Indo-Aryan

        The dominant language in Assam is Assamese, an Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo European Language family. It has its roots in the Apabhramsa dialects developed from Magadhi Prakrit of the eastern group of Sanskritic languages. The Kamrupa variety of the Apabhramsa dialects made its way into Assam and eventually Assamese was created. That Assamese came into existence in Assam at a very early date can be gauged from the reference by Xuan-Zang, a Chinese traveler who visited Assam in 643A.D.The copper plate inscriptions of the rulers of Kamarupa or Assam from the 5^th through 13^th century A.D. confirm such an observation.

        Banikanta Kakati has divided the Assamese dialects into two major groups: Eastern Assamese and Western Assamese(Kakati 1941). However recent studies have shown that there are four dialect groups namely

1) The eastern Assamese dialects spoken in the districts of Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Sibsagar, Jorhat, Golaghat and Sonitpur.

2) The central Assamese group of dialects spoken primarily in Nagoan and Morigaon districts and in some parts of Sonitpur and Jorhat districts also,

3) The Kamrupi group of dialects are spoken in the districts of Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpeta, Darrang, Kokrajhar and Bongaigoan and

4) The Goalparia group of Assamese dialects spoken primarily in the Dhubri and Golapara districtsa and in certain areas of Kokrajhar and Bongaigoan districts (Moral, 1992).

        The currently prevalent standard Assamese dialect has its roots in Sibsagar located in eastern Assam, when it was made the official language of the state by the British in 1872. Moreover the American Baptist Missionaries used it for literary activities at the same time and gradually it was accepted by the entire Assamese community as the standard norm. However the shift of activity from Sibsagar to Guwahati in the early part of this century has also resulted in a change gradually to this dialect to arrive at its present form which will be referred to as the contemporary standard . Currently the population of Assamese speakers are 12938088 (1991 census).For the sake of linguistic interest it may be noted that Guwahati was largely instrumental in reshaping it. Other Indo-Aryan languages spoken in Assam is Bangla followed by a thin sprinkling of Nepali speakers. Bangla came into existence in Assam only after the Britishers annexed Assam from Myanmar in 1862. However over the years Bangla speakers from undivided Bengal has been coming over and settling in different parts of Assam and hence it has evolved as one of the major language spoken after Assamese (population 4856332) in almost all districts of Assam. Some Nepali speakers are sporodically scattered ( population 432519) in some parts of Nagoan, Darrang, Sonitpur and Lakhimpur districts of Assam. Some Oriya speakers (140782) within the tea tribes of Assam (who came here after the Britishers took over) is also found in various Tea-belts in the Sonitpur, Darrang, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Golaghat and the Tinsukia districts of Assam. Bishnupriya Manipuri (an Indo Aryan language) is spoken primarily in the districts of Cachar in the Barak valley. Their population according to the 1991 census is 39370.