Bhojpuri language
Encyclopedia
Bhojpuri is a language spoken in parts of north-central and eastern India
. It is spoken in the western part of state of Bihar
, the northwestern part of Jharkhand
, and the Purvanchal
region of Uttar Pradesh
(UP), as well as adjoining parts of the Nepal
Terai
. Bhojpuri is also spoken in Guyana
, Suriname
, Fiji
, Trinidad and Tobago
and Mauritius
. The variant of Bhojpuri of the Surinamese Hindustanis is also referred to as Sarnami Hindustani, Sarnami Hindi or just Sarnami and has experienced considerable Creole and Dutch lexical influence. More Indians in Suriname know Bhojpuri compared to Guyana and Trinidad where the language is largely forgotten.
Bhojpuri is part of the Eastern-Hindi or Bengali
continuum of languages which once extended from Assam
and Bengal
to Ballia
. While the rest of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh slowly adopted the new Hindi standard (Khadi Boli), the language remained strong in the areas between Patna
and Benaras.Some scholar trace the literacy history of Bhojpuri from Siddha Sahitya itself, as early as 8th century A.D. Kabir’s contribution of ‘nirgun’ poetry to Sant Sahitya certainly qualifies as recorded literature in Bhojpuri in the 15th century.The nineteenth century has such works as Deviksaracarita by Ramdatta Shukla (1884), Badmasdarpan by Teg Ali Teg (1895), and Jangal me Mangal and Nagari Vilap by Ram Garib Chaube in the later half of the nineteenth century.
The scholar, polymath
and polyglot
Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan wrote some works in Bhojpuri. Other eminent writers include Viveki Rai
. The number of Bhojpuri writers is small compared to the number of speakers. Some other notable Bhojpuri personalities are legendary freedom fighter Swami Sahajanand Saraswati
, first president of India
Rajendra Prasad
, Manoj Bajpai
, and former Indian prime ministers
Lal Bahadur Shastri
and Chandra Shekhar
. Bihar Kokila Padma Shri
Sharda Sinha
is a famous Bhojpuri folk singer.
and 80 million people in Bihar
speak Bhojpuri as their first or second language. There are 6 million Bhojpuri speakers living outside of Bihar and Purvanchal. These areas include Nepal, especially Birgunj, Mauritius
, Fiji
, Suriname
, Guyana
, Uganda
, Singapore
, Trinidad and Tobago
, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
, the United Kingdom
, the Netherlands
, Canada
, and the United States
. This makes the total Bhojpuri speaking population in the world close to 90 million.http://books.google.com.np/books?id=SylBHS8IJAUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bhojpuri+speakers+government+of+india&hl=en However, the official figures of the 2001 Indian Census are much lower, showing 33 million speakers of the Bhojpuri dialect under the Hindi language sub-family.
Bhojpuri dialects, varieties, and creoles are also spoken in various parts of the world, including Brazil
, Fiji
, Guyana
, Mauritius
, South Africa
, Suriname
, and Trinidad and Tobago
. During the late 19th century and early 20th century, many colonizers faced labor shortages and were unable to obtain slaves from Africa due to the abolition of slavery; thus, they imported many Indians as indentured servants to labor on plantations. Today, many Indians in the West Indies, Oceania
, and South America
still speak Bhojpuri as a native or second language.
The Bhojpuri language has been heavily influenced by other languages in many parts of the world. Mauritian Bhojpuri includes many Creole and English words, while the language spoken in Trinidad and Tobago includes Caribbean and English words.
The Sunday Indian, Bhojpuri Association of India and Global Bhojpuri Movement has launched a worldwide movement for the Recognition, Promotion and Preservation of Bhojpuri Language, Art, Culture, Literature and society.
Bhojpuri became one of the bases of the development of the official language of independent India
, Hindi
, in the past century. Bhartendu Harishchandra, who is considered the father of literary Hindi
, was greatly influenced by the tone and style of Bhojpuri in his native region. Further development of Hindi
was taken by prominent laureates such as Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi
and Munshi Premchand from the Bhojpuri-speaking region. Bhikhari Thakur, known as the Shakespeare of Bhojpuri, has also given theater plays including the classics of Bidesiya. Pioneer Dr. Krishna Dev Upadhyaya from Ballia district devoted 60 years to researching and cataloging Bhojpuri folklore. Dr. H. S. Upadhyaya wrote the book Relationships of Hindu family as depicted in Bhojpuri folksongs (1996). Together they have cataloged thousands of Bhojpuri folksongs, riddles and proverbs from the Purvanchal U.P, Bihar, Jharkand and Chotta Nagpuri districts near Bengal.
