This work is the outcome of an intensive as well as extensive field study of the Kuvi language undertaken from 1971 to 1974 and a careful scrutiny of the linguistic material collected already at various intervals, till 1977. Field work was mainly confined to the place called Saptamaha near Putisil and Narengpodra villages drawing the main informants from these and other neighbouring villages. Thus the area of field work is situated on the Deomali hill¹ and is located approximately 20 km. northeast of Sembliguda, a small town on the Vizianagaram-Jeypore road, 126 km. from Vizianagaram (and 176 km. from Vizagapatam) towards west and 48 km. from Jeypore towards east. In this area the standard dialect of Kuvi, which is the most widely spread form of the language is spoken. Much valuable samples of material from other dialects of Kuvi are also gathered at different parts of Koraput District.
Among the various informants, who assisted me during my field trips, a special word of thanks and appreciation has to be recorded to Mr. Binondo K. Manding of Narengpodra village. Mr. Manding aged about 28, though physically handicapped as a result of polio attack in his child-hood, was untiring in his interest and help to provide all information about his own people's language, way of life, etc. Much data was also provided by the informants Prokas Meleka (28), Anondo Meleka (23) and Premo Taling of Putisil village. Narendro Manding (22) of Narengpodra village and pastor Koleka (25) of Kumdasil village also assisted me in providing information. All these men are thanked for their contribution.
This monograph provides a large corpus which can be utilized to acquaint the developmental personnels, who are interested in the study of the language with a view to promote the social as well as spiritual life of Kond people who speak the Kuvi language.
During the recent years interest in the study of Dravidian languages has increased considerably and quite afew scholars have evinced a keen interest in their comparative study also. Kuvi preserves several features of Proto-Dravidian and of Proto-Central Dravidian and hence it is of immense philological and etymological interest for comparative Dravidianists.
Though it was, indeed, my intension to publish this work as early as in 1975, it could not be done due to various difficulties. However, I have a satisfaction at least to the extent that the long delay has helped me to clarify some of the problems of grammatical description for myself and thus to improve the quality of this work. Even then, I am fully aware of certain limitations, for which I owe an apology to the persons who are interested in the study of the language and to the Dravidian scholars.
I welcome this opportunity of expressing my sense of deep indebtedness to the Rev. lan Kleinig and Mrs. Enid Kleinig an Australian missionary couple, stationed in Jeypore from 1966 to 1974, for their work among the Konds of Koraput District. They not only undertook the responsibility of my hospitality during my field trips, but also generously placed at my disposal the whole of their valuable collection of Kuvi words based on their language study mainly concentrated on the Kond villages in the Deomali and Meyamali hills.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to the North Elbian Mission Centre of Othmarschen, Hamburg for their encouragement to carry out these studies and their readiness to support and underwrite all expenses connected with the project, which act of kindness made it possible for my venture.
It is with great pleasure I record my deep sense of gratitude to my Professor T. Burrow of the Oxford University, for having kindly offered some valuable suggestions after perusing the entire material in its manuscript form, when I was with him at the Oxford University for a year during 1973-1974 and for having contributed a foreword to the book, thereby enriching its value.
I am particularly indebted to my guide Dr. M. Varadarajan, formerly Vice-Chancellor of our University, to whose memory this work is dedicated as a humble token, for his personal interest and encouragement in my academic career. I express my grateful thanks to the authorities of the Madurai-Kamaraj University and to Dr. M. Shanmugham Pillai, Professor and Head of the Dept. of Tamil Studies for their kindness and encouragement. Dr.R. Kodandaraman deserves to be thanked for his constructive suggestions on the syntax part of the grammar and also Dr. M. Ramaswamy for preparing the map showing the distribution of the language.
I am thankful to my students Dr. N. R. Mohan, Messers M. Manivel and A. Athithan for their readiness to assist me in the correction of proofs.
Name of the Language: Kuvi, one of the Dravidian languages, is neither enumerated in the Linguistic Survey of India nor dealt with as a dialect of Kuyi. There is no specimen of the language available in the volume.
The name Kuvi was first recorded by F.V.P. Schulze in the 'Bible History and Dr. Luther's Smaller Katechism in Kuvi Language' (Madras, 1910) and latter in his monograph on Kuvi language (1911). He has used the term KuviKond in his book on the vocabulary of the language (1913) and it occurs in his translation 'Luke in KuviKond' (Madras 1916). A.G. Fitzgerald has named the language as Kuvinga Bassa (Calcutta, 1913) in his book on the Grammar of the Language. In the year 1928 W. Winfield vividly distinguishes the Kuvi language from Kuyi (Kui) while enumerating the works on Kuvi Language already published, presenting a list of the then extant literature in the language and attempting a discussion on the Kuvi speaking population.
Kauvi is not recognized and identified as the name of a mother-tongue in the reports of census until 1961. However, Khond Koudh is recorded as a separate mother-tongue in the census reports from 1951. Khond Kondh and Kui (Kauyi) are enumerated separately as two different mother-tongues in the census reports of 1951, 1961 and 1971 and the numerical strength of Kuyi is always higher than that of the former in all the reports. Further, in the 1966 Orissa District Gazetteer for Koraput Khond Kondh is identified as Kuvi, although it is enumerated as a dialect of the Kauyi language. In the 1971 census report Kauvi is indicated as an alternate name for Khond Kondh. Thus Khond Kondh can evidently be identified with Kauvi Here, a name of the mother-tongue is returned after the name of a scheduled tribe. Apparently Kauvi speaking Khonds prefer to return their tribal name as their mother-tongue.
Kandh Kondh is often used as the designation for the speakers of Kauyi and Kauvi languages by their neighbouring Oriyas.
Kuyi (Kui) is the speech of a major section of Kond tribe mostly concentrated in the central parts of Orissa, whereas Kuvi is spoken by the other major section of the same tribe which is settled mainly in the south-western parts of the state.
Name of the Tribe: The people who speak Kuvi language are generally known as Konds, though often they call themselves Kauvinga Kauvina Kavin or Kauviya A man in the tribe is identified as Kauvetesi and a woman as Kaureni. They would call them-selves by the name Kond also. Thus the term Kond is used to refer to the people of the tribe and their language.
Furthermore, these people are also identified as Kandh(a). Kondh(o) by Oriyas, as Kondu, Kondulu (Kondalus, Kotuvandlu, Kodu Kodulu by their Telugu neighbours and as Konds, Khonds, Khonds by Europeans. Kandh Kondh in Orissa is generally used to designate Kuis as well as Kuvis and Khandi to denote their language. Kondu Kondulu and Kodu Kodulu have become the different local names in the Telugu area for the people, who are known as Kuvi in their language. Thus the Telugu names are not sufficiently general in application. The Telugu speakers often distinguish the speakers of these two languages by the terms Kondalu Kodulu and Kondalu both meaning highlanders/ hill men. The former refers to the Kauvi speakers and the latter the Kauyi speakers. Khond seems to be the Europeanised corruption of the Oriya terms Kandh Kondh and Khond is the Europeanised form of the word konda which means hill in Telugu. Khondi is a corresponding term coined by the Westerners as applied to the language. Thus due to variations in pronunciations, the terms Kandh, Kondh, Khond, Khond, Kond, etc., meaning simply highlanders have gradually come to be used as designations of many local tribes, even though they have been speaking mutually unintelligible languages.
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