	ac'	əkin	ako
	Demonstrative	uni	unkin	onko

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

Interrogative pronouns

	Animate	Inanimate
Referential	ɔkɔe	oka
Non-referential	cele	cet'

The indefinite pronouns are:

Indefinite pronouns

	Animate	Inanimate
'any'	jãheã	jãhã
'some'	adɔm	adɔmak
'another'	ɛʈak'ic'	ɛʈak'ak'

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

Demonstratives

	Simple		Particular
	Animate	Inanimate	Animate	Inanimate
Proximate	nui	noa	nii	niə
Distal	uni	ona	ini	inə
Remote	həni	hana	hini	hinə

Numerals

The basic cardinal numbers (transcribed into Latin script IPA) are:

1	ᱢᱤᱫ	mit'
2	ᱵᱟᱨ	bar
3	ᱯᱮ	pɛ
4	ᱯᱩᱱ	pon
5	ᱢᱚᱬᱮ	mɔ̃ɽɛ̃
6	ᱛᱩᱨᱩᱭ	turui
7	ᱮᱭᱟᱭ	ɛyae
8	ᱤᱨᱟᱹᱞ	irəl
9	ᱟᱨᱮ	arɛ
10	ᱜᱮᱞ	gɛl
20	ᱤᱥᱤ	-isi
100	ᱥᱟᱭ	-sae

The numerals are used with numeral classifiers. Distributive numerals are formed by reduplicating the first consonant and vowel, e.g. babar 'two each'.

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

ᱯᱮ

pe

(3‍

 

 

×

ᱜᱮᱞ

gel

10‍)

          

 

 

or

or

or

          

 

 

(ᱢᱤᱫ)

(mit’)

((1‍)

 

 

×

ᱤᱥᱤ

isi

20‍

 

 

+

ᱜᱮᱞ

gel

10‍)

ᱯᱮ {} ᱜᱮᱞ {
           } or {
           } (ᱢᱤᱫ) {} ᱤᱥᱤ {} ᱜᱮᱞ

pe {} gel {} or {} (mit’) {} isi {} gel

(3‍ × 10‍) {} or {} ((1‍) × 20‍ + 10‍)

30

Verbs

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

Subject markers

		singular	dual	plural
1st person	exclusive	-ɲ(iɲ)	-liɲ	-lɛ
	inclusive		-laŋ	-bon
2nd person		-m	-ben	-pɛ
3rd person		-e	-kin	-ko

Object markers

Transitive verbs with pronominal objects take infixed object markers.

		singular	dual	plural
1st person	exclusive	-iɲ-	-liɲ-	-lɛ-
	inclusive		-laŋ-	-bon-
2nd person		-me-	-ben-	-pɛ-
3rd person		-e-	-kin-	-ko-

Syntax

Santali is an SOV language, though topics can be fronted.

Influence on other languages

Notable linguist Khudiram Das authored the Santali Bangla Samashabda Abhidhan (সাঁওতালি বাংলা সমশব্দ অভিধান), a book focusing on the influence of the Santali language on Bengali and providing a basis for further research on this subject. 'Bangla Santali Bhasha Samparka (বাংলা সান্তালী ভাষা-সম্পর্ক) is a collection of essays in E-book format authored by him and dedicated to linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji on the relationship between the Bengali and Santali languages.

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

• Ghosh, Arun (2008). "Santali". In Anderson, Gregory D.S. (ed.). The Munda Languages. London: Routledge. pp. 11–98.

Further reading

• Byomkes Chakrabarti (1992). A comparative study of Santali and Bengali. Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi & Co. ISBN 81-7074-128-9
• 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. ISBN 0-921599-68-4
• 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.
• Grierson, George A. (1906). Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. IV, Mundā and Dravidian languages. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India.
• 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.
• Sakuntala De. (2011). Santali : a linguistic study. Memoir (Anthropological Survey of India). Kolkata: Anthropological Survey of India, Govt. of India.
• 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.
• A. R. Campbell (1899). A Santali-English dictionary. Santal Mission Press.
• 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. ISBN 4-87297-791-2

Grammars and primers

• Bodding, Paul O. 1929/1952. A Santal Grammar for the Beginners, Benagaria: Santal Mission of the Northern Churches (1st edition, 1929).
• Cole, F. T. (1896). Santạli primer. Manbhum: Santal Mission Press.
• Macphail, R. M. (1953) An Introduction to Santali. Firma KLM Private Ltd.
• Muscat, George. (1989) Santali: A New Approach. Sahibganj, Bihar : Santali Book Depot.
• Skrefsrud, Lars Olsen (1873). A Grammar of the Santhal Language. Benares: Medical Hall Press.
• 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.
• Campbell, A. (1891). Santal folk tales. Pokhuria, India: Santal Mission Press.
• Murmu, G., & Das, A. K. (1998). Bibliography, Santali literature. Calcutta: Biswajnan. ISBN 81-7525-080-1
• Santali Genesis Translation.
• 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