A LINGUISTIC STUDY ON CONSONANT PHONOLOGY OF KUI LANGUAGE

Kui (ISO639-3 Code ‘Kxu’) is a language spoken by Kondh or Kondha (/K?ndh?/) tribe. Majority of the Kuispeaking Kondhs live in the hilly and forested areas of South and central Odisha especially in the undivided districts of Kondhamal, Koraput and Kalahandi. The other language spoken by Kondhs is Kuvi which is very similar to Kui. Kondh people being an underdeveloped tribal people, study of their language, society and culture draws a lot of attention of academics, administration and other philanthropic agencies. The objective of this study is to present the consonant sound and phonology of Kui language. The approach is data oriented and uses in general. The structuralist methodology has been followed for the analysis of the data in the present work. Data was collected from the native speakers through field visit to various Kui speaking areas.