Kuvi language

Kuvi
	Kuwi, Kuvinga, Kond, Khondi, Jatapu
	କୁଭି, କୁୱି
Native to	India
Region	Odisha, Andhra Pradesh
Ethnicity	Khonds
Native speakers	155,548 (2011 census)[1]
Language family	Dravidian South-Central Gondi–Kui Kuvi–Kui Kuvi; ; ; ;
Writing system	Odia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kxv
Glottolog	kuvi1243
ELP	Kuvi[2]

Kuvi is a South-Central Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Odisha. The language is one of two spoken by the Kandhas, with the other being the closely related and more dominant Kui language. According to the 2011 Indian census, there are around 155,000 speakers. The orthography is the Odia script. The grammatical structure of this language is comparable to other similar languages such as Kui which all fall under the classification of a Dravidian language.

Background information

According to a study regarding population structure of tribal populations in central India, information was collected from the Koraput district of Odisha about the Kuvi Kandhas. There were 325,144 people in the district according to the 1971 census. The Kuvi Kandhas are agriculturalists, and their physical appearance is similar to other Kandha groups.[3]

Phonology

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 Kandha, 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.[4]

Vowels
	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Open	a

All vowels have short and long forms.

Consonants
		Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Postalveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p		t̪		ʈ		k	ʔ
Stop	voiced	b		d̪		ɖ		g
Affricate	voiceless				t͡ʃ
Affricate	voiced				d͡ʒ
Fricative			v	s					h
Nasal		m		n̪		ɳ		ŋ
Approximant				l̪			j
Trill				r̪
Flap						ɽ

Grammar

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 consisting of verb base + negative suffix + personal ending present in all Dravidian languages.[5]

Kuvi	English
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.

Kuvi	English
hi: -?a-t-e?	I did not give.

Past tense [6]

Past Tense Examples
English	Kuvi
I was	nānu mazzee
You were	nīnu mazzi
He was	evasi mazzesi
She was	ēdi mazze
We were	mambu mazzomi
You were	mīmbu mazzeri
They were	evari mazzeri

Present tense [6]

Present Tense Examples
English	Kuvi
I am	nānu mai
You are	nīnu manzi
He is	evasi mannesi
We are	mambu mannomi
You are	mimbu manzeri
They are	evari manneri

References

"Census of India Website : Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India". www.censusindia.gov.in. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
Endangered Languages Project data for Kuvi.
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.
BURROW, T., & BHATTACHARYA, S. (1963). NOTES ON KUVI WITH A SHORT VOCABULARY. Indo-Iranian Journal, 6(3/4), 231-289.
Krishnamurti, B. (2005). M. B. Emeneau, 1904-2005. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 125(4), 481-497.
Schulze, F. V. P. (1911). A grammar of the Kuvi language: with copious examples. University of California Libraries. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-333-47162-0 – via Archive.org.