Native speakers 15 million (2007) | ||
Native to Bangladesh,
India,
Nepal Language family Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Indo-Aryan
Eastern
Bengali–Assamese
Rangpuri ISO 639-3 Variously:
rkt – Kamta/Rangpuri
rjs – Rajbanshi
kyv – Kayort Glottolog rang1265 (Rangpuri)
rajb1243 (Rajbanshi) | ||
Rangpuri is an Indic language spoken by ten million Rajbongshi people in Bangladesh, five million in India, and 130,000 Rajbanshi and Tajpuria in Nepal. Many are bilingual in either Bengali or Assamese. There is a strong language movement in West Bengal.
Contents
Names
Rangpuri goes by numerous names. In Bangladesh, these include Rangpuri, Bahe Bangla, Ancholit Bangla, Kamta, Polia. In India, there is Kamtapuri, Dutta, Rajbangsi, Rajbansi, Rajbanshi, Rajbongshi, Goalparia, surjapuri, Koch Rajbanshi. Another name of the language is Tajpuri. In Assam it is known as Kochrajbongshi. In Bihar it is known as Surjapuri.
Dialects
The main dialects are Western Rajbanshi, Central Rajbanshi, Eastern Rajbanshi and Hill Rajbanshi (also known as Koch language).
The Central dialect has the majority of speakers and is quite uniform. There are publications in this language. The Western dialect has more diversity. Lexical similarity is 77 to 89% between the three dialects. The version spoken in the hills has some influence of the local tribal languages and differs quite a bit from the other three. Rajbonshi shares 48 to 55% of its vocabulary with Bengali, and 43 to 49% with Maithili and Nepali.