Bhojpuri language

Bhojpuri is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in east-central region of India and the Terairegion of Nepal. It is chiefly spoken in western Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.Sociolinguistically, Bhojpuri is often considered one of several Hindi dialects. The language is a minority language in Fiji, Guyana, Mauritius, South Africa, Surinameand Trinidad and Tobago.

Fiji Hindi, an official language of Fiji, is a variant of Awadhi and Bhojpuri. Caribbean Hindustani, another variant of Awadhi and Bhojpuri, is spoken by the Indo-Caribbean people. It has experienced lexical influence from Caribbean English in Trinidad and Tobago and in Guyana. In Suriname, languages that have lexically influenced it include Sranan Tongo Creole, Surinamese Dutch and English. Another dialect is spoken in Mauritius; its use is declining. As of 2000, it is spoken by about 5% of the country’s population.

Name
History
Geographic distribution
Dialects
Phonology
Writing system
Politeness
Status
Literature
Media
Common words
- Weekdays
- Common phrases
Example text
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Name

The word Bhojpuri is derived from Bhojpur. After the conquest of Chero and Ujjainiya Rajputs in 12th century, the Ujjainiyas, who were the descendants of Raja Bhojcaptured Shahabad and named their Capital Bhojpur (City of Raja Bhoj). The seat of their government were Bhojpur village which was near Dumraon in Buxar. Two villages named Chhotka Bhojpur and Barka Bhojpur still exist in Buxar, where the ruins of their Navratna Fortress still can be seen. Slowly the word Bhojpurbecame the synonyms of the Shahabad or Arrah region (Today’s Bhojpur district, Buxar, Kaimur and Rohtas) and the adjective Bhojpuri or Bhojpuriya extended to mean the language or people of Bhojpur and even beyond it. Apart from Bhojpuri in the Eastern UP and Western Bihar, there were other names also for the language and people, at different places, the Bhojpuriya in Mughal armies were used to called Buxariya. In Bengal, they called Paschhimas(Westerners) and Bhojpuri people also called them Deshwali or Khoṭṭa, in upper provinces like Oudh they called Purabiya. Besides these, Banarasi, Chhaprahiya, and Bangarahi has also used for the langauage and People. Rahul Sankrityayan has suggested two names for it i.e Mallika or Malli(due to ancient kingdom of Malla) and Kashiki (due to ancient Kashi). The Girmityas who were taken to British colonies called it Hindustani and it became Sarnami Hindustani in Suriname and Caribbean Hindustani in Caribbean.

History

Bhojpuri is a descendant of Magadhi Prakrit which started taking in shape during the reign of Vardhana dynasty. Bāṇabhaṭṭa, in his Harshacharita has mentioned two poets named Isānchandra and Benibhārata who used to write in local language instead of Prakrit and Sanskrit. The earliest form of Bhojpuri can be traced in the Siddha Sahitya and Charyapada as early as 8th century A.D.. Between 11th to 14th century A.D. the Folklores like Lorikayan, Sorathi Birjabhar etc came in to existence. In 15th to 18th century, Kabir and other saints created many Bhajans in Bhojpuri.

Between 1838 to 1917, many Bhojpuriyas were taken to British colonies like Mauritius, Suriname and Caribbean islands were Bhojpuri language also went. Music traditions like Chutney music, Baithak Gana, Geet Gawanai took birth in those countries.

Statue named Baba en Maaicommemorating the arrival of first Indian couple in Suriname

In 19th century, notable works like Devakshara Charita, Badmash Darpanwere published. Bhikhari Thakur, in 20th century contributed significantly to Bhojpuri literature and theatre with his notable plays like Bidesiya, Beti Bechwa, Gabarghichor and novels like Bindia and Phulsunghi were published. In 1962, the first Bhojpuri film, Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo was released and became the founding stone of the Bhojpuri film industry.

Geographic distribution

The Bhojpuri-speaking region covers the area of 73,000 square kilometres approximately in India and Nepal and borders the Awadhi-speaking region to the west, the Nepali-speaking region to the north, the Magahi and Maithili-speaking regions to the east and the Magahi and Bagheli-speaking regions to the south. In Nepal, Bhojpuri is a major language. Bhojpuri-speaking Muslims live in Bangladesh. Their population is lower than that of Bhojpuri speakers in Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji and Caribbean nations.

