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Bhojpuri भोजपुरी bhōjapurī
Spoken in:	India, Nepal, Mauritius, Netherlands, Fiji, Guyana, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore, United States, United Kingdom, Réunion, Suriname
Region:	Nepal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal
Total speakers:	170 million (1997)Global
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
This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Bhojpuri (pronunciation (help·info)) is a 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. The language of the Surinamese Hindus, however, is seldom referred to as Bhojpuri but usually as Sarnami Hindi or just Sarnami.

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 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 Magadhi, 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.

The eminent scholar and polyglot, Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan had written some works in Bhojpuri. There have been other writers who have written in Bhojpuri but the number is abysmal compared to the number of speakers. The eminent nationalist, writer, scholar, dandi sanyasi Swami Sahajanand Saraswati belonged to the Bhojpur region of Uttar Pradesh. Some other notable Bhojpuri personalities are the first president of India Rajendra Prasad, Manoj Bajpai, and former Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Chandra Shekhar. Padma Shri Sharda Sinha & Mrs. Vijaya Bharti are famous Bhojpuri singers.

Number of speakers

According to an article published in Times of India, an estimated 70 million people of Uttar Pradesh and a further 80 million people in Bihar speak Bhojpuri as their first or second language. There are 6 million Bhojpuri speaking people are living outside the Bhojpuri heartlands of Bihar and Purvanchal. These areas include Nepal, Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, Uganda, Singapore, Trinidad & Tobago, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Great Britain, BIrgunj and United States. This makes the total Bhojpuri speaking population in the world close to 150 million.[1]

However, the official figures as per the Census of India 2001 are much lower. The census counts 33 million people in India to be speakers of the Bhojpuri dialect under the Hindi language sub-family.¹

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 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.

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 one spoken in Trinidad & Tobago has picked up some Caribbean words along with English.

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, 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 twentieth 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.

In the present era, the Bhojpuri literature is marked by the presence of writers and poets like Anand Sandhidoot, Pandeya Kapil, Ashok Dwivedi, Editor of the popular Bhojpuri magazine Paati (Ballia), Onkareshwar Pandey (writer & Editor of world's first Bhojpuri news weekly, from Delhi) and others. In Maurititus, Dr. Sarita Boodhoo from the Mauritius Bhojpuri Institute has done volumes of work in following the Bhojpuri culture and language and documenting the indentured labourers' arrival on the island. Manoj Bhawuk came into limelight for his literary work in Bhojpuri Tasveer Zindagi ke and for his contributions in development of Bhojpuri Literature. In the United States, Sailesh Mishra, another contemporary Bhojpuri activist, poet and writer has been credited as the founder of Bhojpuri Association of North America (BANA) in 2005 and for his contributions in promoting Bhojpuri language and culture across the globe. He is also popularly known as the Creator of Bhojpuri Express Network (BEN) for uniting the online Bhojpuri community on the Internet. Further an avid Bhojpuri evangelist, Avinash Tripathi founded Bhojpuri Association of India (BHAI) in 2008 to represent the voice of Bhojpuri all over world. Newly associated and prominent part of this Bhojpuri literature is the Bhojpuri Sahitya Sammelan magazine with Arunesh Niran as its editor and Dr. Uday Prakash Pandey as co-editor. These people met a glory of reinvoking the links of Bhojpuri of Mauritius and India. There are many more efforts to avail the deserved value for Bhojpuri.

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 Kaithi script as well as Nasta'liq (Persian) script.

Kaithi

Kaithi script computer written

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 upto 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.

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

Nasta'liq (Persian)

Before 1880 all the administrative works in Bihar was done in this Persian script and possibly all the educated Muslims in the Bhojpuri speaking region wrote unofficial works in Nasta'liq script.

a letter written to the civil court in Patna in Nasta'liq script in 1825

Devanagiri

By 1894, official works were carried out in both Kaithi and Devanagiri in Bihar which probably started giving way to replacement of Kaithi completely by Devanagiri. At present almost all the Bhojpuri works are done in Devanagiri even in the overseas islands where Bhojpuri is spoken.

