Santali language
Santali (Pronounced: [santaɽi], Ol Chiki: ᱥᱟᱱᱛᱟᱲᱤ), Bengali: সাঁওতালী, Odia: ସାନ୍ତାଳୀ, Devanagari: संताली, also known as Santal or Santhali, is the most widely-spoken language of the Munda subfamily of the Austroasiatic languages, related to Ho and Mundari, spoken mainly in the Indian states of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Odisha, Tripura and West Bengal by Santals. It is a recognised regional language of India per the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. It is spoken by around 7.6 million people in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, making it the third most-spoken Austroasiatic language after Vietnamese and Khmer.
| Santali | |||||||||||||||
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| ᱥᱟᱱᱛᱟᱲᱤ, সাওঁতালী, ସାନ୍ତାଳୀ, চাওঁতালি, संताली | |||||||||||||||
The word "Santali" in Ol Chiki script | |||||||||||||||
| Native to | India, Bangladesh, Nepal | ||||||||||||||
| Ethnicity | Santal | ||||||||||||||
Native speakers | 7.6 million (2011 census) | ||||||||||||||
Austroasiatic
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| Dialects |
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| Official: Ol Chiki script Others: Bengali-Assamese script, Odia script, Roman script | |||||||||||||||
| Official status | |||||||||||||||
Official language in | India
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| Language codes | |||||||||||||||
| ISO 639-2 | sat | ||||||||||||||
| ISO 639-3 | Either:sat – Santalimjx – Mahali | ||||||||||||||
| Glottolog | sant1410 Santalimaha1291 Mahali | ||||||||||||||
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| Part of a series on | |
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| Constitutionally recognised languages of India | |
| Category | |
| 22 Official Languages of the Indian Republic | |
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Santali was a mainly oral language until developments were made by European missionaries to write it in Bengali, Odia and Roman scripts. Eventually, the Ol Chiki script was developed by Raghunath Murmu in 1925. Ol Chiki is alphabetic, sharing none of the syllabic properties of the other Indic scripts, and is now widely used to write Santali in India.