Surjapuri

Print

Primary tabs

A language of India

ISO 639-3
sjp
Alternate Names
Deshi Bhasa, Sura, Surajpuri
Autonym
सुरजापुरी‎ (Surjapuri)
User Population

2,260,000 (2011 census).

Location

Bihar state: Katihar, Kishanganj, and Purnea districts; West Bengal state: Dakshin Dinajpur and Uttar Dinajpur districts.

Language Maps
Language Status

5 (Developing).

Classification
Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Outer Languages, Eastern, Bihari
Dialects

None known. Reportedly very similar to Maithili [mai] (2019 N. Choudhary). Preliminary survey results show intelligibility of Nepali Rajbanshi [rjs]. Lexical similarity: 70%–74% with Hindi [hin], 67%–71% with the western variety of Kamtapuri [rkt] spoken near Dinajpur, 77%–86% with varieties of Surjapuri.

Language Use

Vigorous. Home, village. Used by all. Positive attitudes. Also use English [eng]. Also use Hindi [hin].

Language Development

Literacy rate in L2: Low (2006 M. Toulmin). Different scripts in Nepal and India. Bible portions: 2011.

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Surjapuri
Writing

Bengali (Bangla) script [Beng]. Devanagari script [Deva].

Other Comments

Possible alternate names are Chaupal, Choupal, and Suraji, but surveyors did not find these terms used. Historically more closely related to Kamtapuri [rkt] and Rajbanshi [rjs] than Hindi [hin], a relationship borne out by greater morphological similarity. (2006 M. Toulmin).