Endangered Languages Project - Nihali

Nihali

^{[aka Nihal, Nahali, Kalto]}

Classification: Isolate

·

threatened

ALSO KNOWN AS		Nihal, Nahali, Kalto
CLASSIFICATION		Isolate, South Asian
CODE AUTHORITY		ISO 639-3
LANGUAGE CODE		nll
DOWNLOAD		As csv
MORE RESOURCES		OLAC search
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS		While typically considered a language isolate, various hypotheses have been put forward linking Nihali genetically to languages such as Nostratic, Kusunda, Ainu, and the Munda languages (though none have demonstrated conclusive evidence for any genetic affiliation). Shailendra Mohan during 2012-2013 was awarded a grant from the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project in order to produce a grammar, lexicon, and text collection of the language. Materials from this project are still forthcoming as of 08/2014.

Compare Sources (6)

Information from: “The status of the least documented language families in the world” (177-212) . Hammarström, Harald (2010)

Threatened

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
1,000-2,000
Native speakers worldwide

LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS: Mostly bilinguals, though it is possible there are a few monolinguals.

Threatened

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
2,000
Native speakers worldwide
Ethnic population
5,000
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
Data for the number of native speakers comes from Parkin (1991). Data for the ethnic population was gathered in 1987.

DATE OF INFO: 1991

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY

PLACES: India

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Maharashtra, Buldana district, Jamod Jalgaon tahsil.

Threatened

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
2,000
Native speakers worldwide

Threatened

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
2,000
Native speakers worldwide

MORE ON VITALITY

Speakers often deny knowledge of language–such a low status suggests endangerment is likely underway but rigorous sociolinguistic data are lacking

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LOCATION INFORMATION

COORDINATES

19.75,77.8333333333

COORDINATES

20.5402,76.0913

Compare Sources (2)

Information from: “The World Atlas of Language Structures” . Bernard Comrie and David Gil and Martin Haspelmath and Matthew S. Dryer · Oxford University Press