Kanjari language

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Kanjari
कंजरी
Native toIndia
Native speakers
210,000 (2011)[1]
Indo-European
Language codes
ISO 639-3kft
Glottologkanj1259

Kanjari (also known as Kangar Bhat, Kangri, Kuchbandhi or "the Gypsy language"[2]) is an unclassified Indic tribal language of India associated with the Kanjar tribe. It is written using the Devanagari script. Kanjari is spoken in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.[2] It may be one of the Punjabi languages.[3] UNESCO classifies Kanjari as an endangered language. Some may use the word to describe Karina.[4]

Syntax[edit]

George Abraham Grierson noted several grammatical features for Kanjari in the first Linguistic Survey of India:[5]

  • The final "ō" of adjectives is usually kept before an inflected noun, which suggests that adjectives are not inflected and that gender is weak. For example, tēro naukrī ("thy service").
  • Some pronouns are similar to Rajasthani languages, such as the demonstrative pronouns and . However, other pronouns are similar to the Dravidian languages, such as ūr ("he") compared to Tamil īr and Gondi ōr.
  • Overall, verb conjugations and words "broadly agree" with the patterns of Eastern Rajasthani languages, but some characteristics point to a "certain Dravidian element" being present in Kanjari.

Vocabulary[edit]

Selected Kanjari Vocabulary[5]
Kanjari English Cognate
lug die
lugai beat
chūbkō son
rib house
tig see
pāḍō bull māḍu (Tamil)
tiūr give tara (Tamil)
ghamēlā sun kham (Romani)
jhūkal dog jukel (Romani)

References[edit]

  1. ^ Kanjari at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ a b Mhaiske, Vinod M.; Patil, Vinayak K.; Narkhede, S. S. (2016). Forest Tribology And Anthropology. p. 185. ISBN 9789386102089.
  3. ^ Frawley, William J. (2003). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 267. ISBN 0199771782.
  4. ^ "Kanjari". World Atlas of Languages. UNESCO. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  5. ^ a b Grierson, George Abraham (1903–1928). Linguistic survey of India. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. pp. 96–101. Retrieved 3 January 2023.