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Lexicon: Dravidian loanword

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{{About|a language isolate spoken in central India, known as Nihali or Nahali|the unrelated Indo-Aryan language named Nahali|Kalto language}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Nihali
| ethnicity = 5,000 Nihali
| speakers = 2,500
| date = 2016
| ref = <ref>{{Citation|last=Seidel|first=Frank|title=Language Documentation and Endangerment in Africa|chapter=Describing endangered languages|date=2015-10-09|chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/clu.17.12sei|series=Culture and Language Use|volume=17|pages=277–312|place=Amsterdam|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|doi=10.1075/clu.17.12sei|isbn=978-90-272-4452-9|access-date=2020-12-14}}</ref>
| familycolor = Isolate
| region = [[Jalgaon Jamod]], on the border of [[Maharashtra]] and [[Madhya Pradesh]] 
| iso3 = nll
| glotto = niha1238
| glottorefname = Nihali
| map = Nihali locator.svg
| mapcaption = Distribution of Nihali
}}
'''Nihali''', also known as '''Nahali''' or erroneously as '''Kalto''', is a [[moribund language|moribund]] [[language isolate]] that is spoken in west-central [[India]] (in [[Madhya Pradesh]] and [[Maharashtra]]), with approximately 2,000 people in 1991 out of an ethnic population of 5,000.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/nll|title=Did you know Nihali is threatened?|website=Endangered Languages|access-date=2016-05-04}}</ref> The Nihali tribal area is just south of the [[Tapti River]], around the village of Tembi in [[Nimar]] district ([[Burhanpur]]) of [[Madhya Pradesh]].<ref name="ref77doxil">{{Citation | title=Nahali: a comparative study| issue=5, Pt 25 |journal=Mededeelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandsche Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afd. Letterkunde | author=Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper | publisher=N.V. Noord-Hollandsche Uitg. Mij., 1962 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nwh_QgAACAAJ}}</ref> Speakers of the Nihali language are also present in several villages of the Buldhana district in Maharashtra such as Jamod, Sonbardi, Kuvardev, Chalthana, Ambavara, Wasali, and Cicari. There are dialectal differences between the Kuvardev-Chalthana and the Jamod-Sonbardi varieties.<ref name=":0" />

The language has a very large number of words adopted from neighboring languages, with 60–70% apparently taken from [[Korku language|Korku]] (25% of vocabulary and much of its morphology), from [[Dravidian languages]], and from [[Marathi language|Marathi]], but much of its core vocabulary cannot be related to them or other languages, such as the numerals and words for "blood" and "egg". Scholars state that less than 25% of the language's original vocabulary is used today.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Nihali Language|last=Nagaraja|first=K.S.|publisher=Central Institute of Indian Languages|year=2014|isbn=978-81-7343-144-9|location=Manasagangotri, Mysore-570 006, India|pages=7}}</ref> There are no longer any surviving monolingual speakers of the language. Those well-versed in modern Nihali are likely to speak varieties of Hindi, Marathi or Korku as well.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Nihali Language|last=Nagaraja|first=K.S.|publisher=Central Institute of Indian Languages|year=2014|isbn=978-81-7343-144-9|pages=3}}</ref>

For centuries, most Nihali have often worked as agricultural labourers, for speakers of languages other than their own. In particular, Nihali labourers have often worked for members of the [[Korku people]], and are often bilingual in the [[Korku language]]. Because of this history, Nihali is sometimes used by its speakers only to prevent native Korku speakers and other outsiders from understanding them.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The Nihali Language|last=Nagaraja|first=K.S|publisher=Central Institute of Indian Languages|year=2014|isbn=978-81-7343-144-9|location=Manasagangotri, Mysore-570 006|pages=250}}</ref>

