| Group | Indic (with Sanskrit, Pali etc.), New Indic (with Marathi, Punjabi etc.) |
| Geography & History | Oriya is sometimes called Odri or Utkali, it is officially spoken in the Indian state of Orissa, the total number of speakers exceeds 20 million people. The literature in Oriya is traced back to the 11th century, the modern language was shaped in the 19th century. Dialectally Oriya is quite unified, the only variety is called Bhatri and is closer to the Marathi language. |
| Phonetics & Morphology | A phonetic peculiarity of Oriya is the preserved short vowels in the final position: this makes almost all Oriya words end in a vowel. The language is mostly analytical, verbal complex constructions are formed from the verbal adverbs in -u (imperfective aspect) and -i (perfective aspect). |
| Writing | Oriya script |
| Close Contacts | Bengali is quite close to Oriya, as well as Assamese; historical contacts with Burmese and Dravidian tongues played their part in the formation of the language. |
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