The Bagri language is a dialect of

Rajasthani Rajasthani may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Rajasthan, a state of India * Rajasthani languages, a group of Indic languages spoken there * Rajasthani people, the native inhabitants of the state * Rajasthani architecture, Indian ar ...

that takes its name from the

Bagar tract Bagar, also Bagad (बागड़) a term meaning the "dry country",Nonica Datta The Tribune, 3 July 1999. is a region refers in north-western India in north Rajasthan, West Haryana, south west Punjab, India where the Bagri language is spoken ...

region of

Northwestern India Northwest India is a loosely defined region of India. In modern-day, it consists of north-western states of the Republic of India. In historical contexts, it refers to the northwestern Indian subcontinent. In contemporary definition, it gene ...

in the states of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

and

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

. 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 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east of the Indus river in Ba ...

akin to Rajasthani and Haryanvi 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 languages employ different orders. Correlatio ...

. The most striking

phonological Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often prefer ...

feature of Bagri is the presence of three lexical

tone Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...

s: high, mid, and low, akin to Rajasthani, Haryanvi, Punjabi. Bagri is a language of earlier

Bikaner state Bikaner State was the princely state, Princely State in the north-western most part of the History of Bikaner, Rajputana province of imperial British India from 1818 to 1947. The founder of the state Rao Bika was a younger son of Rao ...

which included district

Sri Ganganagar Sri Ganganagar is the northernmost city of the Indian state of Rajasthan, near the international border of India and Pakistan. It is the administrative headquarters of Sri Ganganagar district. It is named after Maharaja Shri Ganga Singh Bahad ...

Hanumangarh Hanumangarh is a city and municipal council 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 headquarter o ...

, Churu,

Bikaner Bikaner () is a city in the northwest of the States and territories of India, state of Rajasthan, India. It is located northwest of the state capital, Jaipur. It is the administrative headquarters of Bikaner District and Bikaner division. Fo ...

of Rajasthan and Sirsa(Haryana), Hisar (Haryana), Fazilka (punjab) at a point in time. The speakers are mostly in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, with a minority of them in

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur (Urdu: ; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 13th largest city of Pakistan and List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, 8th most populous city of Punjab. Bahawalpur is the capital of Bahawalpur Division. Founded in ...

and

Bahawalnagar Bahawalnagar ( Punjabi, ), 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.

areas in modern day

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. According to the 2011 census of India, there are 234,227 speakers of Bagri in Rajasthan and 1,656,588 speakers of Bagri in Punjab and Haryana.Census of India 2011
/ref>

Geographical distribution

Features

Phonology

Bagri distinguishes 31 consonants including a

retroflex A retroflex () or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consona ...

series, 10 vowels, 2 diphthongs, and 3 tones. /ɳ/, /ɭ/ and /ɽ/ do not occur word initially. All vowels have their

nasalised In phonetics, nasalization (or nasalisation in British English) is the production of a sound while the soft palate, velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal ...

counterpart, marked with ◌̃ (

ँ Chandrabindu (IAST: , in Sanskrit) is a diacritic sign with the form of a dot inside the lower half of a circle. It is used in the Devanagari (ँ), Bengali-Assamese (), Gujarati (ઁ), Odia (ଁ), Tamil (◌𑌁 Extension used from Grant ...

in Devanagari). Bagri has 3 tones in a similar way to the

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabis, Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a ...

language. A rising-falling tone ◌́, a rising tone ◌̀, and an unmarked mid tone.

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 infected. *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

Official status

Bagari is language of Bagar region of Rajasthan extended to some parts of Punjab and Haryana and Pakistan also. Bagri is spoken by Kumawats, Jats, Rajputs, Bagri Kumhars, Suthar, Meghwal, Chamars and others casts residing there. Bagri derives its roots from Marwari when bhati dynasty ruled over the region from

Bhatner Hanumangarh is a city and municipal council 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 headquarter of ...

, modern day

which is epicentre of Bagri language. Bagri culture is also same in this region .

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 ...

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

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

district,

Churu district Churu is a district of the northern Indian state of Rajasthan. Churu lies in the Sekhawati region of northern Rajasthan and shares boundaries with the Hanumangarh District to the north, the Haryana state to the east, the Jhunjhunu and Sikar ...

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

Jhunjhunu Jhunjhunu is a city and municipal council in the state of Rajasthan in India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jhunjhunu district. It is also the largest city of the Shekhawati region, which includes Jhunjhunu, Churu and Sikar ...

district in

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

Sirsa district Sirsa district is the largest district by area in Haryana state, India. Sirsa is the district headquarters. It is located on National Highway 9 and from the capital Delhi. On 1 September 1975, Sirsa became a district by taking Sirsa and Dabw ...

. 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 S ...

Hisar Hissar () means fort or castle in Arabic, with variants adopted into Persian (hesar, hessar) and Turkish (hisar). Hissar, Hisar and Hesar may refer to: Places Asia (South and Central) India *Hisar (city), a city in Haryana **Hisar Airport in Hi ...

Bhiwani Bhiwani is a city and a municipal council in Bhiwani district in the state of Haryana. Besides being a seat of spiritual learning, the city is at the centre of regional politics and hometown of three former Haryana chief ministers: Bansi Lal ...

Charkhi dadri Charkhi Dadri is a city and the headquarters of Charkhi Dadri district in the Indian state of Haryana, about 90 km from the national capital Delhi. The town was made by joining the villages of Charkhi and Dadri after urban development. Ch ...

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

Fazilka district Fazilka district is one of 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 the ...

and as a minor language in southern villages of

Muktsar district Sri Muktsar Sahib district is one of the 23 districts in the Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab. The capital city of district is Sri Muktsar Sahib. The district itself was historically referred to as Khidrane Di Dhaab. There are four tehsils ...

of Southern

Punjab (India) Punjab () is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab, Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the States and union territories of India, Indian states ...

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{Languages of India Haryanvi Haryanavi culture Rajasthani languages Languages of Rajasthan Languages of Punjab, India Languages of Punjab, Pakistan Tonal languages in non-tonal families Languages written in Devanagari Languages listed as Hindi dialects in latest census