Oriya language

Spoken in

• Indo-European languages Indo-Iranian languages Indo-Aryan languages Ostindoarische languages Oriya

Or

Ori

Ori

Oriya ( ଓଡ଼ିଆ Oria [o ː ɽia ː ], also Odia ) is a language from the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Iranian subgroup of the Indo-European languages ​​.

According to the Indian census 2001 Oriya is spoken by 33 million people as a native language. Meanwhile, the numbers of speakers should be even higher. The distribution area of the Oriya largely coincides with the boundaries of the State of Odisha ( Orissa ), where over 80 percent of residents speak Oriya as mother tongue. Smaller minorities of Oriya speakers also live in the neighboring states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Oriya is in Odisha as the sole official language in Jharkhand it has the status of an associate official language. At supraregional level Oriya is recognized as one of 22 national languages ​​of India.

Oriya is written with its own alphabet.