Assamese language Assamese language Assamese () (also Asamiya) is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language. It is the easternmost Indo-European language; spoken by over 15 million speakers, and serves as a "lingua franca" in the region. Nefamese is an Assamese-based pidgin used in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in Nagaland. Small pockets of Assamese speakers can be found in Bangladesh. The non-linguistic Bengali dialects of Sylhet and North Bengal are linguistically closer to Assamese, though the speakers identify with the Bengali culture and the
Assamese alphabet said to develop proto-Assamese shapes by the 13th century. In the 18th and 19th century, the Assamese script could be divided into three varieties: "Kaitheli" (also called "Lakhari" in Kamrup region, used by non-Brahmins), "Bamuniya" (used by Brahmins, for Sanskrit) and "Garhgaya" (used by state officials of the Ahom kingdom)—among which the "Kaitheli" style was the most popular, with medieval books (like the "Hastir-vidyrnava") and sattras using this style. In the early part of the 19th century, Atmaram Sarmah designed the first Assamese script for printing in Serampore, and the Bengali and Assamese lithography converged to the present standard that