Assamese people Assam" by Europeans till 1821, when the Ahom kingdom became part of the Burmese Empire. After Assam became part of British India, the newly constituted province came to be known by its new anglicised name Assam after its largest constituent, and the name "Assamese / Asamiya" came to be associated with the Assamese language which was erstwhile known as Kamrupi. According to Yasmin Saikia, "the group that now identifies as Tai–Ahom were historically seen as the Assamese people. However, the term ethnic Assamese is now associated by the Indian government at Delhi with the Assamese speaking Indo–Aryan, Tibeto-Burman and Austric
Assamese language realized as or as a retroflex approximant. Assamese and Sylheti are unusual among Eastern Indo-Aryan languages for the presence of the (which, phonetically, varies between velar () and a uvular () pronunciations, depending on the speaker and speech register), historically the MIA sibilant has lenited to and (non-initially). The derivation of the velar fricative from the coronal sibilant is evident in the name of the language in Assamese; some Assamese prefer to write or instead of or to reflect the sound change. The voiceless velar fricative is absent in the West Goalpariya dialects though it is found in lesser extent