Turi language

Turi
Turi
तुरी
Native to	India
Region	Jharkhand
Ethnicity	Turi
Native speakers	2,000 (2007)
Language family	Austroasiatic Munda North Kherwarian Turi; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	trd
Glottolog	turi1246
ELP	Turi
	Turi is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Turi is an endangered Austroasiatic language of India that belongs to the Kherwarian Munda group.^[3] Grierson (1906) described that Turi is similar to both Mundari and Santali. It is spoken by only half a percent of ethnic Turi, the rest having shifted to Sadri in Jharkhand, Mundari in West Bengal, and Odia in Odisha. The Turi are classified as a Scheduled Caste in Jharkhand.^[4]

Distribution

Osada (1991) lists the following locations where Turi is spoken.^[5]

Jharkhand (pop. 133,137 as of 1981; then part of Bihar)
Chhattisgarh
- Raigarh district
West Bengal (pop. 26,443 as of 1981)
Odisha (pop. 7,374 as of 1981)

Classification

Turi has been traditionally grouped with the Mundaric dialect continuum. A recent phylogenetic analysis on Turi conducted by Peterson, et al. (2024) using the software COG from the Summer Institute of Linguistics found that Turi forms a closer cline with the Santali dialect continuum rather than with the Mundari-Ho dialects. This result is more aligned with the classification of Turi proposed by Ethnologue (Eberhard et al. (2023)). The analysis concludes that Turi may have separated from the Kherwarian languages groups from an early date so that it may constitute a third subgroup of Kherwarian.^[6]

Phonology

Consonants

Similar to Santali and Mundari, but /w/ is replaced by /ʋ/ in Turi. Most Munda languages have voiced stops accompanied with pre-glottalization and nasal release, so does Turi, but the language tends to drop the stops entirely while retains the nasal and the glottal stop. Eg. Turi [uʔm] "hair", Mundari [uˀb̥ᵐ] "hair"; Turi [mɛʔn̪] "eye", Mundari [meˀd˺ⁿ] "eye".^[7]

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop/Affricate	voiceless	p	t̪		t͡ʃ	ʈ	c	k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	t̪ʰ		t͡ʃʰ	ʈʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d̪		d͡ʒ	ɖ	ɟ	ɡ
	breathy	bʱ	d̪ʱ		d͡ʒʱ	ɖʱ		ɡʱ
Fricative				s					h
Nasal		m	n̪			ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Approximant		ʋ		l			j
Flap				ɾ		ɽ

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid-high		(ə)
Mid-low	ɛ		ɔ
Low			ɑ

Morphology

Nominals

Pronouns

Emphasis on dual and plural reference in Turi pronouns can be reinforced by attaching number markers =kin and =ku directly to the pronoun. Eg. ɑliŋ bɑɾɑŋ=kin "we both (EXCL)", ɑlɛ=ku "we (PL.EXCL)".^[8]

		singular	dual	plural
1st person	exclusive	iɲ	ɑliɲ	ɑlɛ
1st person	inclusive	iɲ	ɑlɑŋ	ɑpu
2nd person		ɑm	ɑbin	ɑpɛ
3rd person		uni	unkin	unku

Cases

Turi has five cases. The case markers follow the number markers. For example, tʃɑʋɑ=kun=rɛn (child=PL=GEN) "of the children".^[9]

Case	Marker	Function
Nominative	=Ø	Intransitive subject, transitive subject, inanimate and non-specific objects
Oblique	=kɛ	Primary objects with verbs of speech, animate secondary object
Genitive	=ɑ/=ɑʔ/=rɛn	Possession of pronouns (=ɑ/=ɑʔ) and else (=ren)
Instrumental	=tɛ	Medium
Locative	=ɾɛ	Location

Verbal morphology

Verbal agreement

Like all Kherwarian languages, Turi verbs index both the S/A and P arguments.^[10]

sɔbu

all

kɑthɑ

story

ɑjum=kɛtɛ

hear=SEQ

bɑndrɑ=kun

monkey=PL

sɔbu

all

ʈɔpi

hat

ɛm-tɑd=i=ɑ=ku

give-ACT.PST=3SG.OBJ.ANIM=FIN=3PL.SUBJ

'After hearing his whole story, the monkeys gave him all the hats.'

		singular	dual	plural
1st person	exclusive	=ɛŋ/=ɲ(iɲ)	=liɲ	=lɛ
1st person	inclusive	=ɛŋ/=ɲ(iɲ)	=lɑŋ	=pu
2nd person		=m	=bin	=pɛ
3rd person		=i (object)/ =ɛ (subject)	=kin	=ku

Tense, mood, aspect/aktionsart

Overview of Turi TAM markers^[11]
	Middle	Active
Present	-tɑn	-ɛtɑn
Future	-ɔʔ/-ɔ/-ʔ/-Ø	-Ø
Past	-ɛn/-kɛn/-ɔn/-ɔʔ-ɛn	-ɛkɛn – Past imperfective -tɑd – Simple past
Present perfect	-ɑkɑn	(-ɑkɑd)
Past perfect	-lɛn	-lɛʔ/-lɑʔ

Copulas

Odisha Turi has two copulas: the temporary/locative hɛn= (suppletive form kɑnɔʔɔ)^[12] and identity =nɑŋ. The origin of =nɑŋ is obscure.^[13]

Temporary locative copula sentence:

ɲɛl-lɑ=ə=ɛ

see-ACT.PST.PRF=FIN=3SG.ANIM

dʒɛ

then

miɑʔn

one

ɑu

and

ʈɔpi

hat

kɑnɔʔɔ

NEG.PRES.COP

'He saw then that there was (is) not one single hat.'

Identity copula sentence:

iɲ=ɑʔ

1SG=GEN

ɲumu

name

pɾʌbhɑt=nɑŋ

Prabhat=IDENT.COP

'My name is Prabhat.'

References

↑ Turi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
↑ Moseley, Christopher; Nicolas, Alexander, eds. (2010). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (PDF) (3rd ed.). Paris: UNESCO. pp. 46–47. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022.
↑ Peterson et al. 2024, p. 262.
↑ "Census of India". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
↑ Ramu, G.N. (1 January 1991). "Changing Family Structure and Fertility Patterns: An Indian Case". Journal of Asian and African Studies. 26 (3–4): 189–206. doi:10.1177/002190969102600302. ISSN 0021-9096. S2CID 220926406.
↑ Peterson et al. 2024, p. 286.
↑ Peterson et al. 2024, p. 267.
↑ Peterson et al. 2024, p. 268.
↑ Peterson et al. 2024, pp. 269–270.
↑ Peterson et al. 2024, p. 271.
↑ Peterson et al. 2024, p. 272.
↑ Peterson et al. 2024, p. 275.
↑ Peterson et al. 2024, p. 277.

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