Bhojpuri Grammar

Bhojpuri grammar () is the grammar of the Bhojpuri language. In many aspects, it is quite similar to other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages. Modern Bhojpuri grammar was written in 1915 by Pt. Shivadas Ojha.

Nouns

Nouns in Bhojpuri have three forms, viz. short, long and redundant. Thus, for ''ghōṛā'' ("horse"), the forms will be ''ghōṛā'', ''ghoṛwā'' and ''ghoṛawā'' respectively. In some cases, the long form ends with /ē/, ''ghoṛwē''. The redundant form has two more variants, /-ā/ and /-yā/. Thus for ''kukur'' ("a dog"), it can take the form ''kukurā'' and for ''māli'' ("a gardener") ''maliyā''. /-ā/ is used with nouns which have a disyllabic structure like ''bhatār'', ''bhatarā'' ("husband") or ''sonār'', ''sonarā'' ("goldsmith"). The suffix /-yā/ is added to nouns ending in /-i/, including feminine forms derived by adding /-i/, like ''bētī'', ''betiyā'' ("daughter") and ''aurat, auratiyā'' ("women"). The oblique forms of nouns are identical to the nominative with the exception of verbal nouns.

Definitness

The redundant form, as it is called by Greirson, actually does the grammatical task of coding definiteness in the noun morphology. It is same as the definite articles ''the'' and ''la'' of English and French respectively. Thus, ''ghorawā'' is "the horse" and ''maliyā'' is "the gardener".

Morphology

To characterize nouns the suffixes ''-wala'' and ''-iya'' are extensively used. ''-wala'' is also used in Hindustani but its use is more extensive in Bhojpuri where it can replace the adjective-forming suffixes of borrowed words, e.g. /-dār/. For instance, becomes ''ijjatwalā'' in Bhojpuri. The suffix /-iyā/ (also /-aiyā/, /-vaiyā/ variations) is also used extensively as characterizing suffix, as in ''kalkatiyā'', characteristic or belonging to Kolkata, and ''puraniyā'', characterized by old age.

Gender

The Animate nouns in Bhojpuri are gendered. Those referring to females are feminine and rest are masculine. The feminine is formed by adding /-i/, /-in/ and /-ni/ to masculine nouns, e.g. /ājā/ ("grandfather") → /ājī/ ("grandmother") or /māli - mālin/ and /babuā - babunī/ (boy - girl).

Number

To form the plural in Bhojpuri, the final long vowel is shortened and ''-n'', ''-nh'' or ''-ni'' is added. In some cases, nouns of multitude like ''sabh'' (all) or ''lōg'' (people) are added to nouns to make plurals.

Cases

Cases are generally formed by adding prepositions to the Nominative case or the oblique form (if exists) of the nouns. Sometimes true cases are also found, such as an Instrumental and Locative formed by adding ''-ē'', as in Bengali''.'' Thus, the locative and Instrumental case of ''ghar'' ("house") is ''ghare'' ("in/by the house"). These case forms are only found in the singular, however.

* To form the instrumental case; ''sē'', ''tē'', ''santē'' and ''kartē'' are also added to the noun forms, hence ''ghar se'' is ''to the house''.
* To form the dative, ''lā'', ''lag'', ''khātir'' are added, ex:- ''ghar la'' (for the house)
* For the ablative case, ''sē'', ''lē'' are added.

Noun Phrases

Nouns can be preceded by quantifiers. The quantifiers ''-gō'', ''-ṭhō'' and ''-ṭhē'' are used with numeral to emphasize countability as opposed to totality. The limiter expression in Bhojpuri are marked morphologically by using the suffixes ''-ē'' and ''-ō'', to show inclusiveness and exclusiveness respectively, as in ''ham āmē khāïb'' (I will eat only mangoes) and ''ham āmō khāïb'' (I will eat mango, too).

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

The first-person pronoun has two forms viz. inferior (''mē'') and superior (''ham''). The inferior form was used in Old Bhojpuri but is obsolete in Modern Bhojpuri and is mostly found in poetry. ''Ham'' is used as the first-person singular pronoun; the oblique form is ''Hamrā'', however sometimes ''ham'' (ham-kē) also serves as oblique form. In the Sadri dialect, ''mōe'' is used instead of ''ham''.

