Grammar Of The Kurukh Language

Kurukh is a language of Dravidian family, spoken by several millions of people called Oraons, inhabiting quite a few districts of Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa. The tribe settled in the region several millenia before and has been able to retain their distinct language and culture till today although their language has been influenced, both in vocabulary and syntax, by neighbouring languages viz. Hindi, Bengali and Oriya. The Kurukh language deserves full attention not only because of its linguistic peculiarity and relation to other languages of the Dravidian family, but also because the people, who speak it, have left an indelible imprint on the life and culture of other peoples in India. The Reverend Fred. Hahn of the German Lutherian Church at Chota Nagpur rendered a great service to Indian linguistics & anthropology, by writing a very comprehensive and systematic grammar of the Kurukh language, which is now being reprinted. The author?s treatment of all the aspects of the language, viz. declensions, genders, formation and comparison of adjectives, various classes of pronouns, syntax, phrases, etc. is thorough and exhaustive. Profuse illustrations, provided in every chapter, have enhanced the usefulness of the work as an aid to learning the language. The learned author not only described and analysed, in full, the phonetics, morphology and syntax of the language, but has also presented his valuable research in the historical aspect of it. He has discussed the relation of Kurukh with mundari and other languages and in several appendices has furnished necessary material for the further research in the origin and development of this important tribal language in India