OVERVIEW:

Odia is an Indo-Aryan language, spoken in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the official language in Odisha where native speakers make up 82% of the population, also spoken in parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Odia is one of the many official languages of India; it is the official language of Odisha and the second official language of Jharkhand. The language is also spoken by a sizeable population of at least 1 million people in Chhattisgarh.

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. The earliest known inscription in Odia dates back to the 10th century AD.

Odia is mainly spoken in the state of Odisha, but there are significant Odia-speaking populations in the neighbouring states, such as Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh; as well as in Tripura and the neighbouring country of Bangladesh.

Due to the increasing migration of labour, the west Indian state of Gujarat also has a significant population of Odia speakers. Significant numbers of Odia speakers can also be found in the cities of Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Pondicherry, Bangalore, Chennai, Goa, Mumbai, Raipur, Jamshedpur, Baroda, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Kolkata, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Shillong, Pune, and Silvassa.

The Odia diaspora constitute a sizeable number in several countries around the world, totalling the number of Odia speakers on a global scale to 55 million. It has a significant presence in eastern countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, mainly carried by the sadhaba, ancient traders from Odisha who carried the language along with the culture during the old-day trading and in western countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and England as well. The language has also spread to Burma, Malaysia, Fiji, Sri Lanka and Middle East countries.

Spoken Standard of Odia is different than the Literary standard of Odia, which is used in literature and communication among people speaking different Dialects . It is spoken mainly in the eastern half of the state of Odisha, in districts like Khordha, Puri, Cuttack, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Dhenkanal, Angul and Nayagarh district with not much variation.