Rabha language

{{short description|Sino-Tibetan language}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Rabha

| altname = Rabha khurang/krwu

| nativename = Raba

| states = India

| region = Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya

| ethnicity = Rabha people

| speakers = 139,986

| date = 2011 census

| ref = e18

| familycolor = Sino-Tibetan

| fam2 = Tibeto-Burman

| fam3 = Sal

| fam4 = Boro–Garo

| dia1 = Maitori

| dia2 = Rongdani

| dia3 = Kocha

| script = Assamese script, Bengali script, Latin script

| iso3 = rah

| glotto = rabh1238

| glottorefname = Rabha

| map = File:Rabha Map.png

| mapcaption = Map of where Rabha is spoken

}}

Rabha is a Sino-Tibetan language of Northeast India. The two dialects, Maitori and Rongdani, are divergent enough to cause problems in communication. According to U.V. Joseph,Joseph, U.V. 2000. Rabha–English dictionary khúrangnala. Guwahati: Don Boco Publications. there are three dialects, viz. Rongdani, Maitori and Kocha (page ix). Joseph writes that "the Kocha dialect, spoken along the northern bank of the Brahmaputra, is highly divergent and is not intelligible to a Rongdani or Maitori speaker" (page ix). Joseph also writes that "The dialect variations between Rongdani and Maitori, both of which are spoken on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra, in the Goalpara district of Assam and belong to the northern slopes of Meghalaya, are minimal" (pages ix-x). He concludes the paragraph on dialectal variation with: "The Rongdani-Maitori dialectal differences become gradually more marked as one moves further west" (page x).

In 2007, U.V. Joseph published a grammar of Rabha with Brill in their series Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region.Joseph, U.V. 2007. Rabha. Leiden: Brill.