Kanjari language explained
| Kanjari |
| Nativename: | कंजरी |
| States: | India |
| Date: | 2011 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Indo-Iranian |
| Fam3: | Indo-Aryan |
| Fam4: | North-Western? |
| Fam5: | (unclassified) |
| Iso3: | kft |
| Glotto: | kanj1259 |
| Glottorefname: | Kanjari |
Kanjari (also known as Kangar Bhat, Kangri, Kuchbandhi or "the Gypsy language"[1]) is an unclassified Indic tribal language of India associated with the Kanjar tribe. It is written using the Devanagari script. Kanjari is spoken in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.[1] UNESCO classifies Kanjari as an endangered language. Some may use the word to describe Karina.[2]
Syntax
George Abraham Grierson noted several grammatical features for Kanjari in the first Linguistic Survey of India:[3]
- The final "ō" of adjectives is usually kept before an inflected noun, which suggests that adjectives are not inflected and that gender is weak. For example, tēro naukrī ("thy service").
- Some pronouns are similar to Rajasthani languages, such as the demonstrative pronouns jō and jī. However, other pronouns are similar to the Dravidian languages, such as ūr ("he") compared to Tamil īr and Gondi ōr.
- Overall, verb conjugations and words "broadly agree" with the patterns of Eastern Rajasthani languages, but some characteristics point to a "certain Dravidian element" being present in Kanjari.
Vocabulary
Selected Kanjari Vocabulary| Kanjari | English | Cognate |
|---|
| lug | die | |
| lugai | beat | |
| chūbkō | son | |
| rib | house | |
| tig | see | |
| pāḍō | bull | māḍu (Tamil) |
| tiūr | give | tara (Tamil) |
| ghamēlā | sun | kham (Romani) |
| jhūkal | dog | jukel (Romani) | |
Notes and References
- Book: Mhaiske . Vinod M. . Patil . Vinayak K. . Narkhede . S. S. . Forest Tribology And Anthropology . 2016 . 9789386102089 . 185.
- Web site: Kanjari . World Atlas of Languages . UNESCO . 3 January 2023.
- Book: Grierson . George Abraham . Linguistic survey of India . 1903–1928 . Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing . Calcutta . 96–101 . 3 January 2023.
