About Odia (Oriya) Language
According to Wikipedia.org, Odia language is an Indo-Aryan language. It is spoken by 50 million speakers as this language is recognized officially. The Indian constitution is using this language officially for its purposes. Odia is also the official language of Odisha (Oriya) which is a prominent Indian state. This language has several dialects but Mughalbandi (Coastal Odia) happens to be the standard dialect. It is also the official language for education in this state. Odia belongs to the eastern group of the Indo-Aryan family. It is derived from Ardhamagadhi Prakrit. You will be surprised to know that Odia shares a lot of similarities with Bengali. Even the first classic poetry started to shape up with this language. This language is heavily inspired by Dravidian languages. The lexicon is also associated with Tamil, Telugu, and Marathi.