The Bhojpuri literature has always remained contemporary. It was more of a body of folklore with folk music and poems prevailing. Literature in the written form started in the early 20th century. During the British era, then known as the "Northern Frontier Province language", Bhojpuri adopted a patriotic tone and after independence it turned to community. In later periods, following the low economic development of the Bhojpuri-speaking region, the literary work is more skewed towards the human sentiments and struggles of life.
A recent publication (2009) 'Bhojpuri-Lok Sahitya: Lok Geeton Ki Samajik Sanskritik Sandarbh Evam Prishthbhumi" (Bhojpuri Folk Literature: Social and Cultural Landscape of Folk Songs) by Dr. Dharmveer Singh (Publisher: Chaukhamba Sanskrit Bhavan, P.O. Box 1160, Chowk, Varanasi-221001, India) contains an exhaustive research on the historical and social background of the origin and temporal development of this language in greatest detail. This book is exhaustive in its approach and is a gem for anyone who is interested in Bhojpuri as a language. The most impressive aspect of the book is the collection of folk-songs that the author has gleaned from various sources. With the advent of modern technology and effect of cinema, these folk-songs are becoming extinct. This book preserves not only the songs in a written form but also provides the context in which they should be viewed and appreciated.
script as well as Nasta'liq (Persian) script.
The second was the selection of Kaithi by the government of Bihar as the official script of the courts and administrative offices of the Bihar districts in1880.Thereafter; Kaithi replaced the Persian script as the writing system of record in the judicial courts of Bihar. Additionally, on account of the rate of literacy in Kaithi, the governments of Bihar and NWP&O advocated Kaithi as the medium of written instruction in their primary schools.
and possibly all the educated Muslims in the Bhojpuri speaking region wrote unofficial works in Nasta'liq script.
Bhojpuri speakers not acquainted with Hindi or Urdu would generally not be able to pronounce many of the above phoneme
s. The phonemes /q/, /x/, /ɣ/, /z/ and /f/ are not pronounced by most Bhojpuri-speakers, as they are loans from Persian
.
Furthermore the labio-dental approximant /ʋ/ (va) is often realized as [b] (ba), while the palatal fricative /ʃ/ (sha) and the retroflex Fricative /ʂ/ (sha) are merged with /s/ by many speakers.
1- Standard Bhojpuri (also referred to as Southern Standard), 2- Northern Bhojpuri, 3- Western Bhojpuri
Southern Standard Bhojpuri covers the areas of Bhojpur, Rohtas, Saran, Bhabua, Buxar, Siwan, Gopalganj in Bihar, and Ballia and eastern Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh. One may also come across a local name ‘Chaparahiya’ in Saran.
Northern Bhojpuri covers the areas of Deoria, Gorakhpur and Basti in Uttar Pradesh and parts of Champaran in Bihar. Local names include ‘Gorakhpuri’ for the language in Deoria and eastern Gorakhpur, and ‘Sarwariya’ in western Gorakhpur and Basti. The variety spoken cast of Gandak river between Gorakhpuri Bhojpuri and Maithili in Champaran has a local name Madhesi.
Western Bhojpuri includes the areas of Varanasi, Azamgarh, Ghazipur and Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh ‘Banarasi’ is a local name for the Banaras Bhojpuri. There is a very popular general name ‘ Purabiya’ for (curiously enough) Western Bhojpur, obviously used by Hindi speakers to the west of them.
Some of the very popular local Radio stations in this region have been broadcasting news and entertainment materials in Bhojpuri, although due to Nepali speakers speaking bhojpuri in these radio stations, Bhojpuri sometimes appears awkward. Some of the popular radio stations for Bhojpuri are : Gadhimai FM, Indreni FM, Bijay FM, Rupandehi FM, Samyak FM, Radio Birgunj, Narayani FM and others are in the pipeline such as : Masti FM, Nobel FM, Kadambari FM, Rautahat FM, Gaur FM, Radio Namaste and Madhyabindu FM.
