Bhojpuri language

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Bhojpuri
भोजपुरी bhōjapurī

Spoken in: India, Nepal, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore, United States, Réunion

Region: Nepal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal

Total speakers: 76 million

Language family: Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Indo-Aryan
Eastern Group
Bihari
Bhojpuri

Writing system: Devanagari, Kaithi

Language codes

ISO 639-1: bh

ISO 639-2: bho

ISO 639-3: bho

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Bhojpuri is a popular regional 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, as well as an adjoining area of southern plains of Nepal. Bhojpuri is also spoken in Guyana, Suriname, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago and Mauritius and is often said to be the only Indian language to be spoken on all continents. The language of the Surinamese Hindus, however, is seldom referred to as Bhojpuri but usually as Sarnami Hindi or just Sarnami.

People's attitudes towards the Bhojpuri language have evolved over time, and most linguists agree it is not a dialect of Hindi, which is a widespread belief among speakers. Others, including the government of India while taking census, disagree, and consider Bhojpuri to be a dialect of Hindi. But now the government of India is preparing to grant it statutory status of as a national scheduled language.

Bhojpuri shares vocabulary with Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu and other Indo-Aryan languages of northern India. Bhojpuri and several closely related languages, including Maithili and Magahi, are together known as the Bihari languages. They are part of the Eastern Zone group of Indo-Aryan languages which includes Bengali and Oriya.

There are numerous dialects of Bhojpuri, including three or four in eastern Uttar Pradesh alone.

Some notable Bhojpuri personalities are the first president of India, Rajendra Prasad, Manoj Bajpai, and former Indian prime minister Chandra Shekhar.

1 Number of speakers
2 Bhojpuri Literature
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Number of speakers

According to an article published in Times of India, an estimated 70 million people of eastern Uttar Pradesh and 50 million of western Bihar speak Bhojpuri. Besides this about 6 million Bhojpuri speaking people are living in foreign countries including Nepal, Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, Uganda, Singapore, Trinidad & Tobago and United States. This makes the total Bhojpuri speaking population in the world close to 76 million.

Bhojpuri dialects, varieties, and creoles are also spoken in various parts of the world, including Guyana, Suriname, Brazil, South Africa, Fiji, and Trinidad and Tobago. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many colonizers had 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, although the forms of Bhojpuri spoken by them often vary considerably from their Indian counterpart due to years of geographic and cultural separation.

[edit] Bhojpuri Literature

Bhojpuri speaking region, due to its rich tradition of creating leaders for building post-independence India such as first Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, first President Dr. Rajendra Prasad followed by many eminent politicians and humanitarian including second prime minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri, Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya, was never devoid of intellectual prominence which is evident in its literature.

Bhojpuri became the basis of the development of official language of Independent India - Hindi, in the past century. Bhartendu Harishchand, who is considered as the father of literary Hindi, was greatly influenced by the tone and style of Bhojpuri of 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.

The Bhojpuri literature has always remained contemporary. It was more of a folkfare with folk music and poems prevailing. Literature in the written form started in the early twentieth century. During the British era, Bhojpuri adopted a patriotic tone and after the independence it turned to community. In later period following the low economic development of Bhojpuri speaking region, the literary work is more skewed towards the human sentiments and struggles of life.

In the present era, the Bhojpuri literature is marked by the presence of writers and poets like Anand Sandhidoot, Pandey Kapil,Ashok Dwivedi etc.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Bhojpuri language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

v • d • e Indo-Iranian languages
Indic (Indo-Aryan)	Sanskrit: Vedic Sanskrit - Classical Sanskrit · Prakrit: Pāli - Magadhi · Mitanni · Bengali (Dialects: Chittagonian, Sylheti) · Hindustani (Registers: Hindi, Urdu) · Angika · Assamese · Bhojpuri · Bishnupriya Manipuri · Dhivehi · Dogri · Gujarati · Konkani · Mahl · Maithili · Marathi · Nepali · Oriya · Punjabi · Romani · Sindhi · Sinhala
Iranian	Eastern: Avestan · Bactrian · Pamir (Shughni, Sarikoli, Wakhi) · Pashto · Scythian - Ossetic · Sogdian - Yaghnobi · Western: Persian: Old Persian - Middle Persian (Pahlavi) - Modern Persian (Varieties: Farsi, Dari, Tajik) · Bukhori · Balochi · Dari (Zoroastrianism) · Gilaki · Kurdish · Luri · Mazandarani · Talysh · Tat · Zazaki
Dardic	Dameli · Domaaki · Gawar-Bati · Kalash · Kashmiri · Khowar · Kohistani · Nangalami · Pashayi · Palula · Shina · Shumashti
Nuristani	Askunu · Kamkata-viri · Tregami · Vasi-vari · Waigali