Introduction to usage and features

Bhojpuri language is generally understood as a humorous language to most of North Indian language speakers with many distinct features not found else where. And usually on silver screen all the languages spoken in the villages of UP, Bihar, South Nepal, and North Jharkhand is collectively called Bhojpuri. Bhojpuri represents all the accents, tones, behaviours, village stories (khissa-pacheesa), idioms (kahaawat) of the languages such as Awadhi, Braj bhasha, Kortha, Nagpuria, Magahi & Maithili. Some of the features are discussed below:

Spoken trends

• Addition of “Waa” or “eeya” to Nouns and sometimes Verbs

For male Nouns:
In Hindi with Bhojpuri style – “ शाहरुखवा कहा कि मै अमिर खानवा का कुत्ता नहीं हूँ ”
In true Bhojpuri language - “ शाहरुखवा कहलख/कहलस कि हम अमिर खानवा के कुत्ता ना हईं ”
English translation – Shahrukh told that he is not a dog of Amir khan.
English in Bhojpuri style – Shahrukhwa told that is not a dog of Amir khanwa.

For female Nouns:
In Hindi with Bhojpuri style – “ रिमिया रिया सेनवा के बहन है ”
In true Bhojpuri language - “ रिमिया रिया सेनवा के बहिन बिया ”
English translation – Rimi is the sister of Riya sen
English in Bhojpuri style – Rimia is the sister of Riya senwa.

In Hindi with Bhojpuri style – “ लठीया चला के तुम्हारा कपार फोर देंगे
” In true Bhojpuri language - “लठीया चला के तोहार/तोहर कपारवे फोर देम ”
English translation – (i'll)throw the baton and crack your skull
English in Bhojpuri style – (i'll)throw the batowa and crack your skullwa.

Notice that female names ending in “ee ” gets “eeya” as in “ रिमि becomes रिमिया ” and "लाठी" becomes "लठिया" similarly female names ending in “uu” gets “uaa” for example :
In Hindi with Bhojpuri style – “खुश्बुआ का बाप मर गया है ”
In true Bhojpuri language - “खुश्बुआ के बाप मर गईल बा ”
English translation – Khusbu’s dad has died
English in Bhojpuri style – Khusbuaa’s dad has died

Apart from these all other females names and other nouns get "waa" in their ends.

• Addition of "eeye" or "ey" in adverbs, adjectives and pronouns
  

In Hindi with Bhojpuri style – हम बहुत नजदिके से आ रहें है
In true Bhojpuri language – हम बहुत नजदिके से आवतानी/ आ रहल बानी.
English translation – I am coming from very near place
English in Bhojpuri style – I am coming from very nearey place rey.

Pronunciation of words

Bhojpuri has very distinct way of pronouncing, most of the north Indians would be aware of it. For example: मैं कहता हूँ is actually pronounced in Hindi as मै कैहता हूँ whereas in Bhojpuri it would be मैं कःहःता हूँ. The word for 'plenty' in Bhojpuri and Hindi is written as बहुत while Hindi pronounces it बहौत Bhojpuri retains बहुत even while pronouncing.

Trend of word formation

In Bhojpuri few words appear to have been jumbled or mispronounced if looked from Hindi angle, but to linguists it's not mistake but just a feature of Bhojpuri. Such as:
अमरुद is Hindi word for Guava, in Bhojpuri it is अमदुर
साइकिल is Hindi word(adapted from English) for Cycle, in Bhojpuri many say साइलकि
रक्सौल is a town in Champaran district of Bihar, many Bhojpuria people say it रस्कौल
पहुँचना is a Hindi word for 'to reach', in Bhojpuria people say चहुँपना

Behavior of words in Bhojpuri and Hindi

kya hal hai its call in bhojpuri"ka hal ba"

Comparison of pronouns in Hindi dialects

Common words

Weekdays

Numericals

In Bhojpuri, ½ or half is called "aadha" ( आधा ) and when ½ or half is used with numbers higher than 2 then "saadhe" ( साढ़े ) is added before the whole number.
For example: 7.5 would be "saadhe saat"( साढ़े सात ).
Similarly, ¼ or quarter is called "sawaa"( सवा ) and when a number is ¼ or quarter less than a whole number then "pauney" ( पौने ) is added before the ceiling whole number.
For example: 7.25 would be "sawaa saat" ( सवा सात ) and 7.75 would be called "pauney aath" ( पौने आठ ).
There are other special names for 1.5 , 2.5 , 6 , and 12. They are called – "Dedh"( डेढ़ ), "Adhaai"( अढ़ाई ), "Aadha Darzan"( आधा दर्ज़न ) and "Darzan"( दर्ज़न ) respectively.
For currencies Bhojpuri uses the terms "Takiaa" ( टका ) , "Aanaa" ( आना ), "Kaudi" ( कौडी ), or "Paiisa" ( पईसा ) or "Ropeya / Rupaiya"( रोपेया / रुपईया ). It must be remembered that pronunciation of these words vary greatly while using in various circumstances.

