Orissa Map   From Gregory D. S. Anderson "The Munda Verb: Typological Perspectives" Mouton de Gruyter. p. 7. Reproduced with permission

The pre-history of the Munda languages remains obscure. Munda languages constitute the westernmost representatives of the far-flung Austroasiatic linguistic phylum. Two other Austroasiatic groups are found in the present-day territory of India, the Khasi of Meghalaya and the Nicobarese-speaking groups of the Nicobar Islands. The other subgroups of Austroasiatic are all found outside of India, and it is generally believed that the Austroasiatic ancestral language was not to be found in India but rather further to the East. Thus, at some point the ancestors of the Munda-speaking peoples must have migrated westward into the Subcontinent. When, how, and by what path they entered India remains a subject of considerable debate. Indeed, it is not even clear that there was a single migration of pre-Munda speakers, but there may have been two or more such movements.

Concensus has not yet been reached on the internal relationships of the Munda languages, but several subgroups have been proposed and some of these appear to be sound. It is hoped that further work in comparative Munda grammar and lexicon may shed light on this issue. The northern-, eastern- and westernmost groups of Munda languages are clearly related and appear to fall into two broad groupings. The first of these is the westernmost Munda language Korku which appears to be a sister to the remainder of this subgroup, the large and complex Kherwarian dialect/language chain, the better known varieties of which are Santali, Mundari and Ho. Kherwarian also includes a number of minor varieties as well, e.g. Turi, Asuri, Birhor, Bhumij, Korwa, etc. Korku and Kherwarian together are conventionally known as North Munda. The remaining Munda languages are almost only found in the state of Orissa (some Kharia speakers are found in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh as well), which appears to be the epi-center of diversity of the family. How each of these non-North Munda languages or subgroups (logically known as South Munda in contrast to North Munda) are related to each other remains a topic of considerable debate. Some languages clearly form subgroups, such as Sora with Gorum/Parenga, or Gutob with Remo/Bonda. The classification of the remaining three languages (Kharia, Juang and Gtaʔ/Didayi) remains an open question.

Among the most interesting of linguistic phenomena to be found in Munda languages may be included the highly elaborated systems of demonstratives found in many Munda languages, for example Santali or Gorum. Munda vowel and consonant systems can be quite complex, with different register and secondary articulatory features, many of which are still now in need of description. Another topic of considerable interest are the elaborate and intersecting systems of voice/valence/transitivity, person-marking and tense/aspect that characterize Kherwarian verbal systems. Further, the highly elaborated system of noun incorporation found in Sora push the limits of our understanding of such constructions from a theoretical perspective. The highly developed system of reduplication and expressive formation that characterize most Munda languages also bear mention here. Finally, the interaction of tense/aspect marking and negative operators in negative formations in South Munda Gutob stand out among the most complex of such systems known. Almost all aspects of every Munda language require more analysis before we have an adequate consensus understanding of even their basic features, in particular, syntactic issues and phonetic analysis are in desperate need of further systematic investigation. Studies on topics in the semantics and discourse of Munda languages are practically non-existent. Comprehensive comparative study has not been really possible up to this point either on the lexicon or the grammar, so a more thorough and comprehensive investigation into most historical linguistic issues in Munda also remains a goal for the future.