Lodhi language
Lodhi | |
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Native to | India |
Region | Orissa, West Bengal, Jharkhand |
Native speakers | 25,000 (2007 survey)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
lbm |
Glottolog |
lodh1246 [2] |
Lodhi (Lodi, Lohi, Lozi) is a Munda language, or perhaps dialect cluster, of India that has been strongly influenced by neighboring Eastern Indic languages.
Ethnologue notes high levels of lexical similarity (50–75%) with Oriya, Bengali, and Kharia Thar, and that it is only spoken by one quarter of ethnic Lodhi in Orissa. However, while admitting that Lodhi is related to Sora, a Munda language, Ethnologue classifies it as Indic (Bengali–Assamese), and it is considered a variety of Hindi in the Indian census. It may be that there are both Munda and Indic varieties subsumed under the name Lodhi.
However, Anderson (2008:299) suggests that Lodhi (Lodha) of northern Orissa may be an Indo-Aryan lect rather than an endangered Munda language; some members use the autonym Sabar[a].
Locations
Lodhi is spoken in (Ethnologue):
- Morada and Suliapada, Sadar subdivision, Mayurbhanj district, Odisha
- Sora block, Balasore district, Odisha
- Binpur and Kharagpur-I blocks in West Medinipur district, West Bengal
- Jharkhand (along the West Bengal border)
References
- 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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