Deori language

Deori
Jimochaya
Native to India
Region Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
Ethnicity 70,000 Deori (2000?)[1]
Native speakers
41,000 (2001 census)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 der
Glottolog deor1238[3]

Deori is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Deori people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Only one clan of the Deori tribe, the Dibongya, has retained the language, the others having shifted to Assamese, but among the Dibongya it is vigorous. It is related to the Bodo-Garo language.

The Deori and their language are frequently called Jimochaya. Deori means temple guard, due to the Deori traditionally being priests of the Sutiya and Ahom Kingdom.

Deori is spoken in Lohit district, Arunachal Pradesh, and in Lakhimpur district, Dhemaji district, Tinsukia district, and Jorhat district of Assam.

References

  1. Deori language at Ethnologue (15th ed., 2005)
  2. Deori at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  3. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Deori". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.


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