Santali
Language Information
The Santali language (written in the Ol Chiki script, is also known as Ol or Ol Cemet', where ol means writing).
Spoken by the majority of the roughly 7.6 million speakers, primarily across the states of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Mizoram, and Tripura. It is one of the 22 scheduled official languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and serves as an additional official language in Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Oral Tradition: For centuries, Santali was preserved almost exclusively through a rich oral tradition of folklore, songs, and rituals rather than a unified writing system.Borrowed Scripts: Prior to the 20th century, European missionaries and native scholars transcribed the oral language using various external scripts including Roman/Latin, Devanagari, Bengali, and Odia.Invention of Ol Chiki: In 1925, visionary Santali scholar, poet, and playwright Pandit Raghunath Murmu invented the Ol Chiki script (publicized widely by 1939). He designed its 30 unique alphabetic letters to visually evoke natural shapes and accurately capture the distinct phonetics and glottal stops of Santali that external scripts failed to represent.
Spoken by the majority of the roughly 7.6 million speakers, primarily across the states of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Mizoram, and Tripura. It is one of the 22 scheduled official languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and serves as an additional official language in Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Oral Tradition: For centuries, Santali was preserved almost exclusively through a rich oral tradition of folklore, songs, and rituals rather than a unified writing system.Borrowed Scripts: Prior to the 20th century, European missionaries and native scholars transcribed the oral language using various external scripts including Roman/Latin, Devanagari, Bengali, and Odia.Invention of Ol Chiki: In 1925, visionary Santali scholar, poet, and playwright Pandit Raghunath Murmu invented the Ol Chiki script (publicized widely by 1939). He designed its 30 unique alphabetic letters to visually evoke natural shapes and accurately capture the distinct phonetics and glottal stops of Santali that external scripts failed to represent.
- Language Family
- Austroasiatic
- Subgroup
- Munda