The Gutob or Bodo Gadaba language is a south Munda language of the Austroasiatic language family of India, with the greatest concentrations of speakers being found in Koraput district of Odisha and Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. 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.Ethnologue report on the Bodo Gadaba language
Distribution Gutob is spoken across southern Odisha and adjacent districts of northern Andhra Pradesh, and is concentrated primarily in Lamptaput block, Koraput district, southern Odisha. In recent centuries, Gutob speakers have also migrated to the plains of Andhra Pradesh as well as Rayagada District, including near the town Majiguda (close to Kalyansinghpur) where they live alongside the Dravidian-speaking Kondhs.
Ethnologue reports the following locations. 40 villages of Lamptaput block, Koraput district, southern Odisha Khoirput block, Malkangiri district, southern Odisha Visakhapatnam district, northern Andhra Pradesh
Dialects Although there are some speculation, Griffiths (2008) states "at least two dialects of Gutob exist": Koraput Gutob and Andhra Gutob. The author assumes that the former is the standard variety. The degree of mutual intelligibility of the two dialect is unknown, though differences in phonology and lexicons were reported by Subba Rao (1992) and Bhaskara Rao (1969), and the Andhra dialect has been strongly influenced by Telugu.
Language status The Gutob language is considered to be either endangered 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-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. Virtually there are no Gutob monolinguals. 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)
Phonology Consonant +Gutob consonantsBilabialAlveolarRetroflexPostalv./PalatalVelarGlottalPlosivevoicelessvoicedFricativevoiceless()voicedAffricatevoicelessvoicedNasalApproximantFlap()Trill
/p/ can be fricativized in initial position to near that of [ɸ] and [f]. In intervocalic position, labial phonemes may be realized as [b]; /ɖ/ as [ɽ], velars as [g] and optionally Ø. Intervocalic /ŋ/ is dropped in an utterance if the following phoneme is a vowel with concomitant nasalization. The status of /h/ is marginal, as it is limited to a few native and loan words. /n/ ~ [l] variants occur in some words. In two roots pig "break in half" and log "to fall", the voiced velar final alters to /ks/ before a front-vowel suffix. Eg. /piks-oʔ/ "broke in half", /ob-loks-oˀ/ "caused to fall".
Vowels +Gutob vowelsFrontCentralBackClose [i, ɪ] [u]Mid [e, ɛ] [o, ɔ]Open [a, ʌ, ɑ]Diphthong Initial /u/ cannot form diphthongs since it would be phonetically realized as a glide [w], thus it is more appropriate to recognize them as nonsyllabic approximants /w, j/.
Prosody According to Voß, L-H word pattern is found across all Gutob words. Stress usually falls on the second syllable of Gutob disyllables and on the final syllable of other words. This pattern is already well-exhibited in the ethnonyms of the Gutob people: Dravidian-Desia [ˈgādabā] vs Gutob [guˈtɔb], Dravidianized Ollari [ˈtugoːlu] vs Gutob [tuˈgɔl] ('yesterday'). However, in trisyllabic verbal forms, the patterns may be unpredictable.
Morphology Nominal morphology Number Gutob distinguishes two numbers: singular (-Ø) and plural (-nen). The plural is not obligatorily marked. Person Kinship terms in Gutob are marked for inalienable possession by third possessives -ɖei/ɖoi.
Cases Case marking in Gutob is not an overt component in the nominal morphology. According to Griffiths, there are three postpositions (suffixes) that always attach to pronouns and NPs to show cases: the unmarked subjective, the genitive/attributive/possessive -nu, and objective/oblique -pulai on nominals and pronouns, and o- on pronouns. In some cases, if the indirect object and the direct object in the same clause are both animate, the former will be marked.
Pronouns singular plural 1st person niŋ nei/naj 2nd person nom pen 3rd person maj majnen
Interrogatives Gutob employs a series of interrogative forms that can function as relative pronouns. Maŋ ("what") can sometimes be used as both a substantive and an adjective. Interrogativesmaŋ'what?'maŋɖem'why?'monoʔ'where?'umboʔ'in what direction?'umboʔɖiʔke'from where, from what direction?'unɖoi'when, which day?'ar-unɖoi'not any day soon?'eran, aren, emran'how?'laj'who?' -kiQuestion marker
Demonstratives Gutob has a three-way demonstrative system. Proximate Intermediate Remote main bases e- u- tu- derived eke otu/utu expressive ha/hu
Adpositions +Gutob adpositions Meaningali'near'aluŋ'inside'ɖiʔke'from'boʔ'in, at, to'buɖon/boɖon'with'kuruŋ'toward, at'lagire'due to'munaŋ'like, by the way of'oʔɖon/orbon'near'pulai'in order to, for'sumoŋ'in front of'tobnaŋ'above'
Numerals and classifiers Gutob used to have a decimal counting system. Nowadays most of it has been supplemented by numerals borrowed from Desia, Oriya, and Telugu. Counting numbers larger than 20 adopts a vigesimal strategy from Indo-Aryan. +Native Gutob numeralsRamamurti (1938)Izikowitz (1951)Subba Rao (1992)1muiroʔmuiromuːỹu2umbar, mar, ummarmbarmbaːru3igen, iʔgen, iʔgen-roʔʔigeniggeːnu4uʔun (uʔn)–uːnu, puːnja5mallai–moley6tir––7gil––8tam-gi––9tim-gi––10gol––11gol-mui––12gol-mbar––
Gutob has a small set of classifiers. The majority of them were borrowed from Desia.
