Odia is one of the oldest Seriescoldeweytechcrunch Aryan languages and is spoken by over 35 million people as a native language. It is also the official language of the state of Odisha. It is a Dravidian language, and has a rich literary tradition. In fact, it is referred to in several epics, such as the Mahabharata. It is also widely spoken in Malaysia and Fiji.
Odia is a subject-object-verb language. The grammatical system is divided into three parts: the main tense, subjunctive tense and imperative tense. The tense system includes an active, passive, and relative clause. The tense in which the verb agrees with its subject in person is the main tense. The other tenses are formed with auxiliaries.
The oldest known inscriptions in Odia in the Kalinga script date from 1051. It is a descendant of the Brahmi script of ancient India. The Odia script is also called Abugida or Syllabic Alphabet. It uses diacritical marks to change the inherent vowel forms of certain consonants.
In the Middle Ages, Sarala Das wrote Mahabharata and Vilanka Ramayana in Odia. She was a 14th-century writer. She is the author of Chandi Purana and Sarala Mahabharata. It was in the 15th century that the Panchasakha ‘five seer poets’ wrote some of the most popular works in Odia, such as the Lakshmi Purana and Jagamohana Ramayana. The literary traditions of Odia gained a lot of momentum during the rule of the Eastern Dynasty.
The Odia script has a curved appearance, due to writing on palm leaves. The first written work in Odia is the Rama-bibaha. It was written by Arjuna Dasa. It is considered to be the first long poem in Odia.
The Odia script, which is called the Abugida or Syllabic alphabet, has a three-tier tense system. The main tense is indicative, with the main moods being interrogative, imperative and subjunctive. In addition to the main tense, a finite verb is used in honorific form, which agrees with the subject in person. The past and future tense are formed by adding an auxiliary.
The use of indirect speech has also emerged in Odia. In the 18th century, verbally tricky Odia became the order of the day. The modern term ‘Odia’ was adopted by the Gajapati king. However, scholarly speech is still Sanskritized.
A number of renowned writers have contributed to Odia literature, including Kabibar Radhanath Ray, who introduced a modern outlook to the language. He also wrote many books in the genre. Another well-known writer was Muralidhar Mallick. He was a noted academician and wrote more than 40 books. He died in 2002.
In the 20th century, Pallikabi Nanda Kishore Bal and Gopabandhu Das also wrote in Odia. Others include Kuntala Kumari Sabat, Gangadhar Meher and Umesa Sarakara. The Odia diaspora is large in various countries, with speakers spreading to countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Fiji, and Burma.
The Odia community has a unique behavioural pattern. It is characterized by a mentality that implies that people do not cooperate and do not appreciate other people’s aspirations.