Fruits and Vegetables

Colors

Measurements

Family Relations

Some Idioms (khisa pacheesa)

न नौ मःन तेल होइ न राधा नाचे
चिरई के जान जाए लैका के खेलौना
न रही बाँस न बाजी बँसुरी
सौ सोनार के एक लोहार के
नापल जोखल थाहे लैका डुब गेल काहे
चानी सोना में लाग जाई काई दमड़ी के गोदना संगे जाई
रहली में दु जनी पादली में कए जनी
नाँच न जाने अँगनवे टेढ़
मन चंगा त कठौती में गंगा
खाएके सतुआ पादेके मीठाई
बाप के नाम साग पात पूत के नाम परोरा
एगो अनार सय गोड़े बेमार
If you know more then please add to this list

Bhojpuri Samples

Some samples of Bhojpuri Language include:

• PraÑām/Parnām. प्रणाम/ परणाम — all-purpose Hindu greeting,the former(PraÑām) is a sanskrit word and in Bhojpuri it is generally pronounced as Parnām, often translated as "I salute you" and in common usage simply means "hello" and even "goodbye."

• Rām Rām/Jai Rām ji kī राम राम / जय राम जी की - Bye Bye or simply Hi!!.

• Hamar/Hamār/Morā nām Bharat ha हमर / हमार / मोरा नाम भरत ह — My name is Bharat.

• Kaisan Bā? कइसन बा ? — How are you/ What's up?

The following are more commonly used:

• kā ha? का ह? (informal)- What's the matter?, sab samāchār thīk ba? सब समाचार ठीक बा? are you all fine?

• khāek ho gaīl? खाएक हो गइल ? — Is the food ready?

• Bīrgunj bahūte baDka shahar hot jā rahal bā. बीरगञ्ज बहुते बड़का शहर होत जा रहल बा. Birgunj is becoming a big city.

• Deshwālī logan ke Bhojpurī,Maithili,Awadhi,Hindi, ā urdū se māyā kareke chāhĩ देशवाली लोगन के भोजपुरी, मैथिली, अवधी, हिन्दी आ उर्दू से माया करेके चाहीं — People of Terai shoul love Bhojpuri, Maithili, Awadhi, Hindi, and Urdu.

• Humni madheshi haĩī san हमनी मधेशी हैं सन — We are all Madheshi.

• Dogalchod pahadiya ke humni terai se mār bhagāem sanदोगलचोद पहडियां के हमनी तराई से मार भगाएम सन - We will kick the blooody Pahadia out of Terai.
• Jūg jūg jiya/ khus rah जुग जुग जिय/ खुश रह – long live/stay happy

• Beyr dūb gaīl? बेर डुब गईल? – has the sun set?

• kaūni beyr? कौनी बेर?– at what time?

Where is Mr. John? – मिस्टर जॉन कहाँ बाड़न? / मिस्टर जॉन कहाँ बानी? Where is Ramesh? - रमेशवा केने बा? / रमेशवा केने बाटे? Who has Sita called? सीता केकरा बोलौले बीया?

Bhojpuri Media, Cinema and TV World

This year is being considered as the Opening of Golden Era for Bhojpuri language. The reason is, Bhojpuri has got world's first regular weekly news magazine which is being published by Planman Media group based at Delhi. The Group is owned by Prof. Arinadam Chaudhuray, Economist and Noted Managment Guru and the Editor in Chief of THE SUNDAY INDIAN. This magazine is being published in 14 Indian Languages including Bhojpuri. Onkareshwar Pandey, Noted TV & Print Journalist and former Resident Editor of Rashtriya Sahara, Hindi Daily (Delhi & Patna) is heading Bhojpuri news weekly with Hindi as Executive Editor. He is the first editor of a National Bhojpuri Weekly Magazine. This weekly has made a Golden Mark in the world Horizon of Bhojpuri Journalism. It may be a turning point for Bhojpuri language and beginning of formal Bhojpuri journalism in India. The fact is there are about 20 registered Bhojpuri Magazines and periodicals in India, but most of them are based on literature and merely few of them are being published on regular basis. The begining of hardcore Bhojpuri Print Journalism in the world will be credited to The Sunday Indian, Bhojpuri Edition.

