| Desia | |
| Also Known As: | Desiya, Desia Odia |
| Nativename: | Oriya: ଦେଶିଆ|label=none|translit-std=ISO |
| States: | India |
| Region: | Odisha (Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Nabarangpur) & Andhra Pradesh (Vizianagaram District, Alluri Sitharama Raju district, Visakhapatnam District, Anakapalli district) |
| Ethnicity: | Odias |
| Date: | 2011 census |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Indo-Iranian |
| Fam3: | Indo-Aryan |
| Fam4: | Eastern |
| Fam5: | Odia |
| Script: | Odia |
| Lc1: | dso |
| Ld1: | Desiya |
| Lc2: | ort |
| Ld2: | Adivasi Oriya |
| Glotto: | adiv1239 |
| Glottorefname: | Kotia-Adivasi Oriya-Desiya |
Desia,[1] also Desiya or Desia Odia or Koraputi Odia or Southwestern Odia, is an Indo-Aryan language variety (sociolinguistically considered as a dialect of Odia) spoken in Koraput, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Malkangiri districts Odisha and in the hilly regions of Vishakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts of Andhra Pradesh.[2] The variant spoken in Koraput is called Koraputia.
Desia serves as the lingua franca among the different ethnic groups in the area[3] and is the major regional tribal-non-tribal dialect continuum of the undivided Koraput district of the Southwestern Odisha region.[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Desia variety has 21 consonant phonemes, 2 semivowel phonemes and 6 vowel phonemes.[9]
| Front | Central | Back | ||
| High | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Low | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ink/ |
There are no long vowels in Desia just like Standard Odia.
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop/ Affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Trill/Flap | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Lateral approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
Desia shows the loss of retroflex consonant like voiced retroflex lateral approximant pronounced as /link/ (
Oriya: ଳ) which are present in Standard Odia, and a limited usage of retroflex unaspirated nasal (voiced retroflex nasal) pronounced as /ink/ (Oriya: ଣ).[10]