Mahali
A language of India
| Population | 33,000 (2007), decreasing. Ethnic population: 278,000. |
| Region | Jharkhand, Chotanagpur region, Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Gumla, Santal Pargana, Lohardaga, West Singhbhum, East Singhbhum, Saraikela Kharsawan, Dhanbad districts; Orissa, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar districts; West Bengal, Jalpaiguri, West Medinipur districts; Assam, on tea estates. |
| Alternate names | Mahili, Mahle, Mahli |
| Dialects | Possible dialect of Santali. Lexical similarity: 69%–87% between varieties of Mahali; 78%–93% with Santali; 53%–59% with Mundari [unr]. |
| Classification | Austro-Asiatic, Munda, North Munda, Kherwari, Santali |
| Language use | Home, village. Also use Oriya [ori], Santali [sat], Hindi, Bengali [ben], Mundari [unr], Munda [unx]. |
| Language development | Literacy rate in L2: 12% for Jharkhand (20% male, 4% female); 32% for Orissa (1981 census). |
| Writing system | Thaana script. |
| Comments | Mahli is a Scheduled Tribe, reported to speak Sadri [sck] as L1 in Jharkhand, the Thar dialect of Dhatki [mki] in Orissa, and Bengali in West Bengal. Hindu. |
Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:
Academic Publications
KIM, Amy; KIM, Seung, authors. 2010. "The Santali cluster in Bangladesh: a sociolinguistic survey."
Ethnologue: Web |
Ethnologue: Print |
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Bibliography data last updated: April-2012
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