Ho (Warang Chiti: , ) is a Munda language of the Austroasiatic language family spoken primarily in India by about 2.2 million people (0.202% of India's population) per the 2001 census. It is spoken by the Ho, Munda, Kolha and Kol tribal communities of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam and is written using Warang Chiti script. Devanagari, Latin and Odia script are also used, although native speakers are said to prefer Warang Chiti, invented by Lako Bodra.
The name Ho is derived from the native word hoo meaning human being, with cognates in its sister languages hoṛo in Mundari, ho̠ṛ in Santali and koro in Korku.
Ho is closely related to Mundari and Santali. Ho and Mundari are often described as sister languages. Ho is closer to the Hasadaḱ dialect of Mundari than the other varieties spoken in Jharkhand. While being ethnically and linguistically close, Ho and Mundari speakers form distinct regional identities.
History Ho has developed into an independent language as a result of various phonological and semantic changes from earlier forms common to North Munda languages. Most notable among these is the loss of intervocalic /ṛ/, leading to vowel length becoming phonemic. A common North Munda verb doho 'to put, to place, Santali do̠ho̠, Mundari dō takes on a vulgar meaning in Ho, many such semantic shifts make conversations with speakers of these related languages difficult. Ho speakers are believed to have entered Singhbhum form the North where Mundari, with two major dialects Hasadaḱ and Naguri is spoken. In terms of affinity, Ho is closer to the Hasadaḱ dialect in most respects, including the mutation of the glottalized final consonant into or . John Hoffmann considers there to be much less difference between Hasadaḱ and Ho than between Hasadaḱ and Naguri. Some forms in southern Kolhan resemble Naguri forms, such as the conjunction anḍoḱ 'moreover, and', while in northern Singhbhum it's oṛoḱ, as in Hasadaḱ. Ho in the north also maintains the Hasadaḱ contractions in certain verb forms like kić from ket́ić, lić from let́ić and -aić from -at́ić. Ho is also notable for its tendency to simplify common North Munda forms, Mundari oṛoṅ/uṛuṅ/oḍoṅ, Santali oḍok/oḍoṅ to /oːʔl/, Mundari, Santali selet́, seret́, irit́, ilat́ etc. to /seːʔl/, /seːʔr/, /iːʔr/ and /iːʔl/.
The first published written record of the Ho language is from 1844, which has a short word list dated 2 April 1824. Samuel Tickell published Grammatical construction of the Ho language in 1840. The first published Ho writing by an ethnic Ho is poetry of Kanuram Deogam in 1930.
The Latin, Devanagari and Warang Chiti scripts have been used in the field of teaching and learning. Since 1976, the Ho language is being imparted at intermediate and graduate level courses in different colleges under the Ranchi University and Kolhan University.University Department Of Tribal And Regional Language, Ranchi University, Jharkhand
In erstwhile Bihar, the Information and Mass Communication department regularly published Ho articles, folk stories, songs in Devanagari script in a weekly named Adivasi Saptahik.
There are significant initiatives inculcated in development of Ho language. A pioneering work was started at Ete Turtung Akhara, Jhinkapani to study and develop the Ho language under the leadership of Lako Bodra with the help of Adi Sanskriti Evam Vigyan Sansthan. The institute published a book in 1963 titled Ho Hayam Paham Puti in Warang Chiti and introduced the letters of Warang Chiti.Eteh Turtung Akhara, Jhinkapani
A. Pathak and N.K. Verma tried to compare the Warang Chiti with Indus script in Echoes of Indus Valley.Echoes of Indus valley by A.Pathak and N.K. Verma Sudhanshu Kumar Ray in his 'Indus Script' described that the script Warang Chiti resembles the script of Indus that was discovered by Ashok Pagal and Bulu Imam in the caves of Aswara hill near Baraka village.Indus Script by Sudhanshu Kumar Ray
Xavier Ho Publication, Lupungutu has been publishing Ho books in the Devanagri script. John Deeney published Ho Grammar and Vocabulary in 1975.Xavier Ho (𑢹𑣉𑣉) Publication, Lupungutu,1975
Geographical distribution
Around half of all Ho speakers reside in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, where they form a majority. Ho speakers are also found in districts of East Singhbhum in southern Jharkhand, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar in northern Odisha.
