Odia language

Odia /əˈdiːə/ or Oriya /ɒˈriːə/, both renderings of ଓଡ଼ିଆ  oṛiā , 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 many 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.

Geographical distribution

Neighbouring regions

Outside Odisha, there are also significant Odia-speaking populations in other linguistic regions, such as the Midnapore district of West Bengal, the East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum Seraikela Kharsawan district, Simdega, Gumla, Khunti, Ranchi district of Jharkhand, the Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Vishakhapatnam District of Andhra Pradesh, eastern districts of Chhattisgarh state. Due to the increasing migration of labour, the west Indian state of Gujarat also has a significant Odia-speaking population with Surat being the city with the second largest Odia-speaking population in India. The Odia-speaking people are also found in significant numbers in the cities of Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Pondicherry, Bangalore, Chennai, Goa, Mumbai, Raipur, Jamshedpur, Baroda, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Kolkata, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Shillong, Pune, and Silvassa in India.