Gorum language

Gorum, or Parengi, is a nearly-extinct minor Munda language of India.

Gorum
Parengi
Native toIndia
RegionOdisha, Andhra Pradesh
Ethnicity9,445 in Odisha (2011 census)[1]
Native speakers
20 (2011)[2]
Austroasiatic
  • Munda
    • South
      • Sora-Gorum
        • Gorum
Language codes
ISO 639-3pcj
Glottologpare1266
ELPGorum

Names

The name Gorum most likely comes from an animal/people prefix go- and root -rum meaning 'people', and is possibly related to the ethnonym Remo (Anderson 2008:381).

Parengi, or Parenga, is of obscure origin.

Status

Gorum is 60% endangered, it is very likely that it might soon be extinct majority of the people under 30 years cannot understand the language. In addition those who know it are likely to deny knowing it.[3] This language seems to have been first researched in 1933, that being the earliest scholarly reference.[4]

Origins

While Gorum is a member of the Munda family, it has taken some things from Dravidian, a language spoken nearby. For example, they tend to doubly inflect on certain types of AVC structures. Another derivation from the Munda language is the use of some Glottals being "creaky voiced"[5]

Distribution

Gorum speakers are located in the following areas of eastern India (Anderson 2008:381).

Gutob is spoken to the north of Gorum, and Gta to the west of Gorum.

References
  1. Parenga at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) closed access
  2. "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  3. http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/4953 Endangered Language Project
  4. Sitapati, G.V. 1933. “Pareng.” A Miscellany of Papers Presented to Rao Sahib Mahopadhyaya Gidugu Venkata Ramamurthi. Madras. 145-65
  5. Anderson, Gregory D.S. & Felix Rau. 2008. “Gorum.” In: Gregory D.S. Anderson
  • Anderson, Gregory D.S (ed). 2008. The Munda languages. Routledge Language Family Series 3.New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-32890-X.


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