Halbi (also Bastari, Halba, Halvas, Halabi, Halvi) is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language, transitional between Odia language and Marathi language.Masica (1991) It is spoken by at least 766,297 people across the central part of India.
The Mehari (or Mahari) dialect is mutually intelligible with the other dialects only with difficulty. There are an estimated 200,000 second-language speakers (as of 2001). In Chhattisgarh educated people are fluent in Hindi. Some first language speakers use Bhatri language as a second language.
Halbi is often used as a trade language, but there is a low literacy rate. It is written in the Odia script and Devanagari scripts. It uses SOV word order (subject-object-verb), makes strong use of , and places adjectives before nouns.
|
|