Assamese language

Assamese
Assamese
Asamiya; Ôxômiya;
অসমীয়া
	The word "Ôxômiya" in the Assamese alphabet
Pronunciation	[ɔxɔmija] ⓘ
Native to	India
Region	Assam; Arunachal Pradesh; Meghalaya; Nagaland;
Ethnicity	Assamese
Native speakers	15 million (2011 census)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Bengali–Assamese Kamrupa Assamese; ; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Magadhi Prakrit Magadhan Apabhraṃśa Kamarupi Prakrit Old Assamese ; ; ;
Dialects	Eastern, Central, Kamrupi, Goalpariya;
Writing system	Bengali–Assamese script; Ahom script (historical); Assamese Braille; Latin script (Nagamese and Nefamese);
Official status
Official language in	India Assam; ;
Regulated by	Asam Sahitya Sabha (Literary Society of Assam)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	as
ISO 639-2	asm
ISO 639-3	asm
Glottolog	assa1263
Linguasphere	59-AAF-w
	Geographic distribution of Assamese language in India

Assamese or Asamiya (অসমীয়া [ɔxɔmija] ^ⓘ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language. It serves as a lingua franca of the wider region and has over 15 million native speakers according to Ethnologue.

Nefamese, an Assamese-based pidgin in Arunachal Pradesh, was used as the lingua franca till it was replaced by Hindi; and Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language, continues to be widely used in Nagaland. The Kamtapuri language of Rangpur division of Bangladesh and the Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts of India is linguistically closer to Assamese, though the speakers identify with the Bengali culture and the literary language. In the past, it was the court language of the Ahom kingdom from the 17th century.

Along with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Assamese evolved at least before the 7th century CE from the middle Indo-Aryan Magadhi Prakrit. Its sister languages include Angika, Bengali, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Chakma, Chittagonian, Hajong, Rajbangsi, Maithili, Rohingya and Sylheti. It is written in the Assamese alphabet, an abugida system, from left to right, with many typographic ligatures.

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