Bhojpuri Language Guide

Also spoken in
India, Nepal, Fiji, Mauritius, Suriname
Script
Devanagari, Kaithi
Speakers
51M (2011)

Where it's spoken

A doctoral thesis describes Bhojpuri as an Eastern Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily in northern India, in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, the western part of Bihar and the north-western part of Jharkhand. A paper says that Bhojpuri is also spoken in several countries besides India, including Fiji, Nepal, Suriname and Mauritius.

The same thesis, following a classification by Verma, distinguishes four varieties in India, among them a Western variety spoken in the Uttar Pradesh areas of Azamgarh, Ghazipur, Mirzapur and Varanasi.

In India's most recent national census report on languages, Bhojpuri is one of the mother tongues grouped under Hindi. India's constitution does not list Bhojpuri in its Eighth Schedule of languages.

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Script & pronunciation

A paper says that Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi are written in the Devanagari and Kaithi scripts. This app's Bhojpuri cards use Devanagari, with a hyphen-separated Latin romanization beside each card, as in रउआ (Ra-u-aa).

The Unicode Standard says that Devanagari, like the other scripts of South Asia, is an abugida in which most symbols stand for a consonant plus an inherent vowel, and that a dependent vowel sign is used for any other vowel. It says that a virama cancels the inherent vowel of the consonant to which it is applied; this app's card धन्यबाद। ("Thank you.") joins न and य this way. The Unicode Standard also says that the candrabindu and anusvara marks indicate nasalization or final nasal closure of a syllable, and the candrabindu is the mark in this app's card हँ ("Yes").

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Grammar essentials

A doctoral thesis describes Bhojpuri as SOV with quite free word order, and a paper likewise says that Bhojpuri has subject-object-verb word order. In this app's card रउआ अंगरेजी बोल सकत बानी का? ("Do you speak English?"), the words रउआ ("you"), अंगरेजी ("English") and बोल सकत बानी ("can speak") come in that order, with the verb group last, and the card's note says that a yes/no question takes का at the end.

According to the thesis, cases other than the unmarked nominative are marked through postpositions, as in this app's card हमरा समझ में ना आइल। ("I don't understand."), where में ("in") is written as a separate word after समझ. The thesis also says that, unlike Hindi, Bhojpuri uses numeral classifiers, which vary depending on the dialect; this app's card हमरा एगो कुरता चाही। ("I would like a kurta.") glosses एगो as "one (counter)".

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Politeness & etiquette

A study of Bhojpuri speakers in the Ara area of western Bihar describes three forms of "you": a least honorific form used to address younger family members and friends, a mid-honorific form whose verb takes an honorific marker, and a highly honorific form usually used to address elders in the community, in-laws or strangers. The thesis likewise says that Bhojpuri marks the honorificity of the subject in the verb.

This app's card रउआ कइसन बानी? ("How are you?") uses the highly honorific "you" रउआ, and its note says that रउआ takes बानी and that "तू" is kept for close friends only.

The study also says that the imperative is formed with honorific markers that request or command in a polite manner, and that a particle is used to request and in the sense of honorificity. This app's card तनी सुनीं। ("Excuse me.") has a note that सुनीं is the stem with the polite imperative ending, to be used with strangers and elders, and the usage note of the card हँ ("Yes") says to add "जी" after it to sound more respectful to elders or strangers.

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