Bhojpuri language
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| Bhojpuri (भोजपुरी) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | India, Mauritius, Nepal |
| Region: | Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal |
| Total speakers: | 26 million |
| Ranking: | 37 |
| Genetic classification: | Indo-European
Indo-Iranian |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | none |
| Regulated by: | none |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | bh |
| ISO 639-2 | bho |
| SIL | BHJ |
| See also: Language – List of languages | |
Bhojpuri is the main language spoken in the Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand, and it is also spoken in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh. It is sometimes considered to be a dialect of Hindi (the main language in official and written use in the states above). It is definitely part of the mix of languages and dialects that also include Urdu and what is referred to as Hindustani. The three languages (some would say dialects), especially as they are spoken on the street, are mutually intelligible. Bhojpuri and several closely related languages, including Maithili and Magahi, are known as the Bihari languages, which are part of the Eastern Zone group of the Indo-Aryan languages, which includes Bengali and Oriya.
There are several dialects of Bhojpuri, including three or four in eastern Uttar Pradesh alone.
Number of speakers
Bhojpuri is usually quoted to have about 25 million speakers in India, 1.4 million speakers in Nepal and 300,000 speakers in Mauritius. Unoffically, this is, at best, a rough estimation.The population of the Indian province of Bihar alone is 80 million, and additionally 40 million of the population of the Indian province of Uttar Pradesh, the eastern half also speaks the language. Most Hindi and Urdu speakers in those two provinces are also comfortable with the language and affiliated dialects as one of the registers they use in daily life. The actual numbers of the speakers of Bhojpuri worldwide is probably in the neighbourhood of 125 million. See http://www.geocities.com/binay_rekha/bhojpuri.htm for further discussion.
Reference
- Entry for this language (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=BHJ) in the Ethnologue database.