04-01-594

594

KMU DIALECT.

　The bulk of the Telugu-speaking population of Chanda is reported to use the stand- ard form of the language. It has already been mentioned that several minor dialects have been reported to exist, such as Slwr, the dialect of the weavers, Kmu, the language of the Kms or shopkeepers, Kpwr, ascribed to a certain class of agriculturists, Glar spoken by the nomadic Glars or Glkars, a dialect called Manthan, and so forth.

　Of these only Slwr, Kmu, and Glar have been returned for the purposes of the Linguistic Survey. The revised figures are as follows:-

Kmu...	3,827
Slwr...	3,660
Glar...	25
TOTAL.	7,512

　At the last Census of 1901, 22 speakers of Glar were returned from Chanda, and it is stated that the dialect spoken by other castes such as Kms, Slwrs, etc., is identical. Kmu was returned as a Telugu dialect from Assam. The number of speakers was 11. If we add 56 speakers of Km returned from the Bombay Presidency we arrive at a total of 67. It is, however, not certain that these individuals speak a form of Telugu. The so-called Glar, Kmu, etc., of other districts is apparently a Kanarese dialect. Compare pp. 386 and ff. above.

　No specimens have been received in the so-called Slwr, and there is no reason to suppose that the Slwrs of Chanda speak a Telugu dialect different from that current among their neighbours.

　The so-called Kmu and Glar of Chanda are, according to specimens forwarded from the district, identical and do not differ from the ordinary Standard Telugu.

　Forms such as annau instead of annu, he said; ast instead of astnu, I die; baadi instead of painadi, it fell; are probably used everywhere in the Telugu territory, and they cannot be urged as reasons for separating those forms of speech as real dialects of Telugu.

　The numbers of speakers of all these so-called dialects can therefore safely be included in the total given for Standard Telugu above.

　 It is, accordingly, of no interest to give particulars about the Telugu spoken by the various classes mentioned above. It will be quite sufficient to print the beginning of a version of the Parable of the Prodigal Son professing to be written in Kmu, in order to show that we have here simply to do with ordinary Telugu.