Bhojpuri is a Bihari language spoken mainly in India, and also in Nepal, Guyana, Suriname, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago and Mauritius. In India Bhojpuri speakers can be found in western Bihar state, in the northwest of Jharkhand and in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh. Bhojpuri spoken in Suriname is known as Sarnami Hindi or Sarnami and has absorbed vocabulary from English and Dutch.

Bhojpuri is closely related to Maithili and Magadhi and they are collectively known as Bihari languages. It is also part of the eastern Indo-Aryan languages and related to Bengali and Odia. According to the 2001 census, the number of Bhojpuri speakers in India is 33 million, though some people estimate the number to be 150 million in India, and a further 6 million elsewhere.

From the 16th century until the mid 20th century Bhojuri was written with the Kaithi script, and also with the Perso-Arabic script. The Kaithi script is still used to a limited extent today, though Devanāgarī is more common and has been used in official documents since 1894.

Number of speakers: 50,579,447 via: Census 2011

ISO 639-3 Language Code: bho

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Examples

Typeset Text

Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Bhojpuri

मानवाधिकार खातिर संयुक्त राष्ट्र उच्चायुक्त सबहिं के लेल मानवाधिकार मानवाधिकार घोषणा के पचासवां वर्षगांठ

सबहिं के ओकर उचित सम्मान आओर मानव परिवार के सभे आदिमी के बराबरी के हक ही विश्व समुदाय के अजादी, न्याय आओर शांति के बुनियाद हवे। मानवाधिकार के उल्लंघन हरदम अमानवीय काज के कारणो होखेला जा के चलते मानवता के अंत:करण दु:खी होखेला। एक आम आदिमी के सबसे बड़ा इच्छा इहे होखेला कि इ दुनिया में ओके भाषण और विचार के आजादी मिले साथ हि डर आओर इच्छा से हो मुक्ति मिले। यदि केहु तानाशाही चाहे दमन के खिलाफ अंतिम हथियार के रूप में बगावत करे खातिर मजबूर ना होए, त ओकरा खातिर कानून के मार्फत ओकर मानवाधिकार के बचावे के इंतजाम होबे के चाही। इहो जरूरी हवे कि राष्ट्र सब के बीच दोस्ती बढ़ाएल जाए। संयुक्त राष्ट्र के लोगिन आपन चार्टर में मौलिक मानवाधिकार, मानव के सम्मान आओर उपयोगिता तथा आदिमी आओर औरत के बराबर अधिकार खातिर आपन विश्वास जतौलन हउ। साथहिं ई लोगनि स्वतंत्रता के माहौल में सामाजिक प्रगति तथा जीवन के स्तर के बढ़ावे के भी दृढ़ निश्चय कएलन ह। साथ ही सदस्य राष्ट्र सब संयुक्त राष्ट्र के मदद से मानवाधिकार आओर मौलिक स्वतंत्रता खातिर लोगिन में मान बढ़ावे के भी संकल्प लेलन ह। ओही खातिर ए संकल्प के पूरा करे के खतिर ई सब अधिकार आओर स्वतंत्रता के समझ सबसे जरूरी बा। अब, एही खातिर महासभा ई ऐलान करता कि मानवाधिकार के ई घोषणा के सभे लोग आओर सभे राष्ट्र पालन करे। सभे व्यक्ति आओर समाज के सब अंग हरदम इ घोषणा के आपन दिमाग में रखे। संयुक्त राष्ट्र के सदस्य राष्ट्र के लोगिन के बीच चाहे हुनी के अधिकार क्षेत्रा में रहे वाला लोगन के बीच प्रगतिशली कदम या शिक्षा के जरिए इ अधिकार और स्वतंत्रता के प्रति मान जगाएल जाए।

Images

Particular forms / combinations

alt text

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Handwriting Sample

alt text Full Image via: @_abhinavnarayan
 

Typography Sample

alt text Example of Bhojpuri text via: Google Books

Text Files

Bhojpuri Word Frequency List
via: http://crubadan.org

PDFs

Bhojpuri Lokgitika – Bhojpuri folk songs
via: Google Books

Notes on the Bhojpuri dialect – Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
via: Google Books

Bhojpuri Lokgatha – Bhojpuri folk stories
via: Internet Archive

Bhojpuri Loriki – Bhojpuri oral stories
via: Internet Archive

Purvaiya – Bhojpuri Digest
via: Internet Archive

Websites in Bhojpuri

http://www.unicode.org
https://www.webonary.org
http://bhojpurika.com
http://bhojpurikhoj.com
http://bh.wikipedia.org
http://gana.anjoria.com
http://m.bhojpurikhoj.com
http://tatkakhabar.com
http://www.anjoria.com


Bibliography / Resources

Shaligram Shukla. 1981. Bhojpuri Grammar. Washington, D.C.: Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press. xiv+318pp. (Bibliography: p. 317-318).

