Desia language

Desia
Desiya, Desia Odia, Kotia, Adivasi Odia, Koraputia
ଦେଶିଆ
Native toIndia
RegionOdisha (Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Nabarangpur) & Andhra Pradesh ( Vizianagaram District, Alluri Sitharama Raju district , Visakhapatnam District, Anakapalli district)
EthnicityOdias
Native speakers
230,000 (2011 census)
Odia
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
dso – Desiya
ort – Adivasi Oriya
Glottologadiv1239
A native Bonda and Odia speaker code-switching and speaking in Bonda and Desia

Desia, also known as Desiya, Kotia, Adivasi Odia, Desia Odia or Koraputia, is an Indo-Aryan language variety of Odia, spoken in Koraput, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Malkangiri districts Odisha and in the hilly regions of Vishakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts of Andhra Pradesh. The variant spoken in Koraput is called Koraputia.

Desia Odia serves as the lingua franca among the different ethnic groups in the area and is the major regional tribal-non-tribal dialect continuum of the undivided Koraput district of the Southwestern Odisha region.

Phonology

Desia language has 19 consonant phonemes, 2 semivowel phonemes and 6 vowel phonemes.

Desia vowel phonemes
FrontCentralBack
High iu
Mid eo
Low aɔ

There are no long vowels in Desia just like Standard Odia.

Desia consonant phonemes
Labial Alveolar
/Dental		 Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɳ ŋ
Stop/
Affricate		 voiceless p t ʈ tʃ k
voiced b d ɖ dʒ ɡ
Fricative s ɦ
Trill/Flap ɾ ɽ~ɽʱ
Lateral approximant l
Approximant w j

Desia shows the loss of retroflex consonant like voiced retroflex lateral approximant [ɭ] (ଳ) which are present in Standard Odia, and a limited usage of retroflex unaspirated nasal (voiced retroflex nasal) ɳ (ଣ). More strikingly though, it also shows the loss of aspirated and murmured consonants (strikingly similar to Proto-Dravidian and Proto-Munda).

References

  1. ↑ Masica (1991:426)
  2. 1 2 "The World Atlas of Languages". UNESCO. Retrieved 2024-11-02.
  3. 1 2 Belavadi, Vasuki; Jena, Aniruddha (2022), "Reinforcing Desia Culture Through Community Radio: A Cultural Analysis of Radio Dhimsa in Koraput, Odisha", in Kaushik, Alankar; Suchiang, Abir (eds.), Narratives and New Voices from India, vol. 8, Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, pp. 73–83, doi:10.1007/978-981-19-2496-5_6, ISBN 978-981-19-2495-8, retrieved 2024-11-02
  4. ↑ "Desiya", in Eberhard, David M., Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig, eds. (2020). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twenty-third edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
  5. ↑ Gustafsson, Uwe (1978). "Procedural discourse in Kotia Oriya". In Joseph E. Grimes (ed.), Papers on discourse, 283-97. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  6. ↑ Mohan, Shriya (January 10, 2018). "Speak up, India". The Hindu.
  7. ↑ Vishnu, Uma (May 15, 2016). "This way to school: How dismal indicators for education in Odisha's Nabarangpur are slowly changing". The Indian Express.
  8. ↑ "Census of India : Linguistic survey of India Orissa".
  9. ↑ Mahapatra, B.P. (2002). Linguistic Survey of India: Orissa (PDF). Kolkata, India: Language Division, Office of the Registrar General. p. 2. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  10. ↑ Mahapatra, B.P. (2002). Linguistic Survey of India: Orissa (PDF). Kolkata, India: Language Division, Office of the Registrar General. p. 20. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  11. ↑ Mahapatra, B.P. (2002). Linguistic Survey of India: Orissa (PDF). Kolkata, India: Language Division, Office of the Registrar General. p. 94,95. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  12. ↑ Tripathī, Kunjabihari (1962). The Evolution of Oriya Language and Script. Utkal University. Retrieved 21 March 2021.

Further reading