Phonology
Consonants LabialDental/AlveolarRetroflexPalatalVelarGlottalNasal()Stop/AffricatevoicelessvoicedFricativeApproximantTap
/b, ɖ/ can be heard as preglottalized [ˀb̥̚, ˀɖ̥̚] when in word-final position. /b/ can be heard as a fricative [β] in intervocalic positions. /ɳ/ has a limited phonemic distribution, and is typically a realization of /n/ before retroflex sounds. /w/ and /j/ only occur in medial or final positions.
Vowels Ho has 5 basic vowels, these can be short, long, nasalized and long and nasalized. Long vowels either result from gemination of short vowels resulting from loss of intervocalic consonants or due to the bimoraic constraint inherited from Proto-Munda.
+Oral vowelsFrontCentralBackClose Mid Open
+Nasal vowelsFrontCentralBackCloseMidOpen
Grammar Like other languages of the Munda family, Ho has a mostly suffixing agglutinative inflectional morphology and follows accusative morphosyntactic alignment. There is some debate on whether Munda languages have word classes, an item from any word class can function as a verb in Ho. Ho does not have relative pronouns natively and relies on the participle forms of verbs, the forms that includes aspect, object and transitivity, but no mood markers, to form relative clauses.
Nouns and noun phrases Number, possession and case suffixes are added to nouns. Alienable and inalienable possessions are distinguished.
Number and possession Ho distinguishes singular, dual and plural numbers. Number suffixes are generally written separate from base nouns.
Possessive Singular "tiger" "tiger's" Dual "two tigers" "of the two tigers" Plural "tigers" "of the tigers"
Number and inalienable possession Construction for alienable possessions is different from inalienable possessions, "That woman's threshing floor", and "That woman's aunt". Suffixes for inalienable possessions only occur in the singular.
1st person possessor2nd person possessor3rd person possessor Singular "aunt" "my aunt" "your aunt" "his/her aunt" Dual "two aunts" "my two aunts" "your two aunts" "his/her two aunts" Plural "two aunts" "my aunts" "your aunts" "his/her aunts"
Pronouns Ho personal pronoun distinguish inclusive and exclusive first person and anaphoric and demonstrative third person. +Personal pronounsSingularDualPlural1st personExclusiveańalińaleInclusivealaṅabu2nd personamabenape3rd personAnaphoricaćakinakoDemonstrativeProximalneićnekinnekoDistalVisibleenićenkinenkoAudibleetićetekinetekoRemotehanićhankinhanko + Interrogative pronouns Animate Inanimate Referential Non-referential
+ Indefinite pronouns Animate Inanimate 'any' 'another'
+ Demonstratives Simple Particular Proximate Distal Remote
Numerals Short forms are used in compound words, general counting and counting money, the long forms are used when counting specific objects. Cardinal Distributive Short form Long form Short form Long form 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20
Postpositions Postposition Function Dative Comitative, along with Towards, around Spatio-temporal location, locative Temporal, indicates time Near Instrumental, instrument, cause, motion, direction, allative Semblative Adessive Ablative, source, origin On top of Below Under , Terminative /partet́ Distributive
Particles {| class="wikitable" ! Particle ! Function / Meaning !Examples
| Topic marker |En Kaji do nahḱ at́ yna, 'That word is now forgotten' |- |ó|Even/also' |En Kaji ó nahḱ do at́ yna, 'Even that word is forgotten now'
| Emphasis marker |En Kaji ge at́ yna, 'That very word is forgotten'
| Question particle |En Kaji at́ yna ci?, 'Has that word been forgotten?'
