The Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, also known as Māgadhan languages, are spoken throughout the eastern region of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

, which includes

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

, Bengal region,

Tripura Tripura () is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a populat ...

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

, and

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

; alongside other regions surrounding the northeastern Himalayan corridor. Bengali is official language of

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

and the state of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

and the Barak valley of

while Assamese and Odia are the official languages of

and

, respectively. The Eastern Indo-Aryan languages descend from

Abahattha Abahaṭ‌ṭha, Abahatta or Avahaṭṭha (Sanskrit ''apabhraṣṭa'' 'corrupted', related to apabhraṃśa) is a stage in the evolution of the Eastern group of the Indo-Aryan languages. This group consists of languages such as Assamese, ...

, which descends from Magadhan Apabhraṃśa and ultimately from

Magadhi Prakrit Magadhi Prakrit (''Māgadhī'') is of one of the three Dramatic Prakrits, the written languages of Ancient India following the decline of Pali. It was a vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan language, replacing earlier Vedic Sanskrit. History and over ...

.South Asian folklore: an encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, By Peter J. Claus, Sarah Diamond, Margaret Ann Mills, Routledge, 2003, p. 203Ray, Tapas S. (2007)
"Chapter Eleven: "Oriya"
In Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George. ''The Indo-Aryan Languages''. Routledge. p. 445. .

Classification

The exact scope of the Eastern branch of the Indo-Aryan languages is controversial. All scholars agree about a kernel that includes the Odia cluster and the

Bengali–Assamese languages The Bengali-Assamese languages (also Gauda–Kamarupa languages) is a grouping of several languages in the eastern Indian subcontinent. This group belongs to the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Eastern zone of Indo-Aryan languages. The languages ...

, while many also include the Bihari languages. The widest scope was proposed by Suniti Kumar Chatterji who included the Eastern Hindi varieties, but this has not been widely accepted. When the Bihari languages are included, the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages fall into four language groups in two broader categories:

Western Magadhan

*Bihari ** Bhojpuri ***

Caribbean Hindustani Caribbean Hindustani () is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Indo-Caribbean people and the Indo-Caribbean diaspora. It is a koiné language mainly based on the Bhojpuri and Awadhi dialects. These Hindustani dialects were the most-spoken dialec ...

Magahi Magahi (), also known as Magadhi (), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal states of eastern India, and in the Terai region of Nepal. Magadhi Prakrit was the ancestor of Magahi, from which the latter's name de ...

*** Khortha ** Maithili *** Bajjika (Western Maithili) *** Angika (Southern Maithili) ***Central Maithili ***Eastern Maithili *** Thēthi ***Jolaha ***Kisan ** Sadanic *** Nagpuri *** Kurmali (Panchpargania) **Unclassified Bihari *** Tharuic ****Chitwania Tharu **** Dangaura Tharu *****Dangaha **** Sonha **** Kathariya Tharu **** Kochila Tharu *****Western Kochila *****Central Kochila (Saptariya Tharu) *****Eastern Kochila (Morangiya, Khawas Tharu) **** Rana Tharu **** Buksa **** Musasa *** Majhi *** Kumhali ***Kuswaric **** Danwar *****Dewas Done Danuwar ******Dewas Rai ******Done Danuwar *****Kochariya-East Danuwar ******East Danuwar ******Kochariya **** Bote-Darai *****Bote *****Darai

Eastern Magadhan

* Bengali–Assamese: ** Gauda- Banga *** Bengali **** Bangali (Eastern Bengali) ***** Dhakaiya kutti Bengali ***** Mymensinghi Bengali **** Manbhumi (Western Bengali) **** Rarhi (South-Central Bengali) **** Barendri (North-Central Bengali) *** Bishnupriya Manipuri *** Chakma *** Chittagonian ***

Rohingya The Rohingya people (; ; ) are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who predominantly follow Islam from Rakhine State, Myanmar. Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an estimated 1.4 million Ro ...

***

Noakhali Noakhali District (), historically known as Bhulua (), is a Districts of Bangladesh, district in southeastern Bangladesh, located in Chattogram Division. It was established as a district in 1821, and officially named Noakhali in 1868. The distr ...

*** Sylheti *** Tanchangya ** Kamarupic: ***Eastern Kamarupi **** Assamese *****Eastern Assamese *****Central Assamese ***** Kamrupi (Western Assamese) ***** Dehan (Southern Assamese) ***Western Kamarupi **** KRDS lects *****Kamtapuri ***** Rangpuri ***** Surjapuri ***** Goalpariya (Western) ***** Rajbanshi **** Hajong * Oriya languages ** Odia *** Baleswari (Northern Odia) *** Singhbhumi (Southern Jharkhandi Odia) *** Kataki (Central Odia) *** Sundargadi (Northwestern Odia) *** Kalahandia (Southwestern Odia) *** Ganjami (Southern Odia) ** Bodo Parja ** Bhatri ** Desia ** Reli ** Sambalpuri ** Kupia * Halbic: ** Halbi ***Adkuri ***Bastari ***Chandari ***Gachikolo ***Govari ***Kawari ***

Kunbi Kunbi (alternatively Kanbi) (Marathi language, Marathi: ISO 15919: ''Kuṇabī'', Gujarati language, Gujarati: ISO 15919: ''Kaṇabī'') is a generic term applied to several caste system, castes of traditional farmers in Western India. These ...

***Mahari ***Muri ***Sundi ** Kamar ** Bhunjia ** Nahari

Features

Grammatical features of the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages: Eastern

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east ...

display many morphosyntactic features similar to those of

Munda languages The Munda languages are a group of closely related languages spoken by about eleven million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Historically, they have been called the Kolarian languages. They constitute a branch of the Austroasiatic langu ...

, while western Indo-Aryan languages do not. It is suggested that "pre-Munda" ("proto-" in regular terminology) languages may have once dominated the eastern

Indo-Gangetic Plain The Indo-Gangetic Plain, also known as the Northern Plain or North Indian River Plain, is a fertile plain spanning across the northern and north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. It encompasses North India, northern and East India, easte ...

, and were then absorbed by Indo-Aryan languages at an early date as Indo-Aryan spread east.

References

External links

''A Comparative dictionary of the Bihārī language, Volume 1'' By August Friedrich Rudolf Hoernle, Sir George Abraham Grierson (1885)
* {{Authority control Languages of India Languages of Bangladesh Languages of Nepal History of the Bengali language