Surgujia dialect
{{short description|Dialect in Surguja Division Of Chhattisgarh}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Surgujia
| nativename = सरगुजिया
| states = India
| region = Chhattisgarh
| speakers = {{sigfig|1.738256|3}} million
| date = 2011 census
| familycolor = Indo-European
| fam2 = Indo-Iranian
| fam3 = Indo-Aryan
| fam4 = Central
| fam5 = Eastern Hindi
| fam6 = Chhattisgarhi
| script = Devanagari{{e21|sgj}}
| iso3 = sgj
| glotto = surg1246
| glottorefname = Surgujia
}}
Surgujia is an Indo-Aryan language variety spoken in Chhattisgarh. It belongs to the Eastern Hindi group. It is considered as a dialect of Chattisgarhi language.
Speakers
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2024}}
Surgujia is primarily spoken in Surguja, Jashpur, and Koriya districts of Chhattisgarh; and to a lesser extent in Raigarh and Korba.
Speakers of Surgujia have often been conflated with those of Chhattisgarhi. Furthermore, as is the case with many Hindi languages and other regional languages, Surgujia has often been subsumed under the all-encompassing bracket of Standard Hindi due to erroneous, arbitrary or politically-motivated categorisation.
Classification
It was previously regarded by many as a dialect of Chhattisgarhi, and was designated as such by the linguist George A. Grierson in his comprehensive Linguistic Survey of India.{{cite web|url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/lsi/lsi.php?volume=6&pages=286#page/220/mode/1up|title=The Record News|website=Dsal.uchicago.edu|accessdate=22 December 2018}}{{cite web |url=http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/cr_files/2011-166_sgj.pdf |title=Archived copy |website=www-01.sil.org |access-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907020315/http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/cr_files/2011-166_sgj.pdf |archive-date=7 September 2014 |url-status=dead}} Indeed, Surgujia possesses a lexical similarity of 71%-76% with Chhattisgarhi, according to Ethnologue.{{cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/sgj|title=Surgujia|website=Ethnologue.com|accessdate=22 December 2018}} In recent times, however, Surgujia has come to be recognised as a distinct dialect.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}
References
{{Reflist}}{{Incubator|sgj}}
Category:Central Indo-Aryan languages
Category:Languages listed as Hindi dialects in latest census