Bhojpuri speaking people have got at least two TV Channels in their language. One is Mahua TV owned by Mr. PK Tiwary.Mahua TV has become very popular among the Bhojpuri speaking people in India. Bihane Bihane, the morning show of Mahua TV Anchored by famous Bhojpuri folk Singer Vijaya Bharti is a big hit in Bhojpuri people. Another Bhojpuri Channel is Sangeet Bhojpuri, a Music Channel. Some other Bhojpuri Channels are in the pipeline and are expected to launched this year only. Names are Hamar TV, Ganga TV & Purva TV. Meanwhile All India radio has started its Bhojpuri News Bulletin from Gorakhpur & Varanasi last month (Oct. 2008). The issue of recognition of Bhojpuri Language is pending with Indian Govt. However Bhojpuri language is all set to capture the market.

Bhojpuri cinema has become the largest film industry inside India after Hindi language cinema. In 2005, the BBC reported that the industry caters for up to 200 million people in large parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Bhojpuri fims have had huge commercial success at the box office. For example, a film made on a budget of $65,000, Sasura Bada Paisawela took in over $3m at the box office. Daroga Babu took almost $900,000 on a similar budget. As of 2008, BBC reports that Bhojpuri songs have also become very popular. MeriNews adds that in some districts of Bihar, theatre owners prefer to screen Bhojpuri films rather than Hindi films as they get more spectators for those films.

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, himself a Bhojpuri native from Purvanchal administrative zone of Uttar Pradesh, has been a big supporter of the cinema and has acted in the acclaimed film Ganga. Ajay Devgan is another major Bollywood cinema figure who is closley associated with the people of this region. Saroj Khan, Tinnu Verma, Udit Narayan are all growing their involvement in the film industry. Actors like Ravi Kishan, Manoj Tiwari are superstars of Bhojpuri film industry and are as popular as Shahrukh Khan. While actresses Nagma and Rambha, who earlier failed to create an impact in Bollywood are doing very well in Bhojpuri cinema.

The BBC reported that Ukrainian model Tanya has already played a Russian girl in love with a Bihari boy in Firangi Dulhania (Foreign Bride) and 24-year-old Cambridge-educated British actress Jessica Bath has signed for two Bhojpuri films.

In 2008 there are expected to be 70 new Bhojpuri releases, up from 2007’s one a week. The Bhojpuri Film Awards have become a major cinematic event in India. In addition, Tehelka reports that Bhojpuri films have revived up to 50 single-screen cinema halls in Mumbai and Delhi from financial ruin. Cinema owners have removed B-grade Hindi films fetching Rs. 80,000 a week, and replaced them with Bhojpuri films that average Rs 3 lakh a week says the magazine.

Furthermore, stars earn upwards of Rs 15 lakh per film, and Ravi Kisan is deemed to be the highest paid Bhojpuri cinema star claiming 30 to 40 Lakhs Rupee's per movie. manoj tiwari has given maximum no of hits in he bhojpuri cinema and a new singer turned actor dinesh lal yadav has given three silver jubilee hits in a short span of three years. This trend of turning of a singer into actors has rejuvenated the bhojpuri cinema which was on the verge of extinguishing. Apart from Bhojpuri Cinema recently a Bhojpuri 24hours satellite channel "Mahua" was launched on 9 Aug 2008. It was widely accepted by Bhojpuri-speaking viewers around the world. Mr. Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, has announced to set up Film Studio in Bihar to promote Bhojpuri Cinema. This will give major Boost to Bhojpuri Cinema and the language as a whole.

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.

Literature

The 2008 Booker Prize listed novel Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of the emigration of Bhojpuri speakers to Mauritius in the nineteenth century, and is copiously laced with Bhojpuri terms, dialogues, songs and poems.

See also

• Hindustani language
• Languages of India
• List of national languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers
• List of Bhojpuri poets

References

External links

Bhojpuri language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• bhojpuriIndia.org:: Bhojpuri Association of India.
• Anjoria:: The First Website in Bhojpuri
• BhojpuriAnjoria:: Website in English for promoting Bhojpuri.
• Bihari
• ChauriChaura.Com:: Bhojpuri- visit for Bhojpuri songs and news
• Ethnologue report for Bhojpuri
• Bhojpuri Association of North America - BANA
• Bhojpuri Poems - Blog
• Bhojpuri Basics