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

Geographical distribution

Surjapuri region or Varandrakhand is mainly spoken of Surjapuri Bengali in the parts of Purnia division (Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia, and Araria districts) of Bihar. It is also spoken in West Bengal (Uttar Dinajpur and Dakshin Dinajpur districts, and in North Malda of Malda district, specially in Harishchandrapur and Chanchal area and Siliguri city of Darjeeling district – part of the North Bengal region within the Jalpaiguri division), 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, as well as with Assamese, Bengali, and Maithili.

Pronouns

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.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

• Nasalization is also phonemic.
• /i, e/ in medial and initial form are heard as .

Notes

1. "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
2. ^ Toulmin 2006, p. 305.
3. Kumāra, Braja Bihārī (1998). Small States Syndrome in India. p. 146. ISBN 9788170226918. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
4. Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel; Conde-Silvestre, Juan Camilo, eds. (15 February 2012). The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118257265. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
5. (Toulmin 2006, p. 184)
6. (Bez 2012)
7. Kakati 1941
8. (Bez 2012)
9. Srivastava & Perumalsamy 2021.

References

• Bez, Gitanjali (2012). Grammatical Categories in Madhav Kandali's Ramayana (Ph.D.). Gauhati University. hdl:10603/116370.
• Kakati, Banikanta (1941). Assamese: Its Formation and Development. Gauhati, Assam: Government of Assam.
• Srivastava, S P; Perumalsamy, P (2021), Surjapuri (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 3 Nov 2021, retrieved 15 May 2023
• Toulmin, Mathew W. S. (2006). Reconstructing linguistic history in a dialect continuum: The Kamta, Rajbanshi, and Northern Deshi Bangla subgroup of Indo-Aryan (Ph.D. thesis). The Australian National University. hdl:1885/45743.

External links

• "Word Formation in Surjapuri" (PDF). Language in India.
• "Case and Case-like Postposition in Surjapuri" (PDF). Language in India.

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