Nihali
NahaliNihali (also spelled Nahali) is a language isolate spoken by a small community in the Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh and adjoining parts of Maharashtra. It has no demonstrable relationship to any other language family — not Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Munda, or any other group. Because the Nihali people live surrounded by Korku (a Munda language) and various Indo-Aryan languages, Nihali has absorbed a large number of loanwords, but its core grammar and basic vocabulary remain distinct and unclassified. It is one of the most linguistically mysterious languages in South Asia.
At a Glance
- Speakers
- Approximately 2,000–5,000 speakers
- Language family
- Language isolate
- Writing system
- Devanagari (limited)
- ISO 639-3 code
- nll
- Countries
- India
Key Facts
- 1
Nihali is a language isolate — it cannot be shown to be related to any other known language or language family.
- 2
Despite heavy borrowing from Korku and Indo-Aryan languages, Nihali's core vocabulary and grammatical structure remain unclassified.
- 3
The Nihali community is small and largely bilingual in Korku or Marathi, which has accelerated language shift.
- 4
Nihali has been studied by linguists since the 19th century, but its origins remain unexplained.
- 5
It is one of only a handful of language isolates in all of Asia.
Numbers Quiz: 0–100
Learn to count in Nihali. You'll be shown a number and asked to identify the correct word — or vice versa.
Start Quiz →