Das, Susan Blair. 2006. The Banarasi Bhojpuri verb system. Ann Arbor: UMI. (Doctoral dissertation, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania; xvi+281pp.)

Shaligram Shukla. 1968. Bhojpuri Syntax. (Doctoral dissertation, Ithaca: Cornell University; 216pp.)

Sarita Boodhoo. 2010. Speak Bhojpuri: An easy and practical way to learn Bhojpuri. Mauritius: Bhojpuri Institute. xxvi+166pp.

Cardona, G. and Jain, D. (eds.) 2003. Bhojpuri: Phonology, Morphology, Syntax. In Cardona, G. and Jain, D. (eds.), The Indo-Aryan Languages.

Sarita Boodhoo. 2011. An easy approach to Bhojpuri Grammar. Mauritius: Bhojpuri Institute. xvii+121pp.

George A. Grierson. 1884. Bhojpuri dialect of Sháhabáo, Sáran, Champáran, North Muzaffarpur, & the Eastern portion of the W.W.P. (Seven Grammars of the dialects & subdialects of the Bihárí language, II.) Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press. 128pp.

Domingue, Nicole Zuber. 1971. Bhojpuri and creole in Mauritius: A study of linguistic interference and its consequences in regard to synchronic variation and language change. (Doctoral dissertation, Austin: University of Texas at Austin; 252pp.)

Udai Narain Tiwari. 1960. The Origin and Development of Bhojpuri. (The Asiatic Society: Monograph Series, 10.) Calcutta: The Royal Asiatic Society. 330pp.

Hertig-Skalická, Jitka. 1974. Fifty Bhojpuri folksongs from Ballia district: Text, translation, commentary, skeleton grammar and index. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Basle; 190pp.)

S. H. Kellogg. 1876. A Grammar of the Hindi Language in Which are Treated the High Hindi, Braj and the Eastern Hindi of the Ramayan of Tulsidas, also the Colloquial Dialects of Rajputana, Kumaon, Avadh, Riwa, Bhojpur, Magadha, Mathila etc. with Copious Philological Notes. Allahabad: American Baptist Mission Press. 460pp.

John Beames. 1868. Notes on the Bhojpurí dialect of Hindi in Western Behar. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, N.S. 3. 483-508.

Manindra K. Verma. 2003. Bhojpuri. In George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain (eds.), The Indo-Aryan Languages, 515-537. London & New York: Routledge.

U. N. Tivārī. 1954. Bhojpuri Bhāṣā aur Sāhitya. Paṭnā: Bihār Rāṣṭrabhāṣā Pariṣad.

Trammell, R.L. 1971. The phonology of the northern standard dialect of Bhojpuri [illus.] Anthropological linguistics 13. 4: 126-141.

Hale, Austin. 1973. Clause, sentence, and discourse patterns in selected languages of Nepal 4: Word lists. (40:4.) Summer Institute of Linguistics: Publications in Linguistics. 219pp.

George A. Grierson. 1903. Indo-Aryan Family: Eastern Group: Specimens of the Bihārī and Oṛiyā languages. (Linguistic Survey of India, V(II).) Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. 464pp.

Thakur, Gopal and Ambika Regmi. 2013. A Sociolinguistic Survey of Bhojpuri. Kathmandu: Linguistic Survey of Nepal (LinSuN), Central Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University, Nepal.

Mesthrie, Rajend. 1988. Lexical Change in a Transplanted language: the case of Bhojpuri in South Africa. In Richard K. Barz and Jeff Siegel (eds.), Language Transplanted: The Development of Overseas Hindi, 151-177. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

R. Mishra. 1981. The Social stratification & linguistic diversity in the Bhojpuri speech community. (Doctoral dissertation, Poona: Deccan College).

Baker, Philip and Premnath Ramnah. 1985. Mauritian Bhojpuri: an Indo-Aryan language spoken in a predominantly creolophone society. Papers in pidgin and creole linguistics 4. 215-238.

Pandey, Shruti. 2003. A comparative study of Bhojpuri and Bengali. Varanasi: Vishwavidyalaya Prakashan. iv+135pp. (Includes bibliographical references (p. [132])).

Mohit, Dimlalah. 1994. Morisas kî bhojpurî mem pracalit lokoktiyam, muhâvare, gît, paheliyam aur kahâniyam (Current popular sayings, idioms, songs, riddles and stories in Mauritian Bhojpuri) Bel Air (Mauritius): Self-published.

Domingue, N. 1984. Syntactic innovations in Mauritian Bhojpuri. McGill working papers in linguistics/Cahiers linguistiques de McGill 1.


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