V SPEECH COMMUNITY

Distribution of IG

The following chart contains the number of ‘Korku’ speakers as returned from different states of India, in 1991 census.

 
States       		Number of Speakers
                                         
Madhya Pradesh     		 316,013
Maharashtra            		 149,753
West Bengal          		 279
Gujarat                    		 9
Andhra Pradesh          	 8 
Tamil Nadu               	 	 5
Delhi                        		 4
Rajasthan                 		 2

Distribution of FG

The distribution of functional group of Korku i.e., who use Korku as second language in India according to the 1991 census the data is not available.

Diaspora of IG

Korku Diaspora is evident in the states like Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Ethnic composition of IG and FG

The ethnic composition of the speech community is constituted of both rural and urban population. The ethnic composition of ‘Korku’ identity group is neither migrant nor nomadic.

Language contact, code mixing, code switching

‘Korku’ community has come across in contact with Hindi and Marathi because of Hindi and Marathi are the official languages of the respective states Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Code mixing from both Hindi and Marathi is shown in Korku. The Korku speakers use very frequently many Hindi words while communicating at home and outside also. For example: /dunia/ ‘world’, /bəkra/ ‘goat’, /neula/ ‘mongoose’, /kunji/ ‘key’, /pʰela/ ‘first’, /dəm/ ‘strength’, /a:tma/ ‘soul’, /pa:n/ ‘bettle’, /a:kʰir/ ‘last’, /bina/ ‘without’, /ulta/ ‘opposite’, /sal/ ‘year’, /jaga/ ‘place’, /kitab/ ‘book’

Social structure:

The Korku speech community have numerous totemic clans which are also used as Surnames, like Lobo, Darshima, Atkom, Baraskar, Dhikar, Mewar, Muasi, Patel, Sapkar, Selu, Singh in Madhya Pradesh and Bethekar, Dhande, Dhikar, Jamunkar, Kasdekar, Sakom, Sawalkar, Selu, Tota in Maharashtra. Among them Bethe, Chauhan, Darsima, Dhi, Kasda, Lobo, Rathore, Selu (Madhya Pradesh) and Atkom, Bethe, Dhi, Jamun, Kasda, Selu, Tota (Maharashtra) are the exogamous clans.

It has different groups/sub-groups like Bawaria, Bondeya, Bondog, Bopchi, Mouasi, Nahul, Nihal in Madhya Pradesh and Bawaria, Bondeya, Mawasia, Mouase, Ruma in Maharashtra.

Convergence, Borrowing, Diffusion:

Korku attests the convergence with Hindi on the morphophonemic level. In Korku borrowing of vocabulary items is found from Hindi, Marathi. Major words are derived from Hindi.

Institutionalization:

Korku speech community exhibits institutionalization in the fields of child birth, marriage ceremony, death, festivals and other ceremonies of Korkus.

Identity, Loyalty, Status, Attitudes (FG):

Most of the Korkus remain under poverty line and live in rural areas. There are hardly few literates, who live in urban areas. The Korkus residing in rural area are surrounded by other dominating tribe like Gondi. Amajor portion of Korku speakers are bilinguals. Apart from korku, they speak additional language of different tribes. For instance, Korkus in Madhya Pradesh know Hindi and those in Maharashtra know Marathi.

As a matter of fact korku language is becoming extinct and we hardly find few who speak this language. Infact Korkus do not prefer to speak their own language because, they think, their language as inferior. Even the educated class do not want their children to learn korku language. This is prevalent among all the Korkus. They hesitated to speak their language in informal situations too. Rather they prefer to speak either Hindi or Marathi among themselves. They have a feeling that they would be ill treated increase they speak korku by other tribal and non-tribal communities. The functional group who speak Korku for functional purposes like trade, commerce, occupation etc. is usually found to maintain their identity as well as loyality towards their language.