Turi is an endangered Austroasiatic language of India that belongs to the Kherwarian Munda group. 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.
Distribution Osada (1991) lists the following locations where Turi is spoken.
Jharkhand (pop. 133,137 as of 1981; then part of Bihar) Giridih district Ranchi district Hazaribagh district 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.
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". BilabialDentalAlveolarPostalveolarRetroflexPalatalVelarGlottalStop/AffricatevoicelessaspiratedvoicedbreathyFricativeNasalApproximantFlap
Vowels Front Central Back High Mid-high () Mid-low Low
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)". singular dual plural 1st person exclusive iɲ ɑliɲ ɑlɛ inclusive 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". 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.
singular dual plural 1st person exclusive =ɛŋ/=ɲ(iɲ) =liɲ =lɛ inclusive =lɑŋ =pu 2nd person =m =bin =pɛ 3rd person =i (object)/ =ɛ (subject) =kin =ku
Tense, mood, aspect/aktionsart + Overview of Turi TAM markers 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) and identity =nɑŋ. The origin of =nɑŋ is obscure.
Temporary locative copula sentence:
Identity copula sentence:
References
Further reading Konow, Sten. 1906. Tūrī. In Grierson, George A. (ed.), Muṇḍā and Dravidian Languages, 128–134. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. Osada, Toshiki. 1991. Father Ponette's Field Note on Turi with a Comparative Vocabulary. Journal of Asian and African Studies 42. 175–189.