I. HISTORY AND LINGUISTIC CLASSIFICATION

Boro speakers are primarily found in the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam, and in few adjacent areas of New Jalpaiguri, in West Bengal, with minimum concentration in the northern part of the Brahmaputra Valley. The population of Boro speakers according to 1991 census report was 11,84,569. The word Boro denotes the language and the community and it is pronounced with a high tone on the second syllable. The dialects spoken in this area could be broadly sub-divided into three main groups:

(a) The Western Boro dialect, {(Swnabari) WBD}:
(b) The Eastern Boro dialect, {(Sanzari) EBD} and
(c) The Southern Boro dialect, {(Hazari) SBD}.

The Western Boro dialects are spoken in the districts of Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon and the Eastern Bodo dialects are found mainly in the districts of Barpeta, Nalbari and Kamrup and some parts of Darrang as well. It is worthwhile to mention that the Western Boro dialect has gained the status of Standard Dialect and has developed a written form as well. The variations between these two dialect groups are mainly phonological and lexical.

The following examples consist of phonological and lexical variations between these three dialects.