ho people speak the ho language, an austroasiatic language closely related to mundari and more distantly related to languages of southeast asia such as khmer and mon. the austroasiatic languages of india, including ho, are inflected fusional languages unlike their distant relatives in southeast asia which are analytic languages. this difference in typology is due to extensive language contact with the unrelated indo-aryan and dravidian languages. the phonology of ho has also been influenced by the nearby unrelated languages. there are at least three dialects of ho: lohara, chaibasa and thakurmunda. all dialects are mutually intelligible with approximately 92% of all ho speakers able to understand a narrative discourse in both chaibasa and thakurmunda dialects. the most divergent dialects are in the extreme south and east of ho territory.