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Kuvi Language

Kuvi language is native to India and is a Dravidian language spoken by the Khonds. There are 160,000 native speakers of the Kuvi language known today from a 2001 census. It is an endangered language which is going extinct with several reasons behind this occurrence. The grammatical structure of this language is comparable to other similar languages such as Kui, Kui-Kuvi, Manda-Kui, etc. which all fall under the classification of a Dravidian language. The Kuvi language is one of many important endangered languages and its history will be provided to stress this significance.

Information:

According to a study regarding Population structure of tribal populations in central India, information was collected from Koraput about the Kuvi Khonds. There is a total population of 325,144 people in the district according to the 1971 census. They are from the Dravidian language family, and of these people, 100 were studied. The Kuvi Khond are agriculturalists, and their physical appearance is similar to other Khond groups.

Language:

Within a study done by A.G. Fitzgerald and F. V. P. Schulze, they spent some time interrogating Kuvi speakers in Araku in Andhra Pradesh. Their information came from a village called Sunkarametta. They also went to Gudari to study the Kuttiya dialect of Kui, and found a Kuvi speaker. It was found that the speakers location influenced their speech. The Kuvi speaker described himself as a Parja Kandh, so some of his dialect is abbreviated by P, while the dialect studied at Araku was indicated by Su. The following vowels and consonants are necessary for the language:

Vowels: a â i î u û e ê o ô

Consonants: k g n c j t d n ț ḑ ņ p b m y r ŗ l v s h

All Central Dravidian languages are unified in gender and number distinctions. There is the distinction of masculine vs non-masculine (or feminine and non human) both in singular and plural. There is a simplex negative tense consistting of verb base + negative suffix + personal ending present in all Dravidian languages.

va:ha - having come

hi:ha - having given

to:sea- having shown

Kuvi language also contains a past negative tense with the structure- verb base + negative suffix + past suffix + personal ending.

 hi: -?a-t-e? - I did not give.

Bibliography:

Barlow, J., & Dinnsen, D. (1998). Asymmetrical Cluster Development in a Disordered System. Language Acquisition, 7(1), 1-49. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20011474

Bh. Krishnamurti, Moses, L., & Danforth, D. (1983). Unchanged Cognates as a Criterion in Linguistic Subgrouping. Language, 59(3), 541-568. doi:10.2307/413903

Bright, W. (1978). Language, 54(1), 249-250. doi:10.2307/413042

Burrow, T. (1943). Dravidian Studies III. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 11(1), 122-139. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/609208

DAS, K., MALHOTRA, K., MUKHERJEE, B., WALTER, H., MAJUMDER, P., & PAPIHA, S. (1996). Population Structure and Genetic Differentiation among 16 Tribal Populations of Central India. Human Biology, 68(5), 679-705. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41465514

Hamp, E. (1996). On the Indo-European Origins of the Retroflexes in Sanskrit. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 116(4), 719-723. doi:10.2307/605442

Krishnamurti, B. (2005). M. B. Emeneau, 1904-2005. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 125(4), 481-497. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20064422

Mastana, S. )., Young, D. )., Murry, B. )., Sachdeva, M. )., Kalla, A. )., Das, K. )., & Das, M. ). (2007). Genetic variation of 13 STR loci in the four endogamous tribal populations of Eastern India. Forensic Science International, 169(2-3), 266-273. doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2006.03.019

Schulze, F. P. (1911). A grammar of the Kuvi language.

Subrahmanyam, P. (1969). The Central Dravidian Languages. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 89(4), 739-750. doi:10.2307/596945