Hakkipikki/ Pardhi

Hakkipikki/Pardhi (ISO-639-3 code: pcl)

‘Hakkipikki’ is one of the major tribal communities in Karnataka. In Kannada language the word ‘Hakki’ refers to ‘bird and ‘Pikki’ for the verb ‘to catch’, therefore, the community name literally means ‘bird catcher’, as trapping birds was their traditional occupation. However, some scholars consider the word ‘Hakkipikki’ to be mostly used as echo form. The Pardhi/ Hakkipikki community migrated from Northern India and the alternate names used to refer Hakkipikki community include: Haranashikari, Pardhi, Adavichencher, and Shikari in Karnataka as per the available materials. Few among the population prefer to use the name 'Pardhi' for referring their community. The population is mainly concentrated in Shivamogga, Davanagere, and Mysuru districts of Karnataka.

Though the community lives in the Southern part of India surrounded by Dravidian languages, they speak Indo-Aryan language.

The documentation of the language spoken by the Hakkipikki/Pardhi community has been undertaken by the SPPEL and a pilot survey has been carried out. For the pilot survey, fieldwork has been conducted in the Hakkipikki community and approximately 2500 words and 350 sentences have been recorded with an audio recorder. The slicing of sound files and transcription work of around 2400 words has already been done. Presently, the analysis of the recorded data for writing grammar and entering data along with sound and pictures into FLEx software for making a trilingual electronic dictionary are in progress.