==Linguistic situation==
[[Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper|Franciscus Kuiper]] was the first to suggest that Nihali may be unrelated to any other Indian language, with the non-Korku, non-Dravidian core vocabulary being the remnant of an earlier population in India. However, he did not rule out that it may be a [[Munda languages|Munda language]], like Korku. Kuiper suggested that Nihali may differ from neighbouring languages, such as Korku, mostly in its function as an [[argot]], such as a [[thieves' cant]].<ref name="ref77doxil"/> Kuiper's assertions stem, in part, from the fact that many oppressed groups within India have used [[Argot|secret languages]] to prevent outsiders from understanding them.<ref name=":1" />

Linguist Norman Zide describes the recent history of the language as follows:
"Nihali's borrowings are far more massive than in such textbook examples of heavy outside acquisition as [[Albanian language|Albanian]]." In this respect, says Zide, modern Nihali seems comparable to [[Mixed language|hybridised]] dialects of [[Romani language|Romani]] spoken in [[Western Europe]]. Zide claims that this is a result of a historical process that began with a massacre of Nihalis in the early 19th century, organised by one of the rulers of the area, supposedly in response to "marauding". Zide alleges that, afterwards, the Nihalis "decimated in size", have "functioned largely as raiders and thieves ... who [have] disposed of ... stolen goods" through "outside associates". Zide adds that Nihali society has "long been multilingual, and uses Nihali as a more or less secret language which is not ordinarily revealed to outsiders" and that early researchers "attempting to learn the language were, apparently, deliberately rebuffed or misled".<ref>Norman Zide, "Munda and non-Munda Austroasiatic languages". In ''Current Trends in Linguistics'' 5: Linguistics in South Asia, p 438</ref>

Some Korku-speakers refuse to acknowledge the Nihali as a distinct community, and describe the emergence of the Nihalis as resulting from a disruption of Korku civil society.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The Munda Languages|last=Anderson|first=Gregory|publisher=Routledge|year=2008|isbn=978-0-415-32890-6|location=New York, New York|pages=772}}</ref>

The Nihali live similarly to the Kalto. That and the fact that Kalto has often been called Nahali led to confusion of the two languages.

== Phonology ==
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="4" |Vowels
|-
! colspan="2" |Front
! colspan="2" |Back
|-
|i
|i:
|u
|u:
|-
|e
|e:
|o
|o:
|-
|
|
|'''a'''
|'''a:'''
|-
|}
Lengthening of vowels is phonemic. The vowels [e] and [o] have lower varieties at the end of morphemes.

Nasalization is rare and tends to occur in borrowed words.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Phonemes of Nihali
|-
! colspan="2" |
! [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! [[Dental consonant|Dental]]/ [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]
! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}}
| {{IPA link|n}}
| {{IPA link|ɳ}}
| {{IPA link|ɲ}}
|
|-
! rowspan="4" | [[Plosive consonant|Plosive]]/ [[Affricate consonant|Affricate]]
! [[voicelessness|voiceless]]
| {{IPA link|p}}
| {{IPA link|t̪|t}}
| {{IPA link|ʈ}}
| {{IPA link|tʃ}}
| {{IPA link|k}}
|-
! [[voicelessness|voiceless]] [[aspirated consonant|aspirated]]
| {{IPA|pʰ}}
| {{IPA|tʰ}}
| {{IPA|ʈʰ}}
| {{IPA|tʃʰ}}
| {{IPA|kʰ}}
|-
! [[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]
| {{IPA link|b}}
| {{IPA link|d̪|d}}
| {{IPA link|ɖ}}
| {{IPA link|dʒ}}
| {{IPA link|ɡ}}
|-
! [[voice (phonetics)|voiced]] [[aspirated consonant|aspirated]]
| {{IPA|bʱ}}
| {{IPA|dʱ}}
| {{IPA|ɖʱ}}
| {{IPA|dʒʱ}}
| {{IPA|ɡʱ}}
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
|
|{{IPA link|s}}
|{{IPA link|ʂ}}
|{{IPA link|ʃ}}
|{{IPA link|h}}
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]]
|
| {{IPA link|r}}
| {{IPA link|ɽ}}
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
| {{IPA link|ʋ}}
| {{IPA link|l}}
|
| {{IPA link|j}}
|
|}
There are 33 consonants. Unaspirated stops are more frequent than aspirated stops.<ref name=":0" />

==Lexicon==
Below are some Nihali basic vocabulary words without clear external parallels (in Korku, Hindi, Marathi, Dravidian, etc.) listed in the appendix of Nagaraja (2014).

