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INTRODUCTION
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Kuvi
is a Central Dravidian Language spoken in the border
districts of Orisa and Andhra Pradesh. It is closely
related to Kui. The tribes Who speak the Kuvi and the
Kui languages are called by the name Khond or Kondh.
It is difficult to ascertain the number of Kuvi speakers.
Kuvi was not returned as a mother-tongue in the 1961
census. "Apparently Kuvi-speaking Khonds prefer
to return their tribal name only as their mother tongue."1
The number of speakers reported for Khond in the 1961
census is 1,68,027 of which 1,44,922 live in Orissa,
22,730 in Andhra Pradesh and the rest elsewhere. However,
the census report notes that "Khond/Kondh returns
as mother- tongue should normaly indicate the Kui-Kuvi
language sub group of the central Dravidian. Distinguishing
between the Kui and Kuvi speech returns would entail
a separate language survey."' |
Some
work has been done in the past on the Kui language.
But the work done on Kuvi is relatively very little.
After the early work by Scbulze3 and samples
in Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India (Vol. IV),
the only recent work is a journal article by S. Bhattacharya
and T. Burrow which gives only a Short vocabulary of
Kuvi along with some notes.4 |
So
the need for linguistic work on Kuvi including an extensive
grammar and dictionary can not be exaggerated. In the
words or the census report again: "In any case
for a speech community of this magnitude, detailed comprehensive
linguistic data are at any time commendable.": |
Three
main dialect areas have been delineated for Kuvi and
dialect variations have been taken into account in the
dictionary. Where a lexical or grammatical unit is specific
to a certain dialect area the letters (L), (RK) and
(D) are placed after the entry refering to their usage
hy the Laxmipur, Rayagada Dongria Khonds respectively.
Wherever the phonemic shapes of the same item are tota1y
different cross-reference has heen provided. If the
variation is confined to only on.e sound then the item
used by the Rayagada Khonds is made the head entry followed.
by the variant forms in thc other dialects in alphabetical
order . |
The
entries are arranged according to the Oriya alphabetic
system which follows the general Indian system. The
new letters, used only in Kuvi, are introduced at thc
appropriate places determined by their sound value.
Thus the order followed is : |
| Vowels
: |
 |
