Bhojpuri is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bhojpuri region of North India andNepal. It is chiefly spoken in the Purvanchalregion of Uttar Pradesh, in the western part of state of Bihar, and the northwestern part ofJharkhand in India. Bhojpuri is also spoken in Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, The Caribbean, Fiji, Mauritius, and South Africa.It is one of the national languages of Nepal, Guyana, Fiji, Mauritius, and Suriname. The variant of Bhojpuri of the Indo-Surinamese is also referred to as Sarnami Hindustani, Sarnami Hindi or just Sarnami and has experienced considerable Creole and Dutch lexical influence. More Indians in Suriname know Bhojpuri, whereas in Guyana and Trinidad the language is largely forgotten. In Mauritius a dialect of Bhojpuri remains in use, and it is locally called Bojpury.
This region is bounded by the Awadhi-speaking region to the west, Nepal Bhasa andNepali to the north, Magahi- and Maithili-speaking regions to the east, and Magahi- andBagheli-speaking regions to the south.
Bhojpuri was historically written in Kaithiscripts. But after 1894, Devanagari has served as the primary script.
Kaithi script was used for administrative purposes in the Mughal era for writing Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Maithili, Urdu, Magahi and Hindi from at least 16th century up to the first decade of 20th century. Government gazetteers report that Kaithi was used in a few districts of Bihar through the 1960s. Bhojpuri residents of India, who signed up and moved as indentured labor in Africa and the Caribbean colonies of the British Empire in 19th century and early 20th century, used Kaithi as well as Devanagari scripts.
By 1894, official works were carried out in Kaithi and Devanagari in Bihar. At present almost all the Bhojpuri works are done in Devanagari even in the overseas islands where Bhojpuri is spoken. For example, inMauritius, both Kaithi and Devanagari scripts have been in use, since the arrival of Bhojpuri people from India. The Kathi script was considered informal in Mauritius, with the structure of Kaithi similar to Devanagari (spelled Devanagri in Mauritius). In modern Mauritius, Bhojpuri script is Devanagri.
Bhojpuri is, sociolinguistically, one of the seven Hindi languages namely, Haryanvi, Braj, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, Bagheli and Kannauji. Of these seven, Bhojpuri has the most allophonic variations in vowels. Robert Trammell has published the phonology of Bhojpuri.Bhojpuri has six vowel phonemes, and ten vocoids. The higher vowels are relatively tense, while lower vowels are relatively lax. The language 31 consonant phonemes, and 34 contoids (6 bilabial, 4 apico-dental, 5 apico-alveolar, 7 retroflex, 6 alveo-palatal, 5 dorso-velar and 1 glottal).
According to Trammell, the syllable system is peak type. Every syllable has the vowel phoneme as the highest point of sonority. Codas may consist of one, two or three consonants. Vowels occur as simple peaks or as peak nuclei in diphthongs. The intonation system involves four pitch levels and three terminal contours.
