Bodo, pronounced BO-RO is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by the Bodo people of north-eastern India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The language is one of the official languages of the Indian state of Assam, and is one of 22 scheduled languages given a special constitutional status in India.

Classification and related languages

Bodo language, a branch of the Tibeto-Burman family of language is a rich language. It is a major language of the Bodo group under the Assam-Burmese group of language. It shares some common features in respect of vocabulary, phonology, morphology and syntax with other sister languages of the Bodo group.

It is closely related to the Dimasa language of Assam and the Garo language of Meghalaya. It is also a very closely related language of Kokborok language spoken in Tripura.

History

In the aftermath of socio-political awakening and movement launched by the Bodo organizations since 1913, the language was introduced as the medium of instruction (1963) in the primary schools in Bodo dominated areas. Currently, the Bodo language serves as a medium of instruction up to the secondary level and an associated ojih fficial language in the state of Assam. The language has attained a position of pride with the opening of the Post-Graduate course in Bodo language and literature in the University of Guwahati in 1996. The Bodo language has to its credit large number of books of poetry, drama, short stories, novels, biography, travelogues, children's literature and literary criticism. Though the spoken language has been affected by other cummunities, especially the bengalis, in and around Kokrajhar, it is still to be heard in its pure form, in and around Udalguri district.

Dialects

Chote, Mech. Related to Dimasa, Tripuri, Lalunga, Boro.

Script

The language is officially written using the Devanagari script, although it also has a long history of using the Roman script. Some researchers have suggested that the language originally used a now-lost script called Deodhai.

See also

• Bodo people
• Bodo Sahitya Sabha
• Kokborok language

External links

• Abley, Mark (2006) The Verbs of Boro, Lost Magazine, March 2006
• Bodoland.org
• Boro Language

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