Bhojpuri Speakers living in different regions of India
(Note:10 lakh = 1 million; 1 lakh = 100,000)

Bhojpuri is spoken by descendants of indentured labourers brought in the 19th and early 20th centuries for work in plantations in British colonies. These Bhojpuri speakers live in Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Fiji, Jamaica, South Africa and other parts of the Caribbean.

Dialects

Bhojpuri has several dialects: Southern Standard Bhojpuri, Northern Standard Bhojpuri, Western Standard Bhojpuri,and Nagpuria Bhojpuri.

Southern Standard Bhojpuri is prevalent in the Shahabad district (Buxar, Bhojpur, Rohtas, and Kaimur districts) and the Saran region (Saran, Siwan and Gopalganjdistricts) in Bihar, and the eastern Azamgarh (Ballia and Mau districts) and Varanasi (eastern part of Ghazipur district) regions in Uttar Pradesh. The dialect is also known as Kharwari. It can be further divided into Shahabadi, Chhaprahiya and Pachhimahi.

Northern Bhojpuri is common in the western Tirhut division (east and west Champaran districts) in Bihar, and Gorakhpur division (Deoria, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, and Maharajganj districts) and Basti division (Basti, Sidharthanagar, and Sant Kabir Nagar districts) in Uttar Pradesh. It is also spoken in Nepal.

Western Bhojpuri is prevalent in the areas of Varanasi (Varanasi, Chandauli, Jaunpur, and the western part of Ghazipur district), Azamgarh (Azamgarh district), and Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Sant Ravidas Nagar, and Bhadohi districts) in Uttar Pradesh. Banarasi is a local name for Bhojpuri, named after Banaras. Other names for Western Bhojpuri include Purbi and Benarsi.

Nagpuria Bhojpuri is the southernmost popular dialect, found in the Chota Nagpur Plateau of Jharkhand, particularly parts of Palamau and Ranchi. It has been influenced more by the Magahi language than by other dialects. It is sometimes referred to as Sadari.

A more specific classification recognises the dialects of Bhojpuri as Bhojpuri Tharu, Domra, Madhesi, Musahari, Northern Standard Bhojpuri (Basti, Gorakhpuri, Sarawaria), Southern Standard Bhojpuri (Kharwari), and Western Standard Bhojpuri (Benarsi, Purbi).

Phonology

Vowels
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ɪ		u
Close-mid	e	ə	o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open	æ	ɑ

Consonants
		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	(Alveolo-) palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m		n	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p	t		ʈ	tɕ	k
	voiced	b	d		ɖ	dʑ	ɡ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		ʈʰ	tɕʰ	kʰ
	breathy voiced	bʱ	dʱ		ɖʱ	dʑʱ	ɡʱ
Fricative				s				h
Rhotic	plain			ɾ	ɽ
Rhotic	aspirated			ɾʱ	ɽʱ
Approximant		w~ʋ		l		j

Bhojpuri is, sociolinguistically, one of the seven Hindi languages (Haryanvi, Braj, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, Bagheli, and Kannauji). Of the seven, Bhojpuri has the most allophonic variations in vowels.

Bhojpuri has 6 vowel phonemes and 10 vocoids. The higher vowels are relatively tense, and the lower vowels are relatively lax. The language has 31 consonant phonemes and 34 contoids (6 bilabial, 4 apico-dental, 5 apico-alveolar, 7 retroflex, 6 alveo-palatal, 5 dorso-velar, and 1 glottal).

Linguist Robert L. Trammell published the phonology of Northern Standard Bhojpuri in 1971. According to him, the syllable system is peak type: every syllable has the vowel phoneme as the highest point of sonority. Codas may consist of one, two, or three consonants. Vowels occur as simple peaks or as peak nuclei in diphthongs. The intonation system involves 4 pitch levels and 3 terminal contours.

Writing system

Bhojpuri story written in Kaithi script by Babu Rama Smaran Lal in 1898

Bhojpuri was historically written in Kaithiscript, but since 1894 Devanagari has served as the primary script. Kaithi is now rarely used for Bhojpuri.

