Surjapuri language

Surjapuri is an Indo-Aryan language of the Bengali-Assamese branch, spoken in Eastern India including some eastern parts of Purnia division of Bihar, parts of Uttar Dinajpur district in West Bengal and Goalpara Division of Assam in India, as well as Jhapa district in Nepal and Thakurgaon district in Bangladesh. Among speakers in some regions, it is known as 'Deshi Bhasa'. It possesses similarities with Kamatapuri, Assamese, Bengali, and Maithili.

Surjapuri
Sura, Deshi Bhasa
Native to	India, Nepal, Bangladesh
Region	Bihar, West Bengal
Native speakers	2,256,228 (2011 census)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Odia–Bengali–Assamese[2] Bengali–Assamese Kamrupa[2] Kamta Western Kamta Surjapuri
Writing system	Devanagari, Bengali–Assamese, Kaithi (historical)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sjp
Glottolog	surj1235

Geographical distribution

Surjapuri is mainly spoken in some parts of Purnia division (Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia, and Araria districts) of Bihar.^[3] It is also spoken in West Bengal (some parts of Islampur subdivision of Uttar Dinajpur district and Jalpaiguri division in northern Bengal region), Bangladesh (Thakurgaon District) as well as in parts of eastern Nepal of Jhapa District and Morang District.

Related languages

Surjapuri is associated with the Kamtapuri language (and its dialects Goalpariya, Rajbanshi and Koch Rajbangshi) spoken in North Bengal and Western Assam,^[4] as well as with Assamese, Bengali, and Maithili.

Pronouns^[5][6][7]

		Singular		Plural
		nominative	oblique	nominative	oblique
1st person		mũi	mo-	hāmrā	hāmsā-, hāmcā-
2nd person		tũi	to-	tumrā, tomrā	tumsā-, tomsā-
3rd person	proximal	yāhāy	yahā-	emrā, erā	ismā-, isā-
	distal	wahā̃y	wahā-	amrā, worā	usmā-, usā-

Surjapuri has the oblique plural suffixes: sā (hamsā-, tomsā-) and smā (ismā-, usmā-). They are also seen in Early Assamese as: sā (āmāsā-, tomāsā-) and sambā (esambā-, tesambā-) and their occurrences are similar.^[8]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Retroflex	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n			ŋ
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	ʈ	tʃ	k
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	ʈʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ
	voiced	b	d	ɖ	dʒ	ɡ
	breathy	bʱ	dʱ	ɖʱ	dʒʱ	ɡʱ
Fricative			s				h
Tap			ɾ
Lateral			l
Approximant		w			j

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
			ɔ
Low	æ	ɑ

• Nasalization is also phonemic.
• /i, e/ in medial and initial form are heard as [ɪ, ɛ].^[9]