Gondi language

Gondi (Gōndi) is spoken by the Gondi people. It is one of the most important Central Dravidian languages, spoken by about two million people chiefly in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattishgarh and in various adjoining areas of neighbouring states. Although it is the language of the Gond people, only about half of them still speak it.

Gondi has no written literature, but it has a rich folk literature, examples of which are marriage songs and narrations. The language has a two-gender system, substantives being either masculine or nonmasculine. Gondi departed from the parent Proto-Dravidian language by developing initial voiced stops (g, j, ḍ, d, b) and aspirated stops (kh, gh, jh, dh, ph).

Most of the Gondi dialects are still inadequately recorded and described. The more important dialects are Dorla, Koya, Maria, Muria, and Raj Gond. Some basic phonologic features separate the northwestern dialects from the southeastern. One is the treatment of the original initial s, which is preserved in northern and western Gondi, while farther to the south and east it has been changed to h; in some other dialects it has been lost completely. Other dialectal variations in the Gondi language are the alteration of initial r with initial l and a change of e and o to a.

Further reading

• Chenevix Trench, Charles. Grammar of Gondi: As Spoken in the Betul District, Central Provinces, India ; with Vocabulary, Folk-Tales, Stories and Songs of the Gonds / Volume 1 - Grammar. Madras: Government Press, 1919.
• Hivale, Shamrao, and Verrier Elwin. Songs of the Forest; The Folk Poetry of the Gonds. London: G. Allen & Unwin, ltd, 1935.
• Moss, Clement F. An Introduction to the Grammar of the Gondi Language. [Juddulpore?]: Literature Committee of the Evangelical National Missionary Society of Sweden, 1950.
• Pagdi, Setumadhava Rao. A Grammar of the Gondi Language. [Hyderabad-Dn: s.n, 1954.
• Subrahmanyam, P. S. Descriptive Grammar of GondiAnnamalainagar: Annamalai University, 1968.
• [Gondi-Telugu-English-Hindi Dictionary and Phrasebook]http://mojo.inthefish.com/download/index.htm by New Zealanders - Mark and Joanna Penny