Bhojpuri Language
Introduction
Bhojpuri language originated in the Gangetic plains of India. It was the language spoken in the Bhoj Janpad, Bhoj Kingdom, and hence was named Bhojpuri.
History of Bhojpuri
Bhojpuri belongs to Sanskrit family which in turn is a member of Indo-Aryan family of languages.
In the natural progression of any language there comes a time when the grammarians take conrol of the language and it then becomes a language of educated people. General public continues to use its language free from any grammatical restrictions. Gradually both the versions divert to such an exent that a new language is born. The name is given by the grammarians of the original language!
Sanskrit gave origin to Pali, Pali to Prakrut, Prakrut to Apabhransha, Apabhransha to Awahatta, Awahatta to Shaurseni. Bhojpuri is the direct offsping of Shaurseni Awahatta.
Another interesting development in this origin of various version the original Sanskrit still survives whereas the intermediaries have gone into oblivion.
Naturally many Bhojpuri scholors scoff at any attempt to shackel Bhojpuri in grammatical bondage!
Geographical Spread.
Bhojpuri basically belongs to ABCD - Ara, Ballia, Chapra and Deoria. These areas are not the present ones but the historic ones which includes - East Champaran, West Champaran, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran, Bhojpur, Rohtas, Buxar, and Kaimur districts of Bihar, and Ballia, Deoria, Ghazipur, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Bastee, Bhadohi, Mau, Jaunpur, Maharajganj, Varanasi, Mirzapur and Sonbhadra of Uttar Pradesh. To this list Sodhi of Madhya Pradesh can be added.
Some puriatans may object to inclusion of Varanasi and adjoining areas in this list. Varanasi or Kashi was part of another kingdom Kashi and the language was known as Kashika. Since, the difference between Kashika and Bhojpuri is very minute, these areas are included in this list.
Bhojpuri is also spoken in many other countries. People from Bhojpuri areas of India were taken to these countries as labourers. They carried their language and continued to use the same in the new country. Naturally it then started using some words common in local use but the verbs and sentence structure remain the same. These countries are Tarai region of Nepal (due to close proximity with Bhojpuri regios of India), Mauritius, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Brazil, and south Africa.
Number of speakers
No authentic official figures are available, but, it is estimated that about 140 million people speak Bhojpuri either as their native language or as a second language.
Script of Bhojpuri
Bhojpuri was mainly a spoken language in the past. Kayasthas used to write Bhojpuri in there own script - kaithi - which was difficult for others to read. Later on when people started to write in Bhojpuri they choose the script of Sanskrit - Nagari, or better known as Devnagri. You may also say that the rural folk used kaithi while the urban people used Nagri, of Nagars or towns. Devnagri is used for many Indian Languages including Hindi, Maathi, Rajsthani, Braj, Awadhi, Maithili, Magadhi, Bajjika etc. too.
Each language has its own peculiar sounds. Not all the sounds are represented in the Alphabets or Varnmala of Devnagri. Many Varnas, or individual sounds, are thus expressed in the form of joint letters.
Bhojpuri Varnmala...
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