A Comparative Study of Odia and Kui Morphology.

Abstract

Kui (ISO639-3 Code „Kxu‟) is a language spoken by Kondh or Kondha /Kɔndhɔ/ tribe. Majority of the Kui-speaking Kondhs live in the hilly and forested areas of South and central Odisha especially in the undivided districts of Kandhamal, Koraput and Kalahandi. Kondh people being an underdeveloped tribal people, study of their language, society and culture draws a lot of attention of academics, administration and other purposes. The objective of this study is to compare morphological analysis or word formation of Odia and Kui languages. It should be pointed out here that the Odia language, which is the major language of the state, is surrounding the Konda village on all sides. It is also the main linguistic medium in educational, social, economic and religious spheres. Therefore, Kui has borrowed words and other linguistic features from Odia. In all the Kui speaking areas a large number of Odia words have intermingled in the ordinary speech of the Konds. This fluctuation is due to the amount of contact the hill-man has with the Odia people. The approach is data oriented and uses in general. The structuralist methodology has been followed for the analysis of the data in the present work. Data was collected from the native speakers through field visit to various Kui speaking areas. Some of the findings depict that the word formation process of Kui is simpler than Odia Language. Reduplication, Echo formation and contraction process of morphology are not frequent in Kui language as in Odia. All other morphological processes are same in both languages, although the number of vocabulary of Kui language is very less. It is suggested that the findings are not the ultimatum, many more findings may be possible if further research done in such areas of study.