Mundari Bani

Mundari Bani () also known as Nag Mundari () and Mundari Bani Hisir, or the Mundari alphabet, is the writing system created for the Mundari language, spoken in eastern India. Mundari is an Austroasiatic language. Mundari Bani has 27 letters and five diacritics, the forms of which are intended to evoke natural shapes. The script is written from left to right.

Community elder and author Rohidas Singh Nag invented and published in late 1980 the alphabetic writing system Mundari Bani, which has seen limited but increasing use in literature, education, and computing.

History Rohidas Singh Nag started designing the initial characters of Mundari bani in 1949 while in grade school, which he wrote on the walls using clay. By 1953 he had finished a set of 35 characters. He further simplified the alphabet in 1980 by reducing it to 27 alphabetical characters. In 2008 Bharat Munda Samaj, Mundari Samaj Sanwar Jamda and Nag reformed the script in styling and adding glyphs. Since then, fonts were developed using this standard.

Nag presented the alphabet in the 1980s to then-Chief Minister of Odisha Janaki Ballabh Patnaik and submitted a memorandum to recognize the Munda language constitutionally. Nag along with others submitted a memorandum to the then president of India in 1999 appealing again for the constitutional recognition. "Mundari Samaj Sanwar Jamda", a social organisation of the Munda community based in Poda Astia, Mayurbhanj has been demanding to incorporate the Munda language in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India, to air Munda language through All India Radio, and establish a Munda language department at North Odisha University for higher studies on the basis of the writing system and literature. The writing system has seen limited but increasing use in literature, education, and computing.

Letters

Unlike the Brahmic abugidas (such as Devanagari, Bengali, or Odia), Mundari Bani is a true alphabet. The script is unicameral, designed to accommodate the unique phonetic features of Austroasiatic Munda languages, such as checked consonants and heavy vowel sequences, while using diacritics and digraphs to adapt to Indo-Aryan loanwords.

Since the 2008 edits, it consists of 27 distinct letters and 5 diacritical marks, written from left to right, where consonants do not possess an inherent vowel. Their names follow traditional naming schemes.

+ Mundari Alphabet( ) Letter Mundari Name Romanised Name Transliteration IPA ALA-LC Zide Deva. Beng. Odia O o ọ /ɔ/ OP p p /p/ OL l l /l/ OY y y / / /j/ ONG ng ṅ /ŋ/ A ā a / / / /a/ AJ j cʼ /d͡ʑ/ , /ɟ/ AB b pʼ /pʼ/ , /b/ ANY ny ñ /ɲ/ AH ḥ h /ʔ/ , /h/ I i i / / / /i/ IS s s /s̪/ IDD ḍ ḍ /ɖ/ IT t t /t̪/ IH h (C)h /ʰ/ , /h/ U u u / / / /u/ UC ch c /t͡ʃ/ UD d tʼ /tʼ/, /d̪/ UK k k /k/ UR r r /r/ E e e /e/ ENN ṇ ṇ /ɳ/ EG g kʼ /g/ EM m m /m/ EN n n /n/ ETT ṭ ṭ /ʈ/ ELL ṛ / ḷ ḷ / / /ɽ/, /ɭ/

+ Mundari Diacritics( ) Letter Mundari Name Romanised Name Transliteration Function/IPA Deva. Beng. Odia OJOD Modifies preceding consonant; check/gemination MUHOR / / / Vowel Nasalization /◌̃/ TOYOR Vowel Lengthener /ː/ IKIR Labialization /ʷ/ SUTUH Nukta (for non-native sounds)

Vowels Vowels are called Munu Bani () in Mundari. All vowels have long and short as well as nasalised allophones, but neither length nor nasality is contrastive. All vowels in open monosyllables are quantitatively longer than those in closed syllables. The following table shows the five base vowel phonemes: + Mundari Vowel Inventory( ) Short Long Front Central Back Front Central Back Close i u ī ū Mid e o ē ō Open a ā In native Mundari grammar, vowels are categorised by phonetic length into short and long vowels. The five base vowel alphabets of the Mundari Bani script are: + Mundari Base Vowels

Unlike Brahmic scripts, Mundari Bani lacks independent letters for long vowels. Instead, long vowels are formed by attaching the TOYOR () diacritic to a base vowel, but not all long vowels are demarcated, depending upon the scribe. (/a/) + → (/aː/) Example 1: Mundari: , IPA: /oɽ.aː/ , Translation: House Example 2: Mundari: , IPA: /biːŋ/ , Translation: Snake + Mundari Long Vowels

Loan Words To denote the signature /O/ sound in the neighbouring Odia/Bengali language, the script uses (/o/) with the SUTUH () diacritic.

Nasalisation Nasalisation in Mundari is represented by the MUHOR () diacritic. It attaches to the primary vowels or the final vowel in a cluster.

