User:Lg720/Kolami language

Kolami (other names: Kolam, Kolamboli, Kolamy, Kolmi, Kulme) is a tribal Central Dravidian language that is spoken by the Kolami tribe near Wardha and Kinwat in the state of Maharashtra, India, and in the Adilabad district in Telangana, India. Kolami uses many loan words from both Marathi, and Telugu. There are three dialects of this language: Adilabad, Naikri, and Wardha. It is the most widely spoken Central Dravidian language. As of the 2011 census, 128,451 people speak the language. Since most children no longer speak this language as their mother tongue, the language had been classified as definitely endangered.

Sathupati Prasanna Sree has developed a unique script for use with the language.

Naming and Classification
Kolami is a language that is spoken by the people of the Kolam tribe. The word is derived from Kolvar which mean 'stick' or 'bamboo' in Kolami. Kolami is a Ccentral Dravidian language with three official dialects, and many variations. The language has borrowed vocabulary from Marathi, and Telugu. This language is endangered.

Geography
Kolami is spoken in the states of Maharashtra, Telengana, and Madhya Pradesh. The highest density of Kolami speakers are present in the eastern part of the Yavatmal district, the southwestern part of the Wardha district, and the northwestern part of the Adilabad district. A negligible amount of speakers are located in the city of Amravati located in Vidarbha, the Chanda, Betul, and Nagpur districts of Madhya Pradesh.

The Kolami speaking residents of the Adilabad district in Telangana are referred to as Mannyods by Telugu speaking people. Most of the Adilabad Kolams speak Kolami, with exception of places in the easternmost regions of the district (Sirpur taluka and Chinnur taluka) of which the Kolams speak telugu as their native language despite being referred to as Mannyods. Approximately three fourth of the Kolams in Adilabad speak Kolami.

Bilingualism in Kolami and another language, depends heavily on the geographical location of Kolam settlements. In the southern part of Yavatmal, located in the state of Maharashtra, where there are some exclusively Kolam settlements, older people—especially women—will most likely be able to understand Marathi, but will be unable to speak, read, or write it. In other places, such as Zari Taluka in northern Yavatmal, there are mixed settlements with Kolams living with Marathi speakers where the Kolams will be able to understand and speak Marathi, and where only educated people--more specifically men—will be able to read and write Marathi.

Nouns
Noun forms in kolami contain a stem that may or may not include a peripheral suffix. The peripheral suffix can be one of three types: (1) plural suffixes that denote gender and number, (2) case suffixes, and (3) postfixes.The stems can either be monomorphic, or contain a root and several formative suffixes.

Number and gender based Nouns:
The Kolami language uses two genders—male, and non-male. For nouns that are based on number and gender, there are four subclasses:


 * Nouns that have only two forms—plural and singular.
 * Nouns that have four forms—male singular, non-male singular, male plural, and non-male plural.
 * These types of nouns are further divided into two more subclasses.
 * Nouns derived from adjectives
 * pronomials


 * Numerals with two subdivisions.
 * Personal, and reflexive pronouns.
 * The numerals from five and onwards, which show no gender distinctions, and are also unmarked by any plural suffixes.
 * Numbers from two to four that have no singular forms, but three plural forms for male, non-male, and non-human groups. Words that mean ‘this many,’ ‘that many,’ and ‘how many’ also fall into this category:

Case Suffixes

 * Accusative
 * Allomorphs: The letter -n will follow any words ending in a vowel, or the letters l, r, and v. The exception to this are monosyllables that end in the letters r or v. The suffix -un will follow any word ending in any consonant except for the letters l, r, and v, and will also follow monosyllables that end in the letters r, and v.
 * Dative
 * Allomorphs: words ending in a vowel will be followed by the sound ŋ. Words ending in a consonant will end in the suffix -uŋ.
 * Locative
 * Allomorphs: The letter t will follow any single noun form, and the ending the suffix -eŋ will follow any plural noun form.
 * Instrumental
 * Allomorphs: -ad follows noun forms that end in a consonant. The suffix -naḍ will follow any noun form that ends in a vowel. -naḍ also follows the proliminal oblique allomorphs an- (me), in- (you).
 * Ablative
 * Allomorphs: The form ending in any case would be -tanat.

