Kharia
खड़िया, ଖଡ଼ିଆ
Region	India (Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha).
Ethnicity	Kharia
Native speakers	297,614, 69% of ethnic population (2011 census)[1]
Language family	Austroasiatic Munda South Kharia
Writing system	Devanagari, Odia, Latin
Official status
Official language in	India Jharkhand (additional)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	khr
Glottolog	khar1287
ELP	Kharia

The Kharia language (IPA: [kʰaɽija] or IPA: [kʰeɽija]^[2]) is a Munda language of the Austroasiatic language family, that is primarily spoken by the Kharia people of eastern India.

History

According to linguist Paul Sidwell, Austroasiatic languages arrived on the coast of Odisha from Southeast Asia about 4000-3500 years ago.^[3]

Classification

Kharia belongs to the Kharia–Juang branch of the Munda language family. Its closest extant relative is the Juang language, but the relationship between Kharia and Juang is remote.

The most widely cited classification places Kharia and Juang together as a subgroup of the South Munda branch of the Munda family. However, some earlier classification schemes placed Kharia and Juang together, as an independent branch deriving from the root of the Munda languages, which they named Central Munda.

Kharia is in contact with Sadri (the local lingua franca), Mundari, Kurukh, Hindi, and Odia (in Odisha).^[2]

Distribution

Kharia speakers are located in the following districts of India.^[2]

• Jharkhand
  • Simdega district
  • Gumla district
• Chhattisgarh
  • Surguja district
  • Raigarh district
• Odisha
  • Sundargarh district
  • Jharsuguda district

Phonology

• [ɽ, ɽʱ] are only marginally phonemic and are normally intervocalic allophones of /ɖ, ɖʱ/.

• /f/ can also be pronounced among some speakers as an affricate [p͡f].

• /c, cʰ, ɟ, ɟʱ/ are often realized as affricate sounds [t͡ʃ, t͡ʃʰ, d͡ʒ, d͡ʒʱ], especially in loanwords.

• [ʔ] is an allophone of /ɡ/ when in coda position.^[4]

• /i, e, o, u/ have lax allophones of [ɪ, ɛ, ɔ, ʊ].
• /a/ can have allophones of [ɑ, ä, ə, ʌ].^[4]