Dehan dialect
Dehan, Dewan, Dheyan, Dhiyan or Cachari dialect is a regional variety of Assamese, spoken mainly in the Cachar district of Barak Valley. More specifically, Dehan speakers
are mainly found in ten villages in the eastern part of Barak River namely Horinagar, Japirbon, Leburbon, Gororbon, Dewan or Dewan Bosti, Narayanpur, Larchingpar, Thaligram, Lakkhichora, and Digli. Though Dehan speakers are located in the same district, however, they are scattered in different places. Out of ten villages, Japirbon is the
biggest and the populous one.
Other than Assamese, Dehan shares its lexical items and linguistic features with Sylheti and Bishnupriya [Manipuri language|Bishnupriya Manipuri] as well, which is due to long language contact apart from being closely related. Dehan is closely related to the Kamrupi and Standard dialects of Assamese.
History
Among the communities of Barak Valley, the Dehans are one of the early settlers as their settlement dates back to 16th century. They entered Cachar during Chilarai’s conquest of Cachar plains, but some of them didn't return to Brahmaputra Valley and made Cachar their permanent home. Chilarai campaigned through Maibong, Manipur, Jaintia, Srihatta and Tripura and finally the plains of Cachar were annexed to the Koch kingdom as Khaspur kingdom in 1562. Later the Koch principality in Cachar was reduced to a small zamindari in and around Khaspur.The Koch-Rajbongshis of Barak Valley are better known as Dehans. They initially had their settlements around Khaspur but later, owing to different socio-political compulsions, they had to branch off to different villages.
Morphology
Grammatical cases
| Cases | Suffix | Example |
| Nominative | none | |
| Ergative | Note: The personal pronouns without a plural or other suffix are not marked. | |
| Accusative | ||
| Genitive | ||
| Dative | ||
| Instrumental | ||
| Locative |
1 = Used after vowel-ending words.