Postfixes

 * The ending -i, indicates ‘not anything else’. For example: imdi (just this man—no other), okkoni (just one son—no more), ittini (just here—nowhere else).
 * The ending -na/nay (depending on how fast one speaks) indicates a whole entity (all), or in addition to the noun in concern (and, also, even). For example: ni:vnay vattiv (you also came) ni:v e:rruna o:ltivgenaŋ (did you see anyone?).

Verbs
Verbs in Kolami consist of a stem either with, or without a suffix. Interrogative suffixes are (-a, and -g), Subordinating suffixes are (-te, -tiri, -na, -gi, and -anaŋ).

There are eight simplex paradigms of verbs. Present-future tense, future tense, durative tense, past tense, past negative tense, negative tense, imperative mood, and prohibitive mood. The first six tense are called eight membered radigms because they have eight forms, and the last two are called two membered paradigms because they have two forms: negative mood, and positive mood. The prohibitive tense is also known as the imperative negative tense.

Eight Membered Paradigm Conjugations (the verb root si:- means to give)

Two Membered Paradigm Conjugations

Sounds
Vowels:      a       a:       i        i:       e       e:       u       u:      o      o:

Long vowels only occur in accented syllables. For example:


 * ma:k   tree
 * si:r    nit
 * u:r     village

Consonants:  (When the consonant n precedes the consonants s and z, the sound becomes post-dental. When it precedes the consonant j, it becomes palatial. When n precedes any retroflex consonants, the sound becomes retroflex).

In Wagpur, a village in Yavatmal, ṭ before t was heard to be pronounced as ṣ. In other areas, it was heard to be pronounced as ṭṣ

Consonant Clusters
Two Consonant Clusters 

The sounds tt, dd, and rr are the only sounds that are guaranteed between two unaccented syllables. For example:


 * uruttan            I made to drink
 * uruddan          I used to make to drink
 * vagdarral         Women of go:tra called vagdaral

Three consonant clusters are rarer than two consonant clusters. No three consonant clusters contain two of the same successive consonants.

Existing three consonant clusters: ptn, mtn, ntn, ṭtn, ḍtn, nḍtn, ktn, ŋktn, rtn, ltn, vtn, stn, nstn, ytn, nlṭ, tlt, dlṭ, ṭln, ḍlt, ḍln, and nln.

In Kolami, only two four consonant clusters exist—none which are found intervocalically: nḍlt, and nḍln.

Assimilation
In Kolami, there are three types of assimilation:


 * 1) voicing assimilation: (regressive) A heteromorphic consonant (opposite in voice features) comes before a morphemic final consonant.
 * 2) retroflex assimilation: (progressive) heteromorphic retroflex consonant precedes a morpheme initial consonant.
 * 3) vowel assimilation: When there is a three consonant cluster with two different stem final consonants and a consonant suffix, it should be separated by a vowel inserted between the two stem consonants. This vowel will always undergo vowel assimilation.

Aspiration
Marathi loan words, and native Kolami words both use aspirated stops. Aspiration at the beginning of words often occurs preceding the vowels a, ā, e, u, o, ō  as seen in native and in loan words. Aspiration at the beginning of words often occurs preceding the vowel i as seen in loan words. Both Marathi loan words, and native Kolami words have intervocalic vocalization (aspiration that occurs between two vowels) in addition to aspiration at the beginning of words. When it comes to words with intervocalic aspiration, ā and  e are often the preceding vowels in loan words, while a and u are the vowels that follow the aspirated stops. In native words, a and u are the vowels that precede the aspirated stops, while e and i are the ones that often follow them. Kolami speakers who also speak Marathi tend to speak with more spirations in their words, on the other hand, Kolami speakers with little to no knowledge of Marathi use fewer aspirated sounds when they are speaking. There is more aspiration in the pronunciation of Kolami words in northern Yavatmal than in southern Yavatmal.

Types of aspiration in Kolami, and Marathi loan words: 

ph : used in words borrowed from Marathi

bh : used in words borrowed from Marathi and native words

kh : used in words borrowed from Marathi and native words

gh : used in words borrowed from Marathi and native words

th : used in words borrowed from Marathi and native words

ṭh : used in native words

dh : used in words borrowed from Marathi

ḍh : used in words borrowed from Marathi

In Kolami, and also in Naikri, words starting the sound gh with are greater in quantity than other aspirated sounds.