In Kathmandu, Music FM broadcasts Bhojpuri songs and some daily programmes in the language.
Radio Nepal, the state controlled radio broadcasts daily news in Bhojpuri at 6:05 PM local time daily. Above that, the state controlled Nepal Television 2 shows weekly Bhojpuri cultural programmes.
There are at least 5 Bhojpuri Newspapers being circulated on regular basis in this region.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. It is spoken in the western part of state of 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....
, the northwestern part of Jharkhand
Jharkhand
Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east...
, and the Purvanchal
Purvanchal
Purvanchal is a geographic region of north-central India, which comprises the eastern end of Uttar Pradesh state...
region of Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
(UP), as well as adjoining parts of the Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
Terai
Terai
The Terai is a belt of marshy grasslands, savannas, and forests located south of the outer foothills of the Himalaya, the Siwalik Hills, and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and their tributaries. The Terai belongs to the Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands ecoregion...
. Bhojpuri is also spoken in Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
, Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
, Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
and Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
. The variant of Bhojpuri of the Surinamese Hindustanis is also referred to as Sarnami Hindustani, Sarnami Hindi or just Sarnami and has experienced considerable Creole and Dutch lexical influence. More Indians in Suriname know Bhojpuri compared to Guyana and Trinidad where the language is largely forgotten.
Bhojpuri is part of the Eastern-Hindi or Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
continuum of languages which once extended from 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...
and Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
to Ballia
Ballia
Ballia is a city with a municipal board in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The eastern boundary of the city lies at the junction of the Ganges and the Ghaghara...
. While the rest of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh slowly adopted the new Hindi standard (Khadi Boli), the language remained strong in the areas between Patna
Patna
Paṭnā , is the capital of the Indian state of Bihar and the second largest city in Eastern India . Patna is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world...
and Benaras.Some scholar trace the literacy history of Bhojpuri from Siddha Sahitya itself, as early as 8th century A.D. Kabir’s contribution of ‘nirgun’ poetry to Sant Sahitya certainly qualifies as recorded literature in Bhojpuri in the 15th century.The nineteenth century has such works as Deviksaracarita by Ramdatta Shukla (1884), Badmasdarpan by Teg Ali Teg (1895), and Jangal me Mangal and Nagari Vilap by Ram Garib Chaube in the later half of the nineteenth century.
The scholar, polymath
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
and polyglot
Multilingualism
Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...
Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan wrote some works in Bhojpuri. Other eminent writers include Viveki Rai
Viveki Rai
Viveki Rai is a famous literary figure of Hindi & Bhojpuri literature. He belongs to Sonwani village in Ghazipur. He got many awards from U P Govt. He has written more than 50 books. Sonamati is a popular novel of Mr.Rai...
. The number of Bhojpuri writers is small compared to the number of speakers. Some other notable Bhojpuri personalities are legendary freedom fighter Swami Sahajanand Saraswati
Swami Sahajanand Saraswati
Swami Sahajanand Saraswati , born in a Jijhoutia Brahminfamily of Ghazipur of Uttar Pradesh state of India, was an ascetic of Dashnami Order of Adi Shankara Sampradaya as well as a nationalist and peasant leader of India...
, first president of India
President of India
The President of India is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. President of India is also the formal head of all the three branches of Indian Democracy - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary...
Rajendra Prasad
Rajendra Prasad
Dr. Rajendra Prasad was an Indian politician and educator. He was one of the architects of the Indian Republic, having drafted its first constitution and serving as the first president of independent India...
, Manoj Bajpai
Manoj Bajpai
Manoj Bajpai , also credited as Manoj Bajpayee, is an Indian film actor, known for playing offbeat and unconventional roles. He first shot into fame with his breakthrough role in Ram Gopal Varma's 1998 film Satya.-Early life:...
, and former Indian prime ministers
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
Lal Bahadur Shastri
Lal Bahadur Shastri
Lal Bahadur Srivastava Shastri was the second Prime Minister of the Republic of India and a significant figure in the Indian independence movement.-Early life:...
and Chandra Shekhar
Chandra Shekhar
Chandra Shekhar Singh was the eighth Prime Minister of India.-Early years:He was born on 1 July 1927 to a Rajput farming family in Ibrahimpatti - Ballia in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Chandra Shekhar Singh did his Master of Arts at Allahabad University. He was known as a firebrand in student politics...
