Sora language

Sora, or Savara (also Saora, Saonras, Shabari, Sabar, Saura, Sawaria, Swara, Sabara), is a Munda language of India, spoken by some 288,000 native speakers (1997) in South Odisha in eastern India. Sora is written in the Latin and Telugu scripts, as well as the Sorang Sompeng script devised for the language in 1936. Many Sora people have the family name or surname Savara.

A supposed Dravidian language with the same name is evidently spurious.

Juray is considered by some to be a dialect of Sora.

Distribution

Speakers are concentrated mainly in Ganjam District, Gajapati District (central Gumma Hills region (Gumma Block), etc.), and Rayagada District, but are also found in adjacent areas such as Koraput and Phulbani districts; other communities exist in northern Andhra Pradesh (Vizianagaram District and Srikakulam District), Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and the Plains Division of Assam.

Phonology

Sora has 18 consonants. Obstruents may be pre-glottalized, i.e. [^ʔm], [^ʔb], but this awaits further analysis in Sora.