Kaithi script was used for administrative purposes in the Mughal era for writing Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Maithili, Magahi, and Hindustani from at least the 16th century up to the first decade of the 20th century. Government gazetteers report that Kaithi was used in a few districts of Bihar throughout the 1960s. Bhojpuri residents of India who moved to British colonies in Africa, the Indian Ocean, and the Caribbean in the 19th and early 20th centuries used both Kaithi and Devanagari scripts.

Signboard at Purbi Gumti Arrah along with Persian script (on the right side) and Roman script (above). “Lock no. 11” is written on the board in Bhojpuri.

By 1894 both Kaithi and Devanagari became common scripts to write official texts in Bihar. At present almost all Bhojpuri texts are written in Devanagari, even in islands outside of India where Bhojpuri is spoken. In Mauritius, Kaithi script was historically considered informal, and Devanagari was sometimes spelled as Devanagri. In modern Mauritius, the major script is Devanagari.

Politeness

Bhojpuri syntax and vocabulary reflects a three-tier system of politeness. Any verb can be conjugated through these tiers. The verb to come in Bhojpuri is aanaand the verb to speak is bolna. The imperatives come! and speak! can be conjugated in five ways, each marking subtle variation in politeness and propriety. These permutations exclude a host of auxiliary verbs and expressions, which can be added to verbs to add another degree of subtle variation. For extremely polite or formal situations, the pronoun is generally omitted.

Literary	āō	bōl
Casual and intimate	āō	bōl
Polite and intimate	āv’	bōl’
Formal yet intimate	āīñ	bōlīñ
Polite and formal	āīñ	bōlīñ
Extremely formal	āwal jā’e	bōlal jā’e

Similarly, adjectives are marked for politeness and formality. The adjective yourhas several forms with different tones of politeness: tum (casual and intimate), “tōhār” (polite and intimate), “t’hār” (formal yet intimate), rā’ur (polite and formal) and āpke (extremely formal). Although there are many tiers of politeness, Bhojpuri speakers mainly use the form tum to address a younger individual and aap for an individual who is older, or holds a higher position in workplace situations.

Status

Greater official recognition of Bhojpuri, such as by inclusion in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India, has been demanded. In 2018, Bhojpuri was given second-language status in Jharkhand state of India. It is also an official language in Fiji as Fiji Hindi and holds the status of a recognised national language in Nepal.

Bhojpuri is taught in matriculation and at the higher secondary level in the Bihar School Education Board and the Board of High School and Intermediate Education Uttar Pradesh. It is also taught in various universities in India, such as Veer Kunwar Singh University, Banaras Hindu University,Nalanda Open University, and Dr. Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University.

Literature

Lorikayan, the story of Veer Lorik contains Bhojpuri folklore from Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Bhikhari Thakur’s Bidesiya is a play, written as a book. Phool Daliyais a well-known book by Prasiddh Narayan Singh. It comprises poems of veer ras(A style of writing) on the theme of azaadi (Freedom) about his experiences in the Quit India movement and India’s struggle with poverty after the country gained independence.

Media

Many Bhojpuri magazines and papers are published in Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh. Several Bhojpuri newspapers are available locally in North India; they are not wealthy enough to be published online. Parichhan is a contemporary literary-cultural Maithili-Bhojpuri magazine, published by a Maithili-Bhojpuri academy and the government of Delhi, and edited by Parichay Das. The Sunday Indian, Bhojpuri is a regular national news magazine in Bhojpuri. Aakhar is a monthly online Bhojpuri literature magazine. Other media in Bhojpuri include Lok Lucknow, and the channels Mahuaa TV and Hamar TV. Bhojpuri Wikipedia was launched in 2003.

