Santali

It belongs to the branch of the munda of the Austro-Asian languages , together with the very close languages ​​of the mundari and ho and a number of other small languages, forms a subgroup of khervari , and it, in turn, together with the language of the peel is combined into one of the two main branches of the munda - northern munda languages .

The largest in the number of speakers - according to various estimates from 5.8 to 6.5 million - is the language of the Munda group and the third among the Austro-Asian languages ​​in general, after the Vietnamese and Khmer . Among the languages ​​of India, it occupies the 14th place in terms of numbers.

Distribution: the states of Bihar , Jharkhand , Orissa and West Bengal , in the state of Jharkhand, have official status (the only one of the languages ​​of the munda used in India at the official level). After the uprising of the Santals in 1855-1856 many of them were evicted to tea plantations in other regions of India, and now the language is also spoken in groups of the Santal diaspora in Assam , Tripura , Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

14 vowel phonemes (/ i /, / e /, / ε /, / u /, / o /, / ɔ /, their nasalized correspondences / ε̃ /, / õ /, / ɔ̃ /, etc.), in addition, there is a sound ə with an unclear phonological status (allophone / a / or phoneme with limited distribution). Some vowels are pronounced with intense phonation . There are no diphthongs , vowels, combining with each other in the flow of speech, retain the status of the syllable. There are words with 6 vowels in a row, for example kɔeaeae 'he will ask him'.

Retroflex, abruptive, and aspiratory consonants stand out. Combinations of consonants at the beginning and end of a word are impossible, but are often found in the middle, for example sendra 'hunt'.

Morphologically refers to the agglutinative type ; Noteworthy is the diversity of the species-time paradigm closely connected with transition, a large number of pledges and the coordination of the verb with five actants - the subject, direct and indirect object, the beneficiary addressee and the possessor of the object.

In vocabulary, the significant influence of the Indo-Aryan languages, especially the Bengali language ; Indo-Aryan origin, even some pronouns and all ordinal numbers.

Folklore is developed (the publication of fairy tales compiled by the Norwegian missionary P.W. Bodding , in 3 volumes), to the greatest extent of all languages, the munda is used as a written language (from the colonial time there has been a press, teaching has been conducted, books have been published), however, the percentage of literacy among Santals on - still low (as, indeed, in India as a whole) - according to various estimates, from 10 to 30% of native speakers. There are graphic options based on Devanagari , Bengali letters and Latin letters , now the original Al-Chiki alphabet , created in 1925 , has received significant distribution. None of these scripts has gained decisive predominance, periodicals and literature appear on each of them.

The first Santali grammar was written by Phillips in 1852, the first dictionary was compiled by Campbell in 1866. In the description of Santali and the collection of texts in the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries. An important role was played by the Norwegian missionaries Lars Olsen Skrefsrud and Paul Ulaf Bodding . In the 1900–1920s, in addition to Bodding’s works, a three-volume Campbell dictionary was published, Cole’s grammar was compiled, and these Santals are taken into account in generalizing works - “Review of the Languages ​​of India” by Grirson , then in the 1930s – 1950s - “Languages ​​of the World” by Meier and Cohen (Maspero's article), Hoffman's Encyclopedia of Mund. In 1964, MacPhail Grammar was published.

In the 1950s and 1970s, the Santali language was studied from the point of view of comparative studies (H. Pinnov, Yu. K. Lekomtsev), and typologists (K. Masika, L. Noikom, the author of Santali grammar published in 2001 in Munich) pay close attention to it , G. Anderson). Santal linguists appear (primarily Ganesh Murmu).

• Zograph G.A. 1960/1990. Languages ​​of South Asia. M.: Science (1st ed., 1960).
• Lekomtsev, Yu. K. 1968. Some characteristic features of the Santal proposal // Languages ​​of India, Pakistan, Nepal and Ceylon: proceedings of a scientific conference. M: Science, 311-321.
• Bodding, Paul O. 1929/1952. A Santal Grammar for the Beginners, Benagaria: Santal Mission of the Northern Churches (1st edition, 1929).
• Grierson, Sir George A. (ed.) 1906 (reprinted 1967). The Linguistic Survey of India. Vol.IV. Delhi-Varanasi-Patna.
• Macphail, RM 1964. An Introduction to Santali, Parts I & II. Benagaria: The Santali Literature Board, Santali Christian Council.
• 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.
• Santali Folk Tales: Ed. by Rev. PO Bodding. Oslo: Institutet for sammenlingenden kulturforskning, Publikationen. Vol. I — III. 1923-1929
• Skrefsrud, LO 1873. The Grammar of Santali Language. Benares: Medical Hall Press.
• Vermeer, Hans J. 1969. Untersuchungen zum Bau zentral-süd-asiatischer Sprachen (ein Beitrag zur Sprachbundfrage). Heidelberg: J. Groos.