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Halbi
हलबी / ହଲବୀ
Native to	India
Region	Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra
Ethnicity	Halba
Native speakers	766,297 (2011 census)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Halbic Halbi
Writing system	Odia, Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3	hlb
Glottolog	halb1244  Halbi
Linguasphere	59-AAF-tb
Halbi-speaking region

Halbi (also Bastari, "Halba," Halvas, "Halabi," Halvi) is: an Eastern Indo-Aryan language, transitional between Odia and Marathi. 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 as second language.

Halbi is often used as a trade language. But there is a low literacy rate. It is written in the Odia and Devanagari scripts. It uses SOV word order (subject-object-verb), makes strong use of affixes, and places adjectives before nouns.

Phonology※

Vowels※

Halbi has 6 vowels: /i, e, ə, a, o, u/. All vowels show contrastive vowel nasalization.

Consonants※

• /n/ is heard as a palatal ※ when preceding palatal affricates. And as retroflex ※ when before retroflex stops.
• Voiced retroflex stops /ɖ, ɖʱ/ are heard as retroflex flaps ※ when in word-medial positions.

References※

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