Manḍa is a
Dravidian language
The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant imm ...
of
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
, spoken in the highlands of
Thuamul Rampur
Thuamul Rampur is a town in Thuamul Rampur Block, Kalahandi District of Odisha State. The town is 72 km from the district capital Bhawanipatna and 500 km from the state capital Bhubaneswar. It is also referred as the Kashmir of Kalahandi ...
block of
Kalahandi district. It only became known to Western academia in 1964.
[ Its speakers are generally known as 'Khond Parjas' by outsiders but self-identify as Manda Khonds. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the language was spoken in around 60 villages and the total number of speakers was estimated to be at 4000-5000. However the language is facing endangerment from Odia, which all speakers are bilingual in.]
References
External links
Manda basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
Dravidian languages
Endangered languages of India
Languages attested from the 1960s
Languages of Odisha
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