| 'As for that |En Kaji ma at́ yna nahḱ do, 'As for that word, it is lost now' |- | , | Intensifier |En Kaji at́ rená/rengá yna, 'That word is absolutely forgotten'
| Speculative |En Kaji do at́ yna toraṅ, 'That word is forgotten I suppose' |- | /cit́laṅ/cimat́ | 'As far as I know''' |En Kaji do at́ yna cimat́', 'That word is forgotten (as far as I know)' |- |deraṅ|Hearsay |En Catom do at́ yna deraṅ, 'That umbrella was lost (they say)' |- | /batit́laṅ/batikam/batil| Realization/correction particle |En Urić doć at́ yna batit́, 'That cow has gone missing (I just realized)'; Nen Urić batit́ at́ lena, 'It was this cow that was lost (not the other one, I was mistaken)' |- |honaṅ|Irrealis marker |En Kaji do at́ yna honaṅ, 'That word would have been forgotten' |- |auri|'Not yet|En Kaji do auri at́oḱa, 'That word is yet to be forgotten' |- |gatát́/gatalt́ |'All without exception|Upun hoo gatát́/gatalt́kô at́ yna, 'All the four persons were lost' |- |jaket́/sante |'As far as even|En Kaji jaket́/sante at́oḱ ge, 'To the extent that even that word may be forgotten' |- |mar |Prompt hearer to do something |En Merom mar kumbuu yna, 'That goat has been stolen (how disappointing, what would you even say to that?)' |- |halte |'So it was...|Nen Seta halte at́ lena, 'So it was this dog that was lost' |- |idu |Dubitative |Nayl kale kumbuu kenakô menea, idu, 'They say we did not steal the plough (but who knows?)' |- |sumat́/sungat́/suat́/sual |'Only|Nen Oaḱ sumat́ sareć yna, 'Only this house was spared' |- |cite |Disbelief |En cokoć lekan Oaḱ citekô kiriṅ ket́a?, 'Did they really buy this small house?' |- |oṛoḱ/onḍoḱ |'What else do you expect?''' |Parkom do Gama rem bage let́a, soya yna oṛoḱ, You had left the cot in the rain, it started rotting, what else do you expect? |- |rongam/rongate|'I tell you / of course |Kolom ren Guḍu rongam Bilae imineć maraṅa, 'The bandicoot rat from the threshing floor is big as a cat I tell you'
Verbs There is no restrictions as to which word may occupy the role of a verb. Therefore, even proper nouns may act as verbs, Lako ket́ińako, 'They named me Lako'. Verbs may be serialized or modified with affixes before being put in this verb template:
Verb stem + (Aspect marker) + (Transitive/Intransitive marker) + (Object pronoun) + (Mood marker) + (Subject pronoun)
The verb stem may be modified in the following ways: Root modificationExample with kaji, 'to tell'Reciprocal-p-kapaji, 'to tell each other / argue'Benefactive-vakajiva, 'to tell someone'Habituallengthening or reduplication of the first syllablekaáji, 'to tell habitually' +Ho aspect markersTransitiveIntransitiveExamples with nutum, 'to name'PastPluperfectlet́lennutum let́ań, 'I had previously named'; nutum lenań, 'I was previously named'Aoristket́ken*nutum ket́ań, 'I named'; nutum kenań, 'I used to name'Ingressive**yan***nutum yanań, 'I had begun to be named / I was named'Perfectakat́akannutum akat́ań, 'I have named'; nutum akanań, 'I have been named (I'm famous)'Non-pastProgressive/Continuous/Punctualtat́tan****nutum tat́ań, 'I have (just) named'; nutumè tanań, 'I am naming it'Present/Future-Ø-oḱnuútumań, 'I name (habitually)'; nutumoḱań, 'I will be named'leeleenoḱnutum leeań, 'I will first name it'; nutum leenoḱań 'I will first be famous'keekeenoḱnutum keeań, 'I will name it (before doing something else)'akaaakaanoḱnutum akaaàń, 'I will keep naming'; nutum akaanoḱań, 'I will continue to be named'taa -nutum taaàń, 'I will name it now'
presence of a transitivity marker indicates past tense and the absence non-past. ken is only used in its original function as an intransitive with a small number of verbs, like oṛa to bathe' and sen 'to go', it has now been extended even to transitive verbs, where it shifts the focus from the object of the verb to the subject.