Surjapuri | Ethnologue

A language of India

ISO 639: sjp
Alternate Names: Deshi Bhasa, Sura, Surajpuri
Autonym: सुरजापुरी‎ (Surjapuri)
Population: 2,260,000 (2011 census).
Location:: Bihar state: Katihar, Kishanganj, and Purnea districts; West Bengal state: Dakshin Dinajpur and Uttar Dinajpur districts.
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).

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