Gondi (Gōṇḍī), natively known as Koitur (Kōī, Kōītōr), is a South-Central Dravidian language, spoken by about three million Gondi people,[2] chiefly in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and by small minorities in neighbouring states.

Already in the 1970s, Gondi youth in places with increased contact with wider society had stopped speaking the language, seeing it as a relic of old times.

However, the survey also found younger Gonds had a positive attitude towards speaking Gondi and saving the language from extinction.

[citation needed] Gondi has a two-gender system, substantives being either masculine or nonmasculine.

[citation needed] Gondi has derivative suffixes to denote gender for certain special words: -a:l and -o:r for masculine, and -a:r for feminine.

One is the treatment of the original initial s, which is preserved in northern and western Gondi, while farther to the south and east it has been changed to h; in some other dialects it has been lost completely.

In 1928, Munshi Mangal Singh Masaram designed a native script based on Brahmi characters and in the same format of an Indian alphasyllabary.

[citation needed] A native script that dates up to 1750 has been discovered by a group of researchers from the University of Hyderabad.

Programs to create awareness and promotion of this script among the Gondi people are in development stage.

The Gunjala Gondi Lipi has witnessed a surge in prominence, and well-supported efforts are being undertaken in villages of northern Andhra Pradesh to widen its usage.