Kurmali language

Kurmali or Kudmali (ISO: Kuṛmāli) is an Indo-Aryan language classified as belonging to the Bihari group of languages spoken in eastern India. As a trade dialect, it is also known as Panchpargania (Bengali: পঞ্চপরগনিয়া), for the "five parganas" of the region it covers in Jharkhand. Kurmali language is spoken by around 550,000 people mainly in fringe regions of Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal, also a sizeable population speak Kurmali in Assam tea valleys. Kurmali is one of the demanded languages for enlisting in Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India.

Kurmali language is mainly spoken in three eastern states of India, that is, in southeastern district Seraikela Kharswan, East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum, Bokaro and Ranchi districts of Jharkhand; in northern district Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Kendujhar, Jajpur and Sundargarh of Odisha; and in south western district Paschim Medinipur, Jhargram, Bankura, Purulia and northern districts Maldah, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakhin Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri of West Bengal. Apart from the core area of the language, the language is also spoken in Udalguri and a few speakers are also found in Cachar, Santipur, Nagaon of Assam; the eastern districts of Chandrapur and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra. Apart from this, a few speakers are also found in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and in neighbour country Bangladesh and Nepal.

During the British Raj, the Kurmali language was known as Panchpargania (means "language of five regions") for present-day Bundu, Barenda, Sonahatu (split into Sonahatu and Rahe), Silli, Tamar blocks of Ranchi district of Jharkhand state as a trade language between four linguistic region. Now the Sonahatu and Rahe make the core region of Panchpargania.

As per the Census of 2011, there are 311,175 Kurmali Thar speakers in India (hailing mostly from West Bengal, Odisha, Assam and Maharashtra) and 244,914 Panch Pargania speakers (mostly from Jharkhand), making a total of 556,089 Kurmali speakers in India. They are grouped under the umbrella of "Hindi languages". Note that both, Kurmali Thar and Panch Pargania are dialects of the Kurmali language. In Nepal, there are 227 Kurmali speakers. However, it is claimed that the actual number of Kurmali speakers is far higher than the number cited in the census.

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:

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

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 ethnolinguistic 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 Jharkhand (Manbhum region). As a language, Kurmali has its own traditional precedence, and has nothing to do with Magahi as a source. 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. 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.

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.

The basic Kurmali cardinal numbers are:

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.

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

• SINGH, GYANESHWAR (25 November 2020). Historical Perspective of Kurmali Language. Blue Rose Publishers. Archived from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 17 November 2021.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)^{[self-published source?]}
• Majumder, Arup (5 June 2018). "Kurmali Kinship Terms and Its Morphology: An Anthropo-linguistic Study". Jadavpur Journal of Languages and Linguistics. 2 (1): 38–48.
• Dash, Biswanandan (5 August 2014). Kurmali noun morphology. An inflectional study on gender and number. ISBN 978-3-656-71900-7.
• Saha, Atanu, ed. (2021). Dictionary of the Kurmali Language: Bangla-Kurmali-English-HIndi. Jadavpur University Press. ISBN 978-93-83660-54-4. OCLC 1300421436.
• Mahato, Kshudiram (1983). Kurmāli śabdakosha. Purulia: Purulia Pustak Mandir. OCLC 23147093.