Common words

Weekdays

English	Bhojpuri (Latin script)	𑂦𑂷𑂔𑂣𑂳𑂩𑂲 (𑂍𑂰𑂨𑂟𑂲 𑂪𑂱𑂎𑂰𑂆; Kaithi)	भोजपुरी (देवनागरी लिपि; Devanagari)
Sunday	Eitwaar	𑂉𑂞𑂫𑂰𑂩	एतवार
Monday	Somaar	𑂮𑂷𑂧𑂰𑂩	सोमार
Tuesday	Mangar	𑂧𑂁𑂏𑂩	मंगर
Wednesday	Budhh	𑂥𑂳𑂡	बुध
Thursday	Bifey	𑂥𑂱𑂨𑂤𑂵	बियफे
Friday	Sukkar	𑂮𑂴𑂍𑂩	सूकर
Saturday	Sanichar	𑂮𑂢𑂱𑂒𑂩	सनिचर

Common phrases

English	Bhojpuri	𑂦𑂷𑂔𑂣𑂳𑂩𑂲 (Kaithi)	भोजपुरी
Hello	Raam Raam / Parnaam	𑂩𑂰𑂧 𑂩𑂰𑂧/ 𑂣𑂩𑂝𑂰𑂧	राम राम / परणाम
Welcome/Please come in	Aain na	𑂄𑂆𑂁 𑂢𑂰	आईं ना
How are you?	Ka haal ba? / kaisan hava?	𑂍𑂰 𑂯𑂰𑂪 𑂥𑂰?/𑂍𑂆𑂮𑂢 𑂯𑂫ऽ?	का हाल बा? / कइसन हवऽ?
I’m good. And you?	Hum theek baani. Aur rauwa?	𑂯𑂧 𑂘𑂱𑂍 𑂥𑂰𑂢𑂲𑂾𑂄𑂈𑂩 𑂩𑂈𑂫𑂰? /𑂯𑂧 𑂘𑂱𑂍 𑂯𑂖𑂱𑂾 𑂄𑂈𑂩 𑂄𑂣?	हम ठीक बानी। अउर रउवा? / हम ठीक हञि। अउर आप?
What is your name?	Tohaar naav ka ha? / Raur naav ka ha?	𑂞𑂷𑂯𑂰𑂩 𑂢𑂰𑂀𑂫 𑂍𑂰 𑂯ऽ?/𑂩𑂰𑂈𑂩 𑂢𑂰𑂀𑂫 𑂍𑂰 𑂯ऽ?	तोहार नाँव का ह? / राउर नाँव का ह?
My name is …	Hamar naav … ha	𑂯𑂧𑂰𑂩 𑂢𑂰𑂀𑂫 … 𑂯ऽ	हमार नाँव … ह
What’s up?	Kaa hot aa?	𑂍𑂰 𑂯𑂷𑂞𑂰?	का होताऽ?
I love you	Hum tohse pyaar kare ni / Hum tohra se pyaar kare ni	𑂯𑂧 𑂞𑂷𑂯 𑂮𑂵 𑂣𑂹𑂨𑂰𑂩 𑂍𑂩𑂵𑂢𑂲/ 𑂯𑂧 𑂞𑂷𑂯𑂩𑂰 𑂮𑂵 𑂣𑂹𑂨𑂰𑂩 𑂍𑂩𑂵𑂢𑂲𑂩 𑂍𑂩𑂵𑂢𑂲	हम तोहसे प्यार करे नी / हम तोहरा से प्यार करे नी

Example text

The following is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in four languages:

Bhojpuri

Kaithi :-

Devanagari:-

अनुच्छेद १: सबहि लोकानि आजादे जन्मेला आउर ओखिनियो के बराबर सम्मान आओर अधिकार प्राप्त हवे। ओखिनियो के पास समझ-बूझ आउर अंत:करण के आवाज होखता आओर हुनको के दोसरा के साथ भाईचारे के बेवहार करे के होखला।

Hindi – अनुच्छेद १: सभी मनुष्यों को गौरव और अधिकारों के मामले में जन्मजात स्वतन्त्रता और समानता प्राप्त हैं। उन्हें बुद्धि और अन्तरात्मा की देन प्राप्त है और परस्पर उन्हें भाईचारे के भाव से बर्ताव करना चाहिये।
Sarnámi Hindustani (a dialect of Caribbean Hindustani) – Aadhiaai 1: Sab djanne aadjádi aur barabar paidaa bhailèn, iddjat aur hak mê. Ohi djanne ke lage sab ke samadj-boedj aur hierdaai hai aur doesare se sab soemmat sè, djaane-maane ke chaahin.
English – Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.