;Body parts
{| class="wikitable sortable"
| head || pe(ː)ñ
|-
| hair (head) || kuguso
|-
| eye || jikit
|-
| ear || cigam
|-
| nose || coːn
|-
| tooth || menge
|-
| mouth || kaggo
|-
| hand || bakko
|-
| shoulder || ṭ/tagli
|-
| belly || bhaːwri
|-
| intestines || koṭor
|-
| navel || bumli
|-
| liver || gadri
|-
| blood || corṭo
|-
| bone || paːkṭo
|-
| skin || ṭoːl
|}

;Animals and plants
{| class="wikitable"
| bird || poe; pyu
|-
| egg || kalen
|-
| snake || koːgo
|-
| fish || caːn
|-
| louse || keːpe
|-
| mosquito || kaːn
|-
| fly (insect) || eḍ(u)go
|-
| tree || aːḍḍo
|}

;Natural phenomena
{| class="wikitable"
| water || joppo
|-
| rain || maːnḍo
|-
| stone || caːgo, caːrgo
|-
| salt || coːpo (< Dravidian)
|}

;Material culture, kinship
{| class="wikitable"
| road, path || ḍãːy, ḍa(ː)y
|-
| house || aːwaːr
|-
| name || jumu, jyumu
|}

;Verbs
(In Nihali, many verbs are suffixed with -''be''.)
{| class="wikitable"
| eat || ṭ/tyeː-
|-
| drink || ḍelen-
|-
| bite || haru-
|-
| blow || bigi-, bhigi-
|-
| die || betto-, beṭṭo-
|-
| kill || paḍa-
|-
| laugh || haːgo-
|-
| cry, weep || aːpa-
|-
| go || eːr-, eṛe
|-
| come || paːṭo, pya
|-
| give || beː-
|-
| see || ara-
|-
| hear || cakni
|}

==Pronouns and demonstratives==
The personal pronouns in Nihali are (Nagaraja 2014: 34):
{| class="wikitable"
! !! singular !! dual !! plural
|-
! 1st person
| jo || tye:ko || ingi
|-
! 2nd person
| ne || na:ko || la
|-
! 3rd person
| eṭey || hiṭkel || eṭla < eṭey + la
|}

Nagaraja (2014: 139) notes that Nihali has a different demonstrative paradigm than that of Korku.
{| class="wikitable"
! !! Nihali !! Korku
|-
! 'what'
| nan || co:(ch)
|-
! 'who'
| nani || je
|-
! 'why'
| naway, nawa:san || co:- ~ co:ch
|-
! ‘when’
| meran ~ miran || co:-la
|-
! ‘where’
| mingay || ṭone ~ ṭongan 'at where'
|-
! ‘how much’
| m(i)yan || co-ṭo
|-
! ‘how’
| naw-ki || co-phar
|-
! ‘whose’
| nan-in || je-konṭe ‘whose child’
|-
! ‘which (book)’
| nu-san || (pustak) ṭone-bukko ‘which (book)’
|}

==Morphosyntax==
Nihali morphosyntax is much simpler than that of Korku and other Munda languages, and is unrelated to that of Munda languages (Nagaraja 2014: 144). Word order is SOV.

==See also==
*[[Wiktionary:Appendix:Nihali word list|Nihali word list]] (Wiktionary)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAHLfx4fFmA Audio sample of Nihali language]

{{Languages of South Asia}}
{{Language families}}
{{Eurasian languages}}

[[Category:Nihali language| ]]
[[Category:Language isolates of Asia]]
[[Category:Languages of India]]
[[Category:Endangered language isolates]]
[[Category:Endangered languages of India]]

Nihali language - Revision history

imported>Sagotreespirit: /* Lexicon */ Dravidian loanword