The Bagri language (باگڑی/बागड़ी) is a language that forms a dialect bridge between

Haryanvi Haryanvi ( ' or '), also known as Bangru, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the state of Haryana in India, and to a lesser extent in Delhi. Haryanvi is considered to be part of the dialect group of Western Hindi, which also includes Kharib ...

, Rajasthani, and Punjabi and takes its name from the

Bagar tract Bagar, also Bagad (बागड़) and even Bar, a term meaning the "dry country",Nonica Datta The Tribune, 3 July 1999. refers to the sandy tract of north-western India and eastern parts of current Pakistan bordering India. For example, area ...

region of

Northwestern India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

. The speakers are mostly in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, with pockets in the

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur () is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. With inhabitants as of 2017, it is Pakistan's 11th most populous city. Founded in 1748, Bahawalpur was the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, ruled by the Abbasi fa ...

and

Bahawalnagar Bahawalnagar (Punjabi, ur, ), is the capital city of Bahawalnagar District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The city of Bahawalnagar is the headquarter of the district and tehsil as well.

districts of

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. Bagri is a typical

Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...

akin to

, Punjabi and Rajasthani with SOV

word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...

. The most striking

phonological Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

feature of Bagri is the presence of three lexical tones: high, mid, and low, akin to Punjabi. The language has a very high (65%) lexical similarity with Haryanvi. According to the 2011 Census, there are 234,227 speakers of Bagri Rajasthani and 1,656,588 speakers of Punjabi Bagri.Census of India 2011
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Features

Phonology

Bagri distinguishes 31 consonants including a

retroflex A retroflex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal (Help:IPA/English, /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated betw ...

series, 10 vowels, 2 diphthongs and 3 tones.

Declension

*There are two numbers: singular and plural. *Two genders: masculine and feminine. *Three cases: simple, oblique, and vocative. Case marking is partly inflectional and partly postpositional. *Nouns are declined according to their final segments. *All pronouns are inflected for number and case but gender is distinguished only in the third person singular pronouns. *The third person pronouns are distinguished on the proximity/remoteness dimension in each gender. *Adjectives are of two types: either ending in /-o/ or not. *Cardinal numbers up to ten are inflected. *Both present and past participles function as adjectives.

Verbs

*There are three tenses and four moods.

Syntax

*Sentence types are of traditional nature. *Coordination and subordination are very important in complex sentences. *Parallel lexicon are existing and are very important from sociolinguistic point of view.

Samples

Work on Bagri

* Grierson, G. A. 1908. (Reprint 1968). Linguistic Survey of India. Volume IX, Part II. New Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass *Gusain, Lakhan. 1994. Reflexives in Bagri. M.Phil. dissertation. New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University *Gusain, Lakhan. 1999. A Descriptive Grammar of Bagri. Ph.D. dissertation. New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University *Gusain, Lakhan. 2000a. Limitations of Literacy in Bagri.

Nicholas Ostler Nicholas Ostler (; born 20 May 1952) is a British scholar and author. Biography and work Ostler studied at Balliol College, Oxford, where he received degrees in Greek, Latin, philosophy, and economics. He later studied under Noam Chomsky at ...

Blair Rudes Blair Arnold Rudes (May 18, 1951 – March 16, 2008) was an American linguist and professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte best known for his expertise in Native American languages. He was hired in 2004 to reconstruct the long e ...

(eds.). Endangered Languages and Literacy. Proceedings of the Fourth FEL Conference. University of North Carolina, Charlotte, 21–24 September 2000 *Gusain, Lakhan. 2000b. Bagri Grammar. Munich: Lincom Europa (Languages of the World/Materials, 384) *Gusain, Lakhan. 2008. Bagri Learners' Reference Grammar. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Northside Publishers *Wilson, J. 1883. Sirsa Settlement Report. Chandigarh: Government Press

Gallery

Regions where Bagri is spoken: File:India - Haryana - Sirsa.svg, Bagri is the First language in

Sirsa district Sirsa district is the largest district of Haryana state. Sirsa is the district headquarters. It is located on National Highway 9 and from the capital Delhi. Etymology The district is named after its headquarters, Sirsa. The name, Sirsa is der ...

. File:India - Haryana - Fatehabad.svg, Bagri is the First language in western

Fatehabad district Fatehabad District is one of the twenty two districts of the state of Haryana, India. Fatehabad was founded by Firuz Shah Tughlaq. Fatehabad district was carved out of Hisar district on 15 July 1997. It borders districts of Mansa and San ...

. File:Map rajasthan dist 7 div.png, Bagri is the First language of

Ganganagar district Sri Ganganagar district is the northernmost district of Rajasthan state in western India. History Named after Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner, Sri Ganganagar district was part of Bikaner state. This was a mostly uninhabited region. The hi ...

Hanumangarh Hanumangarh is a city in the Indian state of Rajasthan, situated on the banks of the river Ghaggar also identified as Ancient Sarasvati river, located about 400 km from Delhi. It is the administrative seat of Hanumangarh District. The c ...

district, north-western part of Churu district and a major language in north-western part of

Jhunjhunu Jhunjhunu is a city and capital of Jhunjhunu district in the state of Rajasthan. This city is in the northern state of Rajasthan, India and the administrative headquarters of Jhunjhunu District. History Jhunjhunu is a very old and historical ...

district in

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

. File:Punjab district map.png, Bagri is the major language in

Fazilka district Fazilka district is one of new and 23 districts in the state of Punjab in India. The district headquarters of the Fazilka District are at Fazilka. History On 27 July 2011, the Government of Punjab created two new districts: Fazilka district by ...

and as a minor language in southern villages of

Muktsar district Sri Muktsar Sahib district, colloquially known by the city's former name Muktsar; is one of the 23 districts in the Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab. The city was renamed from Muktsar to Sri Muktsar Sahib. The district itself was historical ...

of Southern Punjab (India). File:Pakistan Punjab.png, Bagri is a minor language is spoken in

and

Bahawalnagar district Bahawalnagar District (Urdu and pa, ), is a district of Punjab province in Pakistan. Before the independence of Pakistan, Bahawalnagar was part of Bahawalpur state governed by the Nawab of Bahawalpur. The city of Bahawalnagar is the capital ...

Punjab, Pakistan Punjab (; , ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest province by population. It shares land borders with the ...

, though not considered parts of Bagar tract.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

Centre for Rajasthani Studies
{{Languages of Pakistan Haryanavi culture Languages of Rajasthan Languages of Punjab, India Languages of Punjab, Pakistan Rajasthani languages Languages of Sindh