ClassifierSource-ɖanhumansGutoblokhumansDesiarasiyoung peopleDesiamunɖcattlesDesia
Adjectives Adjectives do not exist as a separate part of speech in Gutob. Lexical roots can serve as the head of the attributive function via appropriate predicative inflection and are then placed before the element that needs to be modified.
Derivation Gutob employs the nominalizing suffix -kaŋ to derive nominals from nominals and other parts of speech.
There are several other (compositional and idiosyncratic) nominalizing derivation methods involving infixes and prefixes, though none of them appear to be productive at the current stage.
Nominalizing infix -n- or prefix an- are commonly found in derived nouns. Eg. ab "to husk" → an-ab "husk" (n.); baj "to decorate" → b-un-aj "writing, arithmetic, embroidery"; peɖ "to blow" → p-in-eɖ "flute"; sar "to comb" → s-un-ar "comb" (n.); siɖ "to bird-lime" → s-in-iɖ "bird-lime, gum"; zuŋ "to suspend" → z-un-uŋ "clothesline".
An animal marking prefix gV- usually occurs in conjunction with faunal nomenclature. Although the unprefix roots can appear in various semantically linked compounds, they never manifest as free-standing forms. Eg. gibir "pig"; gikil "tiger"; giliʔ "rabbit"; gimeʔ "goat", gisi "lice", gisiŋ 'chicken', gubon "bear"; gugaʔ "crow"; guladʒ "bull, ox"; gusaʔ "monkey", gusoʔ "dog".
An unknown prefix sV- This prefix is often found in some lexical words with unclear meaning and function. Eg. silen (only in silen-daʔ "sweat"); simon "day time, day"; sukug "gourd"; sulob "tree"; siledʒ "long"; sisang "bone"; suŋmol "seed/pit"; suram "antelope"; sumoŋ "in front of"; silim ?; subul "sweet"; suloŋ "far away"; sulodz "stomach"; susuŋ "leg".
Predicative morphology Gutob lacks strong distinction between lexical categories, as roots may exhibit categorical underspecification. For example, a Gutob word that was derived from the Odia noun mahajana ("important man") can be expressed as the head of a predicate with compositional semantic result:
A general characteristic of the Munda languages is weak lexical distinction, noted by Pinnow (1966). Lexical function mainly depends on syntactic configuration, allowing any lexeme to be used for either the predicative role and its complements free of will, although observations stated that this phenomenon is not as robust in South Munda as in North Munda.
Pronominal markers Like Kherwarian languages (such as Santali), Kharia, and Remo, person indexation (subject) in Gutob verb (TAM/person-syntagma) is achieved solely through enclitics. The first and second person clitics are basically the same as pronouns.
singular plural 1st person =niŋ =nei/=naj 2nd person =nom =pen 3rd person =Ø =nen The placement of subject enclitics in Gutob predicates is extremely variable, unlike fixed positions in Kharia, Remo, and Kherwarian. They can unpredictively attach to any preverbal elements, including locatives, temporals, adverbials, object NPs, interrogatives, adjectives, and demonstratives, displaying no clear preference for a host. It seems that the subject markers in Gutob are not explicitly parts of the verbal system. A study by Just & Voß (2023) found that subject enclitics are highly sensitive to discourse; they are often placed wherever the topic is the most prominent. These atypical characteristics sets Gutob person indexation system apart from the normal clines of Munda indexation.
In complex predicates with the presence of an auxiliary verb, the person markers are repeated not only for the lexical verb but also for the auxiliary. However the AVC double marking pattern in Gutob may have considerable variation regarding the placement of the subject enclitics due to pragmatic discourse-oriented factors.
Tense-mood-aspect-aktionsart Affirmative Negative Active Middle Active Middle Imperfective =tu =loŋ =Ø =a Past =oʔ =gV=to Imperative =Ø =a =oʔ =gV Habitual=to – Optative=e=e
The auxiliary verb ɖuk presents an irregular paradigm in non-negated formation. This auxiliary behaves like the English copula verb "to be". It is often used to cover aspectual, negative, attributive, and possessive constructions, as well as cases where a lexeme is not used directly as the head of a predicate. For instance:
+ TAM paradigm of ɖuk FormmeaningPresentɖu-tu'is'Futureɖu-loŋ'will be'Pastɖu-gu'was'Imperative ɖuk-a'be!'Habitual ɖu-to'is (usually)'Optativeɖik-e'may be'Infinitiveɖu-Ø'(to) be'
Borrowed marker =ni is used to encode the progressive:
Incorporation Gutob, like Remo, has fossilized and unproductive lexical noun incorporation with the head predicative lexical base always placed in the initial position, then followed by nominals (mostly body parts).
Negation Negation is the most complex aspect of Gutob morphosyntax, a feature also shared by its relative languages, Gorum and Juang. The following is a brief outline of the Gutob negative system. In the negative paradigm, TAM morphemes often function in ways opposite to their values in the affirmative paradigm, despite being formally identical. This asymmetry in Gutob negation creates an opaque system in which many negative forms do not map compositionally to their positive equivalents, contributing to late acquisition in children and difficulty for second-language learners. There are two main negative prefixes ar- ("not") for finite predicates, and mor- ("not yet") for subordinating clauses, and it seems that mor- has a fuller thematic load than the former.