I. HISTORY AND LINGUISTICS CLASSIFICATION

Oriya, called as ଓଡ଼ିଆ /oṛia:/ by the native speakers, is the official language of the eastern Indian state of Orissa. It is one of the 18 languages specified in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India.

According to the 1991 census, there are 28 million speakers of Oriya in India. The major concentration of Oriya speakers has been reported from Orissa. According to the 1991 census, 93.33% of the Oriya speakers reside in Orissa. The other states, which have reported more than a 100 thousand Oriya speakers, are Madhya Pradesh (721,348), Bihar (404,443), Andhra Pradesh (259,947), West Bengal (170,001), and Assam (140,782).

Oriya belongs to the eastern group of the Indo-Aryan family and is believed to have developed from Magadhan Apabhramsha. The other languages which belong to the Magadhan subfamily are Bangla, Assamese, Magahi, Maithili, and Bhojpuri.

Traces of Oriya words and expressions have been found in inscriptions dating from the 7th century AD. For example, the Oriya word କୁମ୍ଭାର /kumbha:rɔ/ ‘potter’ occurs in a copperplate inscription ‘belonging to a date not later than the 7th century AD’. Similarly, in inscriptions of 991 AD, Oriya words like ଭିତୁରୁ /bhituru/ ‘from inside’ and ପନ୍ଦର /pɔndɔrɔ/ ‘fifteen’ can be found. ‘An Oriya Passage’ also has been found in another inscription of about 715 AD.

Like most other languages, Oriya has been enriched by the inheritance from the ancestral languages and also by borrowings from other languages. The contribution of both the sources can be easily seen in the vocabulary of the language. In the context of the Indo-Aryan languages, however, the normal practice is to analyze the sources of vocabulary under four headings: ତତ୍ସମ /tɔtsɔmɔ/, ତଦ୍ଭବ /tɔdbhɔbɔ/, ଦେଶଜ /deśɔdƷɔ/, and ବିଦେଶୀ /bideśi:/.

Different languages have not only contributed to the growth of the Oriya language, but they are also partly responsible for the stylistic and dialectal variations within the language. Stylistically, two varieties within the Oriya language that have been usually distinguished are formal and informal. One notable difference between the two varieties is that the former makes a greater use of /tɔtsɔmɔ/ words than the latter. The formal variety is restricted to formal writings and speeches. But, even in these domains, the formal variety is gradually being replaced by a less formal variety, which is seen as a ‘compromise’ between the formal and informal varieties.

Dialectally, there seems to be four major varieties: Standard dialect spoken in the districts of Cuttack, Puri, and the surrounding areas, Western or Sambalpuri dialect spoken in the western Orissa, Southern dialect spoken in the southern Orissa, and Northern or Baleswari dialect spoken in the northern Orissa. The three non-standard dialects are spoken in the areas adjoining the three neighboring states where these languages are spoken: Telugu in the south, Hindi in the west, and Bangla in the north.

Oriya Language Family Tree

Indo-European


Indo-Iranian


Indo-Aryan


Eastern zone


     Oriya





Bhatri   Bhunjia   Bodo Parja     Kupia    Oriya       Oriya,        Oriya,       Reli
         Adivasi       Desiya

Script

The modern Oriya script is a descendant of the Brahmi script. It is related to the Brahmi script through the following intermediate states like

  1. Transitional Oriya Proto-Oriya
  2. Kutila କୁଟିଲ /kuʈiƖɔ/
  3. Gupta ଗୁପ୍ତ /guptɔ/ scripts

Oriya letters are quite distinctive in their appearance. Unlike Devanagari and Bangla letters, they do not hang from a horizontal line. In place of a horizontal line there is a half-circle. This quality of the Oriya script seems to have developed from writing on palm leaves, which were the basic writing material in the earlier times. Palm leaves being extremely fragile, drawing horizontal lines on them while writing was avoided to save the leaves from splitting. In another view, however, this quality of the Oriya letters is seen as an influence of the Dravidian writing system.

There are 13 vowels, 36 consonants, and 5 additional sounds in Oriya.

Vowels ( jée aÀà )

	@ = a [ɔ]	A = ā [a:]	B = i [i]	C = ī  [i:]	D = u [u]	E = ū [u:]
	F = [r]	G = RR	H = e [e:]	I = ai [ɔi]	J = o [o]	K =au[ɔu]

Consonants ( aÔ&_ aÀà )

	L = k [k]		M = kh [kh]	N = g [g]		O = gh [gh]	P = ṅ [ŋ]
	Q = c [tʃ]		R = ch [tʃh]	S = j [dƷ]		T = jh [dƷh]	U = ñ [ɲ]
	V = ṭ [ʈ]	W = ṭh [ʈh]	X = ḍ [ɖ]	Y = ḍh [ɖh]	Z = ṇ [ɳ]
	[ = t [t]	\ = th [th]	] = d [d]	^ = dh [dh]	_ = n [n]
	` = p [p]	$ = ph [ph]	a = b [b]	b = bh [bh]	c = m [m]
	d = j [dƷ]	e = r [r]	gw [w]	 	f = ḷ [Ɩ]
	h = ś [s]	i = ṣ [s]	j = s [s]	k = h [h]
	Õ = anusvAra	Ó = bisarga	Ü = candrabindu

Additional Sounds ( @[ÞeÞ¦ aÀà )

XÏ= [ṛ] YÏ= [rh]  l = khy [kṣɔ]	¯ = y [j]	m = l [l]

Numerals

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
0	 1	 2	 3	 4	 5	 6	 7	 8	  9

Different branches of Oriya Scripts:

(1st type)			Brahmi script (500 BC to 300 BC)


Gupwa [guptɔ] Brahmi script (300 BC to 500 AD)


Northern style		Southern style


nAgari [na:gɔri:] 	Proto-Bangla	SAraxA [śa:rɔda:] script



   Assami	Oriya		Old Manipuri          nevArI [newa:ri:]


brAhmaNI	     karaNI
			[bra:hmɔɳi:]     [kɔrɔɳi:]

Gradual development of Oriya language

(2nd type) Brahmi (alphabets during the period of Ashok) 300B.C. to 300 A.D.


Northern style (300 A.D. to 600 A.D.)	    Southern style (300 A.D. to 500 A.D.)
     Gupta lipi
							Northern part      Southern part
kuTilAkhyar (600 A.D. to 900 A.D.) 
							           kaLinga and Middle-Indian 
									script
nAgarI     shAradA    bangalA      meithilI	  odZia             

				Modern Oriya script	  toSALi	kaLinga script
								  [tośa:Ɩi]	[kɔƖiŋgɔ]

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