Gutob-Gadaba

Gutob-Gadaba (ISO-639-3 code: gbj)

Gutob-Gadaba is a Munda language spoken in the Koraput district of Odisha and Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh. It is classified as the Munda sub-group of the Austro-Asiatic language family. However, it is different from the Dravidian Ollar Gadaba language. According to the 1981, 1991, and 2001 census of India, the population of all Gadaba in Odisha was 56,911, 67,138, and 72,982, respectively.

Gutobs is a predominantly agricultural society in terms of profession. They are concentrated mainly in the Koraput District of Odisha and are found in large numbers in 40 villages of Lamtaput block. The Naik, Chalan, and Barik will handle the village's social administration. Here, Naik is the village elder who knows everything about the village. Chalan assists the Naik, who is selected from the village elders. Barik is from a lower caste.

Their primary food is 'Mandia,' which is made of ragi flour. Which keeps them away from starvation; they also eat all types of vegetables and meat. Eating snakes was a practice, but recently, they stopped eating them. They regularly take locally made liquor prepared by them. It is called as 'penɖoːm'. They also take it to ceremonies and festivals.

Gutobs are maintaining their cultural practices and rituals. They sing traditional songs in Gutob in their indigenous festival. 'Goter' is the important death ritual practiced by the Gutob people. In this ritual, all the Gutobs participate and thank or appease their ancestor spirits.

Gutobs do not worship portraits. Instead, they worship slabs of stones, earth, and villages. Gutobs are fond of wearing ornaments. 'kɑːɡlɑ' is a large neck ring made up of aluminum. It is significant to Gutobs, as it shows how they are different from others. The language has glottal stop (ʔ) as its unique feature, mostly occuring at the end of the word. For example, 'sʊnoʔ' is a word for 'broom.' The speakers of Gutob are mostly bilingual, trilingual, or multilingual. They know their mother tongue, Gutob, and the dialect of Odisha Desiya, and some may know Hindi and also Telugu. Changes in Gutob culture are clearly visible in their language, dress patterns, use of ornaments, and so on. The new generation of Gutobs are forgetting their language and using Desiya or Odiya. They started shifting to the Desiya language, and approximately 85% of the Gutobs no longer speak their heritage language. Only the elders of the community could speak their indigenous language.