Desia language

Desia,^[1] also known as Desiya, Kotia,^[2] Adivasi Odia^[2], Desia Odia or Koraputia^[3] is an Indo-Aryan language variety, spoken in Koraput, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Malkangiri districts Odisha and in the hilly regions of Vishakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts of Andhra Pradesh.^[4] The variant spoken in Koraput is called Koraputia.^[3] It is sociolinguistically often considered as a dialect of Odia, although many linguists classify it as a separate language from Odia.

Desia
Desiya, Desia Odia, Kotia, Adivasi Odia, Koraputia
ଦେଶିଆ
Native to	India
Region	Odisha (Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Nabarangpur) & Andhra Pradesh ( Vizianagaram District, Alluri Sitharama Raju district , Visakhapatnam District, Anakapalli district)
Ethnicity	Odias
Native speakers	230,000 (2011 census)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Odia Desia
Writing system	Odia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: dso – Desiya ort – Adivasi Oriya
Glottolog	adiv1239

Desia language serves as the lingua franca among the different ethnic groups in the area^[5] and is the major regional tribal-non-tribal dialect continuum of the undivided Koraput district of the Southwestern Odisha region.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

Phonology

Desia language has 21 consonant phonemes, 2 semivowel phonemes and 6 vowel phonemes.^[11]

Desia vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a	ɔ

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).^[12]