The Gutob or Bodo Gadaba language is a south Munda language of the

Austroasiatic The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are t ...

language family of

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

, with the greatest concentrations of speakers being found in

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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 Sc ...

and

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Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to t ...

. It is also known simply as the Gadaba language, but it is different from the Dravidian Gadaba language. Other names for the Bodo Gadaba language include Gadba, Gutop, Gudwa, Godwa, Gadwa, and Boi Gadaba.

Classification

The Gutob language belongs to the South Munda subgroup of the Munda branch of the Austroasiatic language family. It is most closely related to the Bondo language.

Distribution

Gutob is spoken across southern

and adjacent districts of northern

, and is concentrated primarily in Lamptaput block,

, southern

(Griffiths 2008:634). In recent centuries, Gutob speakers have also migrated to the plains of Andhra Pradesh as well as

Rayagada District Rayagada district is a district in southern Odisha, a state in India, which became a separate district in October 1992. Its population consists mainly of tribes, primarily the Khonds and the Soras. In addition to Odia, Kui and Sora are ...

, including near the town Majiguda (close to Kalyansinghpur) where they live alongside the Dravidian-speaking

Kondhs Khonds (also spelt Kondha, Kandha etc.) are an indigenous Adivasi tribal community in India. Traditionally hunter-gatherers, they are divided into the hill-dwelling Khonds and plain-dwelling Khonds for census purposes; All the Khonds identify ...

. ''Ethnologue'' reports the following locations. *40 villages of Lamptaput block,

, southern

*Khoirput block,

Malkangiri district Malkangiri district is the southwesternmost district in the Indian state of Odisha. It has two Vidhan sabha constituencies. History Local legend claims Valmiki wrote the Ramayana on the banks of the Tamasa river. The region was known as ''Mal ...

, southern

, northern

Language status

The Gutob language is considered to be either

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

or moribund, due in part to several hydroelectric projects that have displaced Gutob people from their traditional villages and forced them to live as minorities in primarily

Desiya Desiya was a dance- and house-music project that was fronted by the DJ-remixer-producer Matthew Parkhouse from New York and featured Melissa Yiannakou (now De Sa) on vocals. Its 1992 #1 hit on the US ''Billboard'' Hot Dance Music/Club Play char ...

-speaking villages. Anderson (2008) estimates the number of speakers at around 10 to 15,000, while the Asha Kiran society, which works in Koraput, estimates the number at less than 5,000. The 2011 census most likely counts Gutob and Ollari as the same language, since they are both called Gadaba by outsiders. Although Gutob-language education has been attempted, it has faced stiff resistance and most parents still want their children to learn Desiya only due to being in mixed villages."Literature development in minority language: Case study of Gutob–Gadaba Language Revitalization Project in India"
(in .pdf format)

References

*Griffiths, Arlo. 2008. In Anderson, Gregory D.S (ed). ''The Munda languages'', 633–681. Routledge Language Family Series 3.New York: Routledge. . Languages of India Munda languages Endangered languages of India Endangered Austroasiatic languages {{AustroAsiatic-lang-stub br:Gadabeg