one of the Dravidian languages of India. In the early 21st century it was spoken by about 2.7 million people, mostly Gonds. Gondi has many dialects (dialect), some of which are mutually unintelligible. It is not a written language and as such has no well-attested history before European colonization of the region, which began in the late 18th century. Gondi appears to be losing ground to neighbouring languages with written traditions, such as Hindi (Hindi language), Marathi (Marāṭhī language), and Telugu (Telugu language).