. Bihar Kokila Padma Shri
Padma Shri
Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
Sharda Sinha
Sharda Sinha
-Background:Sharda Sinha sings Angika and Bhojpuri songs, has received Padma Shri for her contribution to music. Prayag Sangeet Samiti organised Basant Mahotsava at Prayag where Padma Shri Sharda Sinha presented numerous songs based on the theme of spring season, where the advent of spring was...
is a famous Bhojpuri folk singer.
Number of speakers
According to an article published in Times of India, a total of 150 million people in India speak Bhojpuri. An estimated 70 million people in Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
and 80 million people in 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....
speak Bhojpuri as their first or second language. There are 6 million Bhojpuri speakers living outside of Bihar and Purvanchal. These areas include Nepal, especially Birgunj, Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
, Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
, Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Lesser Antilles chain, namely in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean....
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. This makes the total Bhojpuri speaking population in the world close to 90 million.http://books.google.com.np/books?id=SylBHS8IJAUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bhojpuri+speakers+government+of+india&hl=en However, the official figures of the 2001 Indian Census are much lower, showing 33 million speakers of the Bhojpuri dialect under the Hindi language sub-family.
Bhojpuri dialects, varieties, and creoles are also spoken in various parts of the world, including Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
, Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
, and Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
. During the late 19th century and early 20th century, many colonizers faced labor shortages and were unable to obtain slaves from Africa due to the abolition of slavery; thus, they imported many Indians as indentured servants to labor on plantations. Today, many Indians in the West Indies, Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
, and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
still speak Bhojpuri as a native or second language.
The Bhojpuri language has been heavily influenced by other languages in many parts of the world. Mauritian Bhojpuri includes many Creole and English words, while the language spoken in Trinidad and Tobago includes Caribbean and English words.
The Sunday Indian, Bhojpuri Association of India and Global Bhojpuri Movement has launched a worldwide movement for the Recognition, Promotion and Preservation of Bhojpuri Language, Art, Culture, Literature and society.
Bhojpuri literature
The Bhojpuri-speaking region, due to its rich tradition of creating leaders for building post-independence India such as first President Dr. Rajendra Prasad followed by many eminent politicians and humanitarians like Dr. Krishna Dev Upadhyaya, was never devoid of intellectual prominence which is evident in its literature.Bhojpuri became one of the bases of the development of the official language of independent India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
, in the past century. Bhartendu Harishchandra, who is considered the father of literary Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
, was greatly influenced by the tone and style of Bhojpuri in his native region. Further development of Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
was taken by prominent laureates such as Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi
Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi
Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi was a noted Indian Hindi writer. Adhunikkaal, or the Modern period of the Hindi literature is divided into four phases, and he represents the second phase, known as the Dwivedi Yug after him, which was preceded by the Bharatendu Yug , followed by the Chhayavad Yug and the...
and Munshi Premchand from the Bhojpuri-speaking region. Bhikhari Thakur, known as the Shakespeare of Bhojpuri, has also given theater plays including the classics of Bidesiya. Pioneer Dr. Krishna Dev Upadhyaya from Ballia district devoted 60 years to researching and cataloging Bhojpuri folklore. Dr. H. S. Upadhyaya wrote the book Relationships of Hindu family as depicted in Bhojpuri folksongs (1996). Together they have cataloged thousands of Bhojpuri folksongs, riddles and proverbs from the Purvanchal U.P, Bihar, Jharkand and Chotta Nagpuri districts near Bengal.
The Bhojpuri literature has always remained contemporary. It was more of a body of folklore with folk music and poems prevailing. Literature in the written form started in the early 20th century. During the British era, then known as the "Northern Frontier Province language", Bhojpuri adopted a patriotic tone and after independence it turned to community. In later periods, following the low economic development of the Bhojpuri-speaking region, the literary work is more skewed towards the human sentiments and struggles of life.
A recent publication (2009) 'Bhojpuri-Lok Sahitya: Lok Geeton Ki Samajik Sanskritik Sandarbh Evam Prishthbhumi" (Bhojpuri Folk Literature: Social and Cultural Landscape of Folk Songs) by Dr. Dharmveer Singh (Publisher: Chaukhamba Sanskrit Bhavan, P.O. Box 1160, Chowk, Varanasi-221001, India) contains an exhaustive research on the historical and social background of the origin and temporal development of this language in greatest detail. This book is exhaustive in its approach and is a gem for anyone who is interested in Bhojpuri as a language. The most impressive aspect of the book is the collection of folk-songs that the author has gleaned from various sources. With the advent of modern technology and effect of cinema, these folk-songs are becoming extinct. This book preserves not only the songs in a written form but also provides the context in which they should be viewed and appreciated.
