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Bodo (pronounced [bɔɽo]) is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by the Bodo people of north-eastern India and Nepal. 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 Sino-Tibetan family of languages, is a language of the Bodo group under the Assam-Burmese group of languages. 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 official 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.

Writing system

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.

But there is a difference in using the letters in Bodo than the Devanagari

See also