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Munda languages
Munda languages, any of severalAustroasiatic languages spoken by about 9,000,000 people (the Munda) in northern and centralIndia. Some scholars divide the languages into two subfamilies: the North Munda (spoken in theChota Nāgpur Plateau ofBihār, Bengal, andOrissa) including Korkū, Santhālī, Muṇḍārī, Bhumij, and Ho; and the South Munda (spoken in central Orissa and along the border betweenAndhra Pradesh and Orissa). The latter family is further split into Central Munda, including Khaṛiā and Juāṅg, and Korāput Munda, including Gutob, Remo, Sora (Savara), Juray, and Gorum. The classification of these languages is controversial.
North Munda (of whichSanthālī is the chief language) is the more important of the two groups; its languages are spoken by about nine-tenths of Munda speakers. After Santhālī, the Muṇḍārī and Ho languages rank next in number of speakers, followed by Korkū and Sora. The remaining Munda languages are spoken by small, isolated groups of people and are little known.
Characteristics of the Munda languages include three numbers (singular, dual, and plural), two gender classes (animate and inanimate) for nouns, and the use of either suffixes orauxiliaries for indicating the tenses of verb forms. In Munda sound systems, consonant sequences are infrequent, except in the middle of a word. Except inKorkū, where syllables show a distinction between high and low tone, accent is predictable in the Munda languages.