In the second person, ''tē'' is the most non-honorific form, used toward people younger than the speaker, to servants, and also while speaking disrespectfully. It can also show deep affection, informality and intimacy in a relationship. For instance, a son always uses ''tē'' for his mother. ''tū'' is ordinarily respectful term and can be used to address anyone, whether younger or older. To show extreme respect or honour, ''raüwā'' or ''apnē'' is used. The demonstrative pronouns ''ī'' and ''ū'' are used as third-person pronouns in Modern Bhojpuri; the ''sē'' and ''tē'' of Old Bhojpuri survive but are not used frequently or mostly only in a proverbial sense. For instance, ''jē jaïsan karī tē taïsan pāï'' (lit. "Who as he does, he so obtains").

Demonstrative Pronouns

The proximate demonstrative pronouns ("this" or "those") of Modern Bhojpuri are given in the following table.

The genitive form is ''ēkar'', ''hēkar'', ''inkar'', ''hinkar''. Sometimes the suffix ''-i'' is added to them and used a feminine. The remote form of demonstrative adjectives can be made by replacing ''i'' with ''u'' and ''e'' with ''o'' in the proximate form. Thus, ''eknī'' will becomes ''oknī'' and so on.

Relative Pronouns

The relative pronoun ''jē'' in Bhojpuri is the same as other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages.

Other Pronouns

* ''Keu'', ''Kēhu'' and ''Kawano'' are used as animate forms of indefinite pronouns and ''kichu'', ''kuchu'', ''kichuo'', ''kuchuo'' as inanimate forms.
*''apanā'' and ''apne'' are used to show relative sense, ''nija'' is used in instrumental case.

Adjectives

Like the nouns, adjectives also have short, long and redundant forms, e.g. ''baṛ'', ''baṛkā'', ''baṛkawā''. Sometimes, the suffixes ''-han'' and ''-har'' are also used with adjectives, e.g. ''lām - lamhar'' and ''baṛ - baṛhan''.

Adjectives do not agree in gender with the noun. Hence the adjective ''baṛ'' (big) is same for ''laïkā'' ("boy") and ''laïki'' ("girl"), just as in other Magadhan languages. In Bhojpuri, however, the long form with suffix /-ka/ and /-kī/ is gendered, thus ''baṛkā'' and ''baṛkī'' are used for masculine and feminine respectively.

Degree of Comparison

There are no inflexions for comparative and superlative forms. The words equivalent to "more" like ''besi'', ''jiādā'', ''dhēr'' and "less" like ''kam'' are used before the adjectives while comparing:

Sometime comparison is done using the numerals ''unaïs'' (nineteen) and ''bīs'' (twenty), where former is used for less and later for more.

The superlative is expressed by adding ''sabh mē'' or ''sabh sē'' or ''sabh mē baṛhi kē'' or ''sabh se baṛhi kē'' (best of all) before the adjective, for example ''u laïka sabh mē nīk hawe'' (the boy is ''best'' of all).

Verbs

Chaterji has classified Bhojpuri verbs into two categories viz. primary root and secondary root. The former one are those which are inherited from Old Indo-Aryan while the latter are causitive, denominative or compounded. Like Bengali, Bhojpuri has two moods, indicative and imperative.

History of Bhojpuri Grammars

The earliest mentions of some grammatical features of Bhojpuri can he found in Buchanan's report on Shahabad in 1812. A detailed grammatical sketch of Bhojpuri was first published by Beames in 1868. In 1877, J.R. Reid tried to give a picture of the Bhojpuri spoken in Azamgarh district. Greirson's Linguistic Survey of India Vol. V, Part II, published in 1903, contained a skeleton grammar of Bhojpuri with specimens.

Current Bhojpuri grammer is which is widely used is Bhojpuri Bayakaran, written by Pt. Shivdas Ojha in 1915. He was a Bhojpuri scholar from Shahabad district of Bihar. It was later published by Bhojpuri Akademi, Patna.

Notes

References

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{{language grammars

Indo-Aryan grammars
grammar