(/a/) + → (/ã/) Example 1: Mundari: , IPA: /t̪uãː/ , Translation: Milk/Breast Example 2: Mundari: , IPA: /mũː/ , Translation: Nose Vowels preceding or following nasal phonemes like /ŋ/, /ɲ/, /ṇ/, /ɳ/ and /m/ are also nasalised. Native writers do not usually add the MUHOR () in these cases because, unlike the ONG () letter, which represents the nasal consonant /ŋ/, the MUHOR indicates the nasalisation of the vowel itself, crucial for distinguishing word pairs in native Munda vocabulary. (/m/) + (/a/) → (/mã/) Additionally, those following /ɟ/ are also nasalised. (/ɟ/) + (/a/) → (/ɟã/) Dipthongs Mundari frequently uses sequences where two or three vowels follow each other without an intervening consonant. Unlike English diphthongs, they are treated as distinct syllables. Some common clusters are:

Vowel Absence The absence of vowel phonemes in consonant clusters or after word-end consonants is marked by the absence of vowel letters. There is no halant to indicate a vowel negation as in Brahmic abugidas. Example 1: Mundari: , IPA: /Muɳɖārī/ , Translation: Mundari (lang.) Example 2: Mundari: , IPA: /buluŋ/ , Translation: Salt

Consonants Basic Consonants In Mundari, consonants are called Boja Bani (). Mundari Bani represents consonants using 22 basic letters, plus one diacritic. They are organised into five clusters, each led by a primary vowel. The first letter of the consonant's name matches the primary vowel. These basic letters are: + Mundari consonants( ) Because of centuries of contact with neighbouring eastern Indo-Aryan languages, specifically Bengali and Odia, dialects like Naguri and Kera have aspirated loan words. Because native Mundari lacks aspirated distinction, these aspirated phonemes are denoted by adding the /h/ letter () to the consonant. Example: (/k/) + (/h/) → (/kʰ/) There are no conjunct forms or ligatures, and the letters do not change shape in compound syllables, unlike Brahmic abugidas. Mundari also lacks gemination.

Below is the consonant phonology of Mundari depicted using Mundari Bani, which encompasses native phonemes (basic consonants shown in red and unique phonemes in blue) and aspirated loan words (shown in green). + Mundari Consonant InventoryStricture → Occlusives SonorantsArticulation → Plosives & Affricates Nasal Approximant Fricative Voicing → Voiceless Voiced Checked Voiced Voiceless Voiced Aspiration → Unaspirated Aspirated Unaspirated AspiratedVelar Palatal Alveolo-palatal Retroflex Dental Labial Glottal Notes:

Mundari grammar also categorises consonants into four categories according to their place of articulation: Soft consonants ()

Aspirated consonants ()

Nasal consonants ()

Unstructured consonants ().

Aspirated stops A unique feature of Mundari is the word-final /b/ and /d/, which may be pronounced as checked sounds /ˀb̥(ᵐ)/ or /ˀd̥(ⁿ)/. This is represented by placing the diacritic OJOD () before the consonant.

Example: Mundari: , IPA: /laʈaˀb/ , Translation: Scissors However, the use of OJOD to denote aspirated stops is dependent on the scribe and is not universal. The Mundari /ʷ/ phoneme The Mundari phoneme /w/ or /ʷ/ has two distinct forms of representation in Mundari Bani using the IKIR diacritic (): Consonantal /ʷ/: A standalone glide used at the beginning of syllables.

Vocalic /ʷ/: It is written by adding the IKIR to the vowel that follows to impart a labialized glide.

/w/ never occurs in the initial position in Mundari, but some use the IKIR in conjunction with vowel letters to write /wa/ or /wi/ syllables from other languages.

Loan Words Loan words are denoted with the diacritic SUTUH () when transcribed. Phonemes like 'ẏ', 'ṛ', 'ṛh', 'ś' and 'ṣ', which are common in Indo-Aryan languages, are denoted using the Mundari equivalent with the ().

is used to denote both /ʂɔ/ and /ɕɔ/ phonemes. The reader is expected to understand from context which phoneme is being depicted, often the case when transcribing widely used loan words. In many eastern Indian languages, the sounds for 'b' and 'v/w' are closely related or interchangeable. While native Mundari uses for the /w/ sound, is sometimes used in formal transliteration to represent the /ʋ/, which is lacking in native Mundari. (/b/) + → (/ʋ/)

Numerals Mundari Bani has its own set of decimal digits (0–9) that function identically to standard Western numerals. + Mundari Digits( )

Below are the names of the base digits (0-10) rendered in Mundari Bani: Numeral Mundari Transliteration Translation 𞓰 Sūn Zero 𞓱 Mod'''|| One |- | 𞓲 || || Bar || Two |- | 𞓳 || || Āpī || Three |- | 𞓴 || || Upun''' || four |- | 𞓵 || || Moñe || Five |- | 𞓶 || || Turī || Six |- | 𞓷 || || Eyā || Seven |- | 𞓸 || || Irāl Eight 𞓹 Āre Nine 𞓱𞓰 Gel Ten

Sample text The following text is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, written in Mundari Bani: Mundari Script

Romanisation

IPA Transcription

Translation

Unicode

The Mundari Bani alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in September, 2022 with the release of version . The Unicode block is called Nag Mundari (U+1E4D0–U+1E4FF):

Notes

References

Sources

Mundari Bani

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