Previous Year Question
With reference to India, the terms ‘Halbi, Ho and Kui’ pertain to
dance forms of Northwest India
musical instruments
pre-historic cave paintings
tribal languages
Correct Answer: D
Detailed Solution
Halbi, Ho and Kui are languages spoken by different tribal communities in India. Importantly, the three languages do not belong to the same language family.
Language | Language family | Principal region/community | Script-related fact |
Halbi | Indo-Aryan | Tribal regions of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra | Devanagari and Odia |
Ho | North Munda branch of Austro-Asiatic | Mainly the Ho community of Jharkhand and Odisha | Warang Citi; Devanagari and Odia are also used |
Kui | South-Central Dravidian | Mainly the Kandha/Khond community of Odisha | Generally written in the Odia script |
Halbi
Halbi is also known as Halabi, Bastari, Halba and Halvas.
It is a non-scheduled Indian language belonging to the Indo-Aryan language family.
It is spoken in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra in central India.
It is written in the Devanagari and Odia scripts.
According to the Central Institute of Indian Languages, the 2011 Census recorded 766,297 speakers of Halbi.
Ho
Ho belongs to the North Munda branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family.
It is spoken mainly by the Ho community of Jharkhand and Odisha.
It is linguistically related to Mundari and Santali.
The Warang Citi script was devised for the Ho language and is associated with Lako Bodra.
Devanagari, Odia and Latin scripts are also used for writing Ho.
Kui
Kui is a South-Central Dravidian language.
It is spoken mainly by the Kandha or Khond tribal community of Odisha.
It is closely related to the Gondi and Kuvi languages.
It is generally written in the Odia script.
Important examination distinction
“Tribal language” is a socio-cultural description, not a separate language family. Languages spoken by tribal communities can therefore belong to different linguistic families:
Halbi — Indo-Aryan
Ho — Austro-Asiatic
Kui — Dravidian
None of these three languages is presently included individually in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Therefore, the correct answer is (d) tribal languages.