Bhojpuri

Bhojpuri is a member of the Indo-Aryan language family, specifically placed within the Eastern Zone (Bihari) subgroup.

Speakers

According to the official 2011 Census of India, there are approximately 50.6 million speakers of Bhojpuri in India.

Distribution in India

Bhojpuri is primarily spoken in the contiguous Purvanchal region of India, which encompasses western Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and northwestern Jharkhand.

Major grammatical features

• Phonology: Bhojpuri retains a standard Indo-Aryan stop inventory featuring a four-way contrast (voiced/voiceless, aspirated/unaspirated) and retroflex consonants. Unlike Hindi, it is characterized by less systematic schwa-deletion in final syllables and distinctive vowel-shortening processes.
• Morphology: Bhojpuri verb morphology is highly inflected. Unlike neighboring Hindi, Bhojpuri does not assign grammatical gender to inanimate nouns. It employs a sophisticated three-tiered system of honorificity (non-honorific, informal honorific, and formal honorific) marked on pronouns and verbal endings.
• Syntax: The language follows a default Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order and relies on postpositions to mark grammatical relations and case.

Further reading

• Bhojpuri Language Search on Wikipedia
• Glottolog Languoid Doculect: Bhojpuri