Rangpuri (Rangpuri: অংপুরি ''Ôṅgpuri'' or অমপুরি ''Ômpuri'') is an eastern
Indo-Aryan language
The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east of the Indus river in Ba ...
of the
Bengali-Assamese branch, spoken in
Rangpur Division
Rangpur Division (; ;
) is a first-level Divisions of Bangladesh, administrative division of Bangladesh. It covers the northernmost part of the country with a population of about 18 million inhabitants within an area of . Rangpur Division shar ...
in Bangladesh, northern
West Bengal
West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...
and western
Goalpara of
Assam
Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...
in India.
Many are bilingual in
Bengali and
Assamese in their respective regions. According to Glottolog, it forms the Central-Eastern Kamta group with the Kamta language. Together with
Rajbanshi and
Surjapuri they form the
Kamta group of languages.
Names
Rangpuri goes by numerous names, the most common being ''Bahe'';
["Rangpuri: This term is favoured in the Rangpur area, interchangeably with ‘Bahe.’ Chaudhuri (1939) prefers to use Rangpuri to Rajbanshi, as it avoids the problem of being caste-centric." H] though ''Deshi bhasha'' and ''Anchalit bhasha'' is also used.
["Rangpur, the headquarters of a district in Bangladesh. During this first stage of research, data were collected with speakers at several sites outside the town perimeter (cf. Appendix C of Toulmin 2006). Speakers of this area refer to their mother tongue as either 'Bahe,' 'Rangpuri,' 'Deshi bhasha' or its synonym 'Anchalit bhasha' meaning 'the local language'." ]
Comparison with related languages and dialects
See also
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Sylheti language
Sylheti (Sylheti Nagri: , ''síloṭi'', ; , ''sileṭi'', ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken by an estimated 11 million people, primarily in the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh, Barak Valley of Assam, and northern parts o ...
*
Assamese language
Assamese () or Asamiya ( ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language. It has long served as a ''lingua franca'' in parts of Northeast India."Axomiya is the major langu ...
*
Maithili language
Maithili ( , ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of India and Nepal. It is native to the Mithila region, which encompasses parts of the eastern Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand as well as Nepal's Koshi Province, Koshi and Madhesh P ...
References
Further reading
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External links
Rangpuri at OmniglotEthnologue Report on Rangpuri
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajbanshi Language
Eastern Indo-Aryan languages
Languages of Bangladesh
Languages of West Bengal
Bengali dialects