- Bhojpuri Writers-Viveki Rai Is a famous Bhojpuri writer.
Writing scripts
Bhojpuri over the course of time has been written in various scripts by various people. Bhojpuri until late 19th century was commonly written in KaithiKaithi
Kaithi , also called "Kayathi" or "Kayasthi", is the name of a historical script used widely in parts of North India, primarily in the former North-Western Provinces, Oudh and Bihar...
script as well as Nasta'liq (Persian) script.
Kaithi
Kaithi script was used for administrative purposes in the Mughal era for writing Bhojpuri, Maithili, Bangla, Urdu, Magahi and Hindi from at least 16th century up to the first decade of 20th century. Government gazetteers report that Kaithi was used in a few districts of Bihar through the1960s.It is possible that Kaithi is still used today in very limited capacity in these districts and in rural areas of north India. The significance of Kaithi grew when the British governments of the Bengal Presidency (of which Bihar and some southern districts of Nepal was territory) and the NorthWestern Provinces & Oudh (hereafter, NWP&O) selected the script for use in administration and education. The first impetus of growth was the standardization of written Kaithi in 1875 by the government of NWP&O for the purpose of adapting the script for use in formal education.The second was the selection of Kaithi by the government of Bihar as the official script of the courts and administrative offices of the Bihar districts in1880.Thereafter; Kaithi replaced the Persian script as the writing system of record in the judicial courts of Bihar. Additionally, on account of the rate of literacy in Kaithi, the governments of Bihar and NWP&O advocated Kaithi as the medium of written instruction in their primary schools.
Nasta'liq (Persian)
Before 1880 all the administrative works in Bihar was done in this Persian scriptPerso-Arabic script
The Persian or Perso-Arabic alphabet is a writing system based on the Arabic script. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic alphabet was adapted to the Persian language, adding four letters: , , , and . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add other letters...
and possibly all the educated Muslims in the Bhojpuri speaking region wrote unofficial works in Nasta'liq script.
Devanagari
By 1894, official works were carried out in both Kaithi and Devanagari in Bihar which probably started giving way to replacement of Kaithi completely by Devanagari. At present almost all the Bhojpuri works are done in Devanagari even in the overseas islands where Bhojpuri is spoken.Bhojpuri Media
- In Bhojpuri many magazine and papers published from U P, Bihar West Bengal & Assam. The Sunday Indian, Bhojpuri is world's only regular National News Magazine in Bhojpuri published by Planman Media, owned by Prof. Arindam Chaudhary and Edited by Onkareshwar Pandey. Sanesh this is a first quarterly magazine from north east GuwahatiGuwahatiGuwahati, Pragjyotishpura in ancient Assam formerly known as Gauhati is a metropolis,the largest city of Assam in India and ancient urban area in North East India, with a population of 963,429. It is also the largest metropolitan area in north-eastern India...
. Bhojpuri Lok Lucknow - Mahuaa TVMahuaa TVMahuaa TV is the first of its kind Bhojpuri channel which unlocks the Bhojpuri heartland.Now Mahuaa TV is expanding. This 24 Hr Bhojpuri General Entertainment channel, seeks to identify with and meet the needs of the Bhojpuri Community through its programs which have a strong local essence and the...
and Hamar TV are the Bhojpuri Channel.
Phonology
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Labio- dental Labiodental consonant In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.-Labiodental consonant in IPA:The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental/ Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Retroflex Retroflex consonant A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology... |
Post-alv. Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate... /Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Uvular Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
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| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | (ɳ) | |||||||||||||
| Plosive Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... |
p pʰ |
b bʱ |
t̪ t̪ʰ |
d̪ d̪ʱ |
ʈ ʈʰ |
ɖ ɖʱ |
k kʰ |
ɡ ɡʱ |
q | |||||||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
tʃ tʃʰ |
dʒ dʒʱ |
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| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
f | s | z | ʃ | x | ɣ | ɦ | |||||||||
| Tap or Flap Flap consonant In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another.-Contrast with stops and trills:... |
ɾ | (ɽ) (ɽʱ) |
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| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
ʋ | l | j | |||||||||||||
Bhojpuri speakers not acquainted with Hindi or Urdu would generally not be able to pronounce many of the above phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s. The phonemes /q/, /x/, /ɣ/, /z/ and /f/ are not pronounced by most Bhojpuri-speakers, as they are loans from Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
.
