Magahi
Magahi (ISO 639-3: mag, Glottocode: maga1260) belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family, specifically falling within the Eastern Zone (Bihari group), closely related to Maithili and Bhojpuri.
Speakers
According to the 2011 Census of India, there are approximately 12.7 million speakers of Magahi in India, though this figure carries some uncertainty as Magahi is often classified under the umbrella of Hindi in official census tabulations.
Distribution in India
Magahi is principally spoken in the eastern Indian states of Bihar (concentrated in the southern districts of Patna, Gaya, Jehanabad, Nalanda, Nawada, and Aurangabad) and Jharkhand (primarily in the northern districts such as Hazaribagh, Chatra, and Giridih), with minor populations in adjacent areas of West Bengal.
Major Grammatical Features
- Phonology: The phonemic inventory features a standard Indo-Aryan contrast between aspirated and unaspirated stops (both voiced and voiceless), alongside a dental-retroflex distinction. It retains lexical vowel length variations and characteristic vowel-shortening rules in non-initial syllables.
- Morphology: Magahi features a highly complex verbal agreement system. Verbs inflect not only for the person, number, and honorific status of the subject, but also for those of the object (addressee/non-addressee marking). Nouns generally do not have grammatical gender but inflect for number and case through the cliticization of postpositions.
- Syntax: The default word order is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV). It is a postpositional language with relatively free word order facilitated by rich case-marking enclitics.
Further Reading
Direct relationships
Has record 50
Transcription of A20240706093857400476_281474976769660.wavtranscriptionAudio A20240705093958428244audioTranscription of A20240705093958124570transcriptionTranscription of A20240705093958137217transcriptionTranscription of A20240705093957994600transcriptionTranscription of A20240705093958261489transcriptionAudio A20240705093958148743audioAudio A20240705093958066788audioTranscription of A20240705093958498200transcriptionTranscription of A20240709050950684683_281474976770077.wavtranscriptionA20240706093901230504_281474976769669.wavaudioTranscription of A20240708172645292874_281474976774999.wavtranscriptionTranscription of A20240705093957905544transcriptionTranscription of A20240705093958078490transcriptionTranscription of A20240705093958149838transcriptionTranscription of A20240708172641440789_281474976774990.wavtranscriptionTranscription of A20240709051143477882_281474976773080.wavtranscriptionTranscription of A20240705093958477201transcriptionAudio A20240705093958226947audioAudio A20240705093958427590audioAudio A20240705093958025493audioAudio A20240705093958033347audioTranscription of A20240709051314492152_281474976773800.wavtranscriptionTranscription of A20240705093958493715transcriptionAudio A20240705093958008763audioAudio A20240705093958469113audioAudio A20240705093958502719audioTranscription of A20240705093958478614transcriptionAudio A20240705093958188143audioTranscription of A20240705093958295500transcriptionTranscription of A20240708172704046856_281474976776996.wavtranscriptionTranscription of A20240709051524274547_281474976775234.wavtranscriptionAudio A20240705093958257323audioTranscription of A20240709051424426578_281474976774877.wavtranscriptionTranscription of A20240705093958401682transcriptionTranscription of A20240705093958018679transcriptionAudio A20240705093958084141audioAudio A20240705093958290103audioA20240708172703605663_281474976776995.wavaudioTranscription of A20240705093958017597transcriptionAudio A20240705093958419845audioAudio A20240705093958279336audioA20240709051346066153_281474976774108.wavaudioTranscription of A20240705093958347583transcriptionAudio A20240705093958255127audioA20240708172649932144_281474976776963.wavaudioAudio A20240705093958379915audioAudio A20240705093958122345audioTranscription of A20240705093958482075transcriptionAudio A20240705093958207949audio