- published: 14 Oct 2012
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Oriya (ଓଡ଼ିଆ oṛiā), officially spelled Odia, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal. Oriya is one of the many official languages in India; it is the official language of Orissa and the second official language of Jharkhand.
Oriya is the predominant language of Orissa, where Oriya speakers comprise around 83.33% of the population according to census surveys[citation needed].
Outside Orissa, there are also significant Oriya-speaking populations in other linguistic regions, such as the Midnapore District of West Bengal, the Singhbhum, Seraikela Kharsawan district of Jharkhand, the Srikakulam, Vizianagaram & Vishakhapatnam District of Andhra Pradesh, eastern districts of Chhattisgarh state. Due to the increasing migration of labour, the west Indian state of Gujarat also has a significant Oriya speaking population with Surat being the city with the second largest[citation needed] Oriya-speaking population in India. The Oriya-speaking people are also found in significant numbers in the cities of Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Pondicherry, Bangalore, Chennai, Goa, Mumbai, Raipur, Jamshedpur, Baroda, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Kolkata, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Shillong, Pune, & Silvassa in India.