Oriya

Oriya is an Indian language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the predominant language of the Indian state of Odisha, where native speakers comprise 80% of the population,and it is spoken in parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Odia is one of the official languages in India; it is the official language of Odisha and the second official language of Jharkhand.Odia is the sixth Indian language to be designated a Classical Language in India on the basis of having a long literary history and not having borrowed extensively from other languages.

 

The Odia diaspora constitute a sizeable number in several countries around the world. They are significant in number in countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, mainly carried by sadhaba, the ancient traders from Odisha who carried the language  along with the culture during the old-day trading,and in western countries such as the United States,  Canada, Australia and England. Odia speakers are regarded as one of the ‘Transnational Ethnic Indian Groups’. In India, the language is spoken by over 31 million people, and globally over 45 million speak Odia. It is one of the official languages of India and the major language of Odisha. Odia language has spread also to Burma, Malaysia, Fiji, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.