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Halbi

A language of India

ISO 639-3: hlb

Population	500,000 (2000).
Region	Madhya Pradesh, Balaghat District; Chhattisgarh, plains in Bastar District; Maharashtra, Gondia District; Orissa, Koraput District; Andhra Pradesh.
Alternate names	Bastari, Halabi, Halba, Halvas, Halvi, Mahari, Mehari
Dialects	Adkuri, Bastari, Bhunjia, Chandari, Gachikolo, Govari of Balaghat, Kawari, Kunbi, Mahari (Mahara, Mehari), Muri (Muria), Sundi. Bhunjia [bhu] and Kawari dialect considered more divergent dialects. Reportedly a creole language. Grierson (1903–1928) called it a dialect of Marathi [mar] for convenience, but noted similarities to Bhatri [bgw], a dialect of Oriya [ori]. Halbi [hlb] intelligible only with difficulty.
Classification	Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Eastern zone, Bengali-Assamese
Language use	Trade language. 200,000 L2 speakers (2001 C. Thomas). Some also use Hindi and Bhatri [bgw].
Language development	Literacy rate in L2: 74% for Chhattisgarh plains. Government literacy program using Hindi primers. Bible portions: 1989–1998.
Writing system	Devanagari script.
Comments	A Scheduled Tribe. SOV; postpositions; genitives, articles, adjectives, numerals before noun heads; 2 or 3 affixes per word; word order distinguishes given and new information; noun affixes indicate case; verb affixes mark person, number, gender of subject; passives; causatives; comparatives; CV, CVC, CVV; nontonal. Pastoralists; peasant agriculturalists. Traditional religion, Hindu.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

TRAIL, Ronald L., editor. 1973. Patterns in clause, sentence, and discourse in selected languages of India and Nepal 1: Sentence and discourse.  

TRAIL, Ronald L., editor. 1973. Patterns in clause, sentence, and discourse in selected languages of India and Nepal 2: Clause.  

TRAIL, Ronald L., editor. 1973. Patterns in clause, sentence, and discourse in selected languages of India and Nepal 3: Texts.  

TRAIL, Ronald L., editor. 1973. Patterns in clause, sentence, and discourse in selected languages of India and Nepal 4: Word lists.  

WOODS, Fran, author. Available: 1970; Created: 1967-1969. Dialogue in Halbi.

WOODS, Frances M., author. 1973. "Sentence patterns in Halbi."  

WOODS, Frances M., author. 1978. Some stratified realisations in Halbi.

WOODS, Frances M., author. 1980. The interrelationship of cultural information, linguistic structure, and symbolic representations in a Halbi myth.