Furthermore the labio-dental approximant /ʋ/ (va) is often realized as [b] (ba), while the palatal fricative /ʃ/ (sha) and the retroflex Fricative /ʂ/ (sha) are merged with /s/ by many speakers.
Comparison of Dialects of Bhojpuri
Bhojpuri has three dialects identified in the literature as1- Standard Bhojpuri (also referred to as Southern Standard), 2- Northern Bhojpuri, 3- Western Bhojpuri
Southern Standard Bhojpuri covers the areas of Bhojpur, Rohtas, Saran, Bhabua, Buxar, Siwan, Gopalganj in Bihar, and Ballia and eastern Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh. One may also come across a local name ‘Chaparahiya’ in Saran.
Northern Bhojpuri covers the areas of Deoria, Gorakhpur and Basti in Uttar Pradesh and parts of Champaran in Bihar. Local names include ‘Gorakhpuri’ for the language in Deoria and eastern Gorakhpur, and ‘Sarwariya’ in western Gorakhpur and Basti. The variety spoken cast of Gandak river between Gorakhpuri Bhojpuri and Maithili in Champaran has a local name Madhesi.
Western Bhojpuri includes the areas of Varanasi, Azamgarh, Ghazipur and Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh ‘Banarasi’ is a local name for the Banaras Bhojpuri. There is a very popular general name ‘ Purabiya’ for (curiously enough) Western Bhojpur, obviously used by Hindi speakers to the west of them.
Bhojpuri in Nepal
Bhojpuri is spoken by at least 2.5 million people in Nepal (9% of the total population of Nepal), the districts categorised as Bhojpuria districts lying between the Mithilanchal and Awadh regions of Nepal are: Rautahat, Bara, Parsa, Chitwan, Nawalparasi and Rupandehi. As people from hills have migrated in large numbers to these districts the native Bhojpuri language is suffering from adulteration and as Nepali has been imposed on people of these regions, most of the adulteration is due to Nepali language. However, the Nepali speakers in this region have somehow become modest speakers of Bhojpuri and can understand Bhojpuri quite well. And due to similarity, Maithili and Awadhi speakerscan also understand Bhojpuri quite well. Total Number of People who can understand the language in Nepal exceeds 12 million however who speak it as first or second tongue are around 4 million.Some of the very popular local Radio stations in this region have been broadcasting news and entertainment materials in Bhojpuri, although due to Nepali speakers speaking bhojpuri in these radio stations, Bhojpuri sometimes appears awkward. Some of the popular radio stations for Bhojpuri are : Gadhimai FM, Indreni FM, Bijay FM, Rupandehi FM, Samyak FM, Radio Birgunj, Narayani FM and others are in the pipeline such as : Masti FM, Nobel FM, Kadambari FM, Rautahat FM, Gaur FM, Radio Namaste and Madhyabindu FM.
In Kathmandu, Music FM broadcasts Bhojpuri songs and some daily programmes in the language.
Radio Nepal, the state controlled radio broadcasts daily news in Bhojpuri at 6:05 PM local time daily. Above that, the state controlled Nepal Television 2 shows weekly Bhojpuri cultural programmes.
There are at least 5 Bhojpuri Newspapers being circulated on regular basis in this region.
See also
- Hindustani languageHindustani languageHindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...
- Bhojpuri cinemaBhojpuri cinemaBhojpuri films are films in the Bhojpuri language, mainly watched by people from Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh in North India and Terai in southern Nepal.- Overview :...
- Languages with official status in India
- List of Indian languages by total speakers
- List of Bhojpuri poets
- Languages of NepalLanguages of NepalThere are some 120 native languages of Nepal, belonging to the Indo-Aryan, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian language families.The official language of Nepal is Nepali , formerly called Khaskura then Gorkhali. The 2001 census counted 11 million native speakers in Nepal and it is spoken as...