The Kharia language ( or ) is a Munda language of the Austroasiatic language family, that is primarily spoken by the Kharia people of eastern India. History According to linguist Paul Sidwell, Austroasiatic languages arrived on the coast of Odisha from Southeast Asia about 4000-3500 years ago. Classification Kharia belongs to the Kharia–Juang branch of the Munda language family. Its closest extant relative is the Juang language, but the relationship between Kharia and Juang is remote. The most widely cited classification places Kharia and Juang together as a subgroup of the South Munda branch of the Munda family. However, some earlier classification schemes placed Kharia and Juang together, as an independent branch deriving from the root of the Munda languages, which they named Central Munda. Kharia is in contact with Sadri (the local lingua franca), Mundari, Kurukh, Hindi, and Odia (in Odisha). Distribution Kharia speakers are located in the following districts of India. Jharkhand Simdega district Gumla district Chhattisgarh Surguja district Raigarh district Odisha Sundargarh district Jharsuguda district Phonology References Peterson, John. 2008. "Kharia". In Anderson, Gregory D.S (ed). The Munda languages, 434–507. Routledge Language Family Series 3.New York: Routledge. . External links Online Kharia Dictionary Munda languages Languages of India Endangered languages of India