Korku
Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, India
Korku [kfq] is a North Munda language spoken by the Korku people of central India, in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. With more than 400,000 speakers it is one of the larger Munda languages, and the westernmost: Korku is spoken hundreds of kilometres west of the other Munda languages of Jharkhand and Odisha, alongside Nihali, a language isolate whose speakers live among the Korku.
Our work
Living Tongues began working with Korku speakers in 2016, when Opino Gomango led two short field trips to Korku-speaking areas. In spring 2017 Dr. Luke Horo and Dr. Bikram Jora returned for longer fieldwork in Korku villages of Madhya Pradesh, among them Malargar and Munjori, recording words, sentences and conversations with Korku speakers such as Rajesh Silale and Ganju Gotam. On the same trips they also recorded speakers of Nihali.
The work is part of our Munda Languages Initiative, led by Dr. Gregory D. S. Anderson, which documents the grammar and vocabulary of every Munda language.
Korku Living Dictionary
The first Korku words and their recordings are online in the Korku Living Dictionary, which began as a small Talking Dictionary in 2016.