The following is the entry for this language as it appeared in the 14th edition (2000).
It was superseded by the corresponding entry in the 15th edition (2005). See also the corresponding entry in the current edition of Ethnologue.
SIL code: PCI
ISO 639-2: dra
| Population | 90,000 speakers out of 100,000 in the ethnic group (1986), 2/3 in Bastar, 1/3 in Koraput. |
| Region | Madhya Pradesh, Bastar Disctrict, southeast Jagdalpur Tahsil; Orissa, Koraput District. |
| Alternate names | DHURWA, DHRUVA, DURVA, PARJI, PARJHI, PARAJA, PARAJHI, THAKARA, TAGARA, TUGARA |
| Dialects | TIRIYA, NETHANAR, DHARBA, KUKANAR. |
| Classification | Dravidian, Central, Parji-Gadaba. |
| Comments | All dialects are inherently intelligible. Nethanar dialect is central. Dialects have 90% to 96% lexical similarity. Dialects have 70% to 82% lexical similarity with Halbi. Monolinguals include children. Halbi is the second language. Part of the ethnic group speaks Halbi as first language (around Jagdalpur, Bastar district); 1% speak Oriya; less than 2% use Bhatri (northern Bastar District). Hindi is the state language, but it is not well known except by the educated. 90% of the ethnic group speaks Parji as mother tongue. Parji is spoken by the Madiya for communicating with the Dhurwa people. A Scheduled Tribe in India. Name of the people is 'Dhurwa', the language 'Parji.' Literacy rate in first language: Below 1%. Literacy rate in second language: 15% to 25%. Devanagari and Oriya scripts. Forest. Plains. Lumbermen, hunter-gatherers, agriculturalists. |
