Malto language

Spoken in

• Dravidian Norddravidisch malto

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Dra

Mjt

Malto (also Kumarbhag Paharia, Sauria Paharia ) is a spoken in northern India Dravidian language. It belongs to norddravidischen branch of this family of languages ​​, so is their closest relative Kurukh. Malto is spoken by some 225,000 members of the same Adivasi strain mainly in the Rajmahal Highlands in the north of the Indian state of Jharkhand, besides in West Bengal, Tripura and Orissa.

Malto has the language of the illiterate tribal population has no scriptural tradition and therefore also no standard version. If Malto is ever written, this is happening in Latin or Devanagari script. The language is divided into three main dialects: Sawriya, Malpaharia and Kumarbhag. The malto- speakers live very isolated in the rough terrain of the Rajmahal - mountain country, so that the outside world until the end of the 18th century of them took notice. The first records of the malto- language date from the 19th century.