Sora language
Encyclopedia
Sora is a Munda
Munda languages
-Anderson :Gregory Anderson's 1999 proposal is as follows. Individual languages are highlighted in italics.*North Munda **Korku**Kherwarian***Santhali***Mundari*South Munda **Kharia–Juang***Juang***Kharia...

 language of India
Languages of India
The languages of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages—Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages...

, spoken by some 288,000 native speakers (1997) in South Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

 in eastern India, mainly in the Ganjam District
Ganjam District
Ganjam district is a district in the Indian state of Orissa located on the border of Andhra Pradesh. Ganjam's total area is 8,070 km² . Its population is approximately 2,704,056.Ganjam is known for its beaches bordering the Bay of Bengal, the most famous ones being Gopalpur and Dhavaleshwar...

, but also in the Koraput
Koraput District
Koraput is a tribal dominated district of Orissa, India, and known for rich and diverse types of mineral deposits. It is located along the Eastern Ghats.-History:...

 and Phulbani districts; other communities exist in Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...

 (Srikakulam District), Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....

, Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....

, Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

, West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

, and the Plains Division of Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...

.

Although the name Sora is also pronounced Savara
Savara language
The Savara language is a South-Central Dravidian language. It is known to be written using the Oriya and Telugu scripts, as well as its own writing system....

,
it is not related to the Dravidian language that is also called Savara.

It is written in the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

 and the Telugu script
Telugu script
Telugu script, an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts, is used to write the Telugu language, a language found in the South-Central Indian state of Andhra Pradesh as well as several other neighboring states. The Telugu script is derived from the Bhattiprolu script...

, and also in the Sorang Sompeng
Sorang Sompeng
Sorang Sompeng script is used to write in Sora, a Munda language with 273,911 speakers in India. The script was created by Mangei Gomango in 1936 and is used in religious contexts...

 script devised for the language in 1936.

Sora people have the family name or surname as Savara. This language belongs to Munda Division of Austroasiatic language family. This language is spoken in Vizianagaram and Srikakulam Districts of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa in India. Mr.G.V.Ramesh, MLE Linguist, Rajiv Vidya Mission, School Education Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh with the help of Mr.Mark Penny, Computer Linguistic Copnsultant, SIL is developing Textbooks and Multilingual Dictionary for Multilingual Educatuion Programme for the Sora Community Children. ITDA, Sitampeta, Srikakulam and ITDA, Parvatipuram, Vizaianagaram are taking care of welfare of Sora people and its community. Late Gidugu Venkat Rama murthi has done a wonderful job for the welfare of Sora community. He has published English-Sora and Sora–English Dictionaries and Primers to educate the Sora People.
Sora was one of the subjects of Ironbound Films
Ironbound Films
Ironbound Films is an independent documentary film production company. Their films often focus on stories of how people succeed and fail to connect. Their 2008 film The Linguists and 2010 film The New Recruits, were about characters whose missteps often undermined their stated intentions but also...

' 2008 American documentary film The Linguists
The Linguists
The Linguists is an independent 2008 American documentary film produced by Ironbound Films about language extinction and language documentation...

, in which two linguists attempted to document
Language documentation
Language documentation is the process by which a language is documented from a documentary linguistics perspective. It aims to “to provide a comprehensive record of the linguistic practices characteristic of a given speech community”...

 several moribund languages.

Further reading

  • Veṅkaṭarāmamūrti, G. (1986). Sora–English dictionary. Delhi: Mittal Publication.

External links

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