Odia

Odia (/əˈdiːə/) or Oriya (/ɒˈriːə/; both renderings of Odia: ଓଡ଼ିଆ  oḍiā (help·info)) is a language spoken by 4.2% of India’s population.^[5] It is an Indo-Aryan language that is spoken mostly in eastern India, with around 44 million native speakers as of the year 2016, from the state of Odisha, and 55 million from adjoining regions of its neighboring states and by the largely migrated Odia population across India and different countries of the world.

It is the predominant language of the Indian state of Odisha, where native speakers make up 80% of the population,^[6] and also is spoken in parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the many official languages of India; it is the official language of Odisha and the second official language of Jharkhand.^[7][8][9] The language is also spoken by a sizeable population of at least 10 million people in Chhattisgarh.

Odia is the sixth Indian language to be designated a Classical Language in India on the basis of having a long literary history and not having borrowed extensively from other languages.^{[10][11][12][13]}

The earliest known inscription in Odia dates back to the 10th century AD.^[14]