Deori language

{{Short description|Tibeto-Burman language spoken in northeastern India}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{Cleanup lang|date=November 2024|iso=der}}{{Infobox language

| name = Deori

| altname = Jimosãya/Deuri

| nativename = {{lang|der|জিমʼচাঁয়া/দেউৰী}}

| states = India

| region = Assam, Arunachal Pradesh

| ethnicity = Deori

| speakers = 32,376

| date = 2011 census

| ref = {{Cite web|url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011Census/Language_MTs.html|title=Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues – 2011|publisher=Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India|website=www.censusindia.gov.in|access-date=7 July 2018}}

| familycolor = Sino-Tibetan

| fam2 = Tibeto-Burman

| fam3 = Central Tibeto-Burman (?)

| fam4 = Sal

| fam5 = Boro-Garo

| script = *Assamese script

• Latin

| iso3 = der

| glotto = deor1238

| glottorefname = Deori

| map = Deuri.png

| mapcaption = Map of where the Deuri language is spoken

| mapcaption2 = Distribution of Deori-Chutiya Language in Upper Assam, as reported in the Language Survey of India 1903

| map2 = Map of the Languages and Dialects of the Bârâ or Bodo Group of the Tibeto-Burman Family (cropped).jpg

}}

Deori (also Deuri) is a Tibeto-Burman language in the Tibeto-Burman languages family spoken by the Deori people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.{{harvcol|Acharyya|Mahanta|2019|p=516}} Deori are also a part of Bodo–Kachari people. Among the four territorial groups only the Dibongiya have retained the language. The others—Patorgoyan, Tengaponiya, and Borgoyan—have shifted to Assamese. It is spoken in Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh, and in Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Tinsukia, Sivasagar and Jorhat districts of Assam. The primary literary body of Deori is known as "deori chucheba chengcha" (Deori sahitya sabha).

In the colonial times this language became associated with the Chutia people erroneously,"It was Brown who had the unfortunate idea of associating the name of the Deori with that of the (Assamese speaking) Chutiya." {{harvcol|Jaquesson|2017|pp=8–9}} and came to be known as the "Chutia language" in the Linguistic Survey of India.{{harvcol|Jaquesson|2017|p=8}} Modern scholarship do not associate the Deori language with the Chutia community."The extant literature on Deori (Brown 1895; Brandreth 1878; Grierson 1909; Goswami 1994) associates the language of the Deori community with the Chutiyas, "the original language of Upper Assam" (Brown 1895:5). At present, there is no evidence of closeness of the Deori language to the language spoken by the Chutiya community." {{harvcol|Acharyya|Mahanta|2019|p=516}}

The Deori language is one of the most influential languages which has helped develop the Assamese language in Upper Assam. {{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

However, the word for water has a similar form in many other languages of the Sal branch of Sino-Tibetan to which Deori belongs, so it is not conclusive evidence that Deori speakers were the first to occupy this area.{{Citation|last1=Coupe|first1=Alexander R.|title=Asia before English|date=2020|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118791882.ch2|work=The Handbook of Asian Englishes|pages=13–48|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd|language=en|doi=10.1002/9781118791882.ch2|isbn=978-1-118-79188-2|access-date=2021-01-12|last2=Kratochvíl|first2=František|s2cid=225196053}}