Desia, also known as Desiya, Kotia, Adivasi Odia, Desia Odia or Koraputia, is an Indo-Aryan language variety of Odia, spoken in Koraput, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Malkangiri districts Odisha and in the hilly regions of Vishakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts of Andhra Pradesh. The variant spoken in Koraput is called Koraputia.

Desia Odia serves as the lingua franca among the different ethnic groups in the area and is the major regional tribal-non-tribal dialect continuum of the undivided Koraput district of the Southwestern Odisha region.

Phonology

Desia language has 19 consonant phonemes, 2 semivowel phonemes and 6 vowel phonemes.

Desia vowel phonemes
FrontCentralBack
Highiu
Mideo
Lowaɔ

There are no long vowels in Desia just like Standard Odia.

Desia consonant phonemes
LabialAlveolar /DentalRetroflexPalatalVelarGlottal
Nasalmnɳŋ
Stop/ Affricatevoicelessptʈk
voicedbdɖɡ
Fricativesɦ
Trill/Flapɾɽ~ɽʱ
Lateral approximantl
Approximantwj

Desia shows the loss of retroflex consonant like voiced retroflex lateral approximant [ɭ] (ଳ) which are present in Standard Odia, and a limited usage of retroflex unaspirated nasal (voiced retroflex nasal) ɳ (ଣ).

Further reading

  • Masica, Colin (1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2.