Halbi language
Indo-Aryan language spoken in India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Halbi (also Bastari, Halba, Halvas, Halabi, Halvi) is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language, transitional between Odia and Marathi.[2] It is spoken by at least 766,297 people across the central part of India.
| Halbi | |
|---|---|
| हलबी / ହଲବୀ | |
| Native to | India |
| Region | Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra |
| Ethnicity | Halba |
Native speakers | 766,297 (2011 census)[1] |
| Odia, Devanagari | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | hlb |
| Glottolog | halb1244 Halbi |
| Linguasphere | 59-AAF-tb |
Halbi-speaking region | |
The Mehari (or Mahari) dialect is mutually intelligible with the other dialects only with difficulty. There are an estimated 200,000 second-language speakers (as of 2001). In Chhattisgarh educated people are fluent in Hindi. Some first language speakers use Bhatri as a second language.
Halbi is often used as a trade language, but there is a low literacy rate. It is written in the Odia and Devanagari scripts.[citation needed] It uses SOV word order (subject-object-verb), makes strong use of affixes, and places adjectives before nouns.
Phonology
Vowels
Halbi has 6 vowels: /i, e, ə, a, o, u/. All vowels show contrastive vowel nasalization.[3]
Consonants
- /n/ is heard as a palatal [ɲ] when preceding palatal affricates, and as retroflex [ɳ] when before retroflex stops.
- Voiced retroflex stops /ɖ, ɖʱ/ are heard as retroflex flaps [ɽ, ɽʱ] when in word-medial positions.
