10-04-2017, 07:23 PM
It is the predominant language of the Indian state of Odisha, where native speakers make up 80% of the population, and it is spoken in parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Odia is one of the many official languages of India; it is the official language of Odisha and the second official language of Jharkhand. The language is also spoken by a sizable population of at least 10 million people in Chatishgarh. Odia is the sixth Indian language to be designated a Classical Language in India on the basis of having a long literary history and not having borrowed extensively from other languages.