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Art. XIV.—Notes on the Bhojpurí Dialect of Hindi, spoken in Western Behar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

The Bhojpurí dialect is spoken in the British districts of Chumparun, Sarun, Shahabad, Ghazipoor, Azimgurh, and Goruckpore, by a population which probably amounts to five millions. It is not, of course, the same in all these districts; but through all its variations it preserves the same general features, such as the use of the substantive verb bhá or the perfect in il, and other points of difference from the classical or literary type of Hindí. It is largely used as a written medium of communication by native merchants, and in all the transactions of the rural population, such as village accounts, leases, receipts, and so forth. The character is a variation of the Devanágarí, formed by omitting the horizontal top line, and is strikingly similar to the Gujarátí character, so much so that a work printed in that language can be read by a native of Chumparun. In the following remarks, however, I shall use the Devanágarí character as more generally understood in Europe.

Type
Original Communications
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1868

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References

page 488 note 1 Analogous to this is the use of the affix ko for the usual ke or karte in the Maithil dialect (Tirhút), where they say , for the ordinary and , “having seen.”

page 492 note 1 Since writing the above I have heard the words , “I am going,” and , (ban' tarín) for , “I am tying,” so that probably the phrase is a common one.

page 500 note 1 Westergaard gives , but only as a Vedic word. Rad. Sanscr. p. 2.

page 502 note 1 Von has a genitive relation, though a dative construction; auf and of have got sundered.

page 502 note 2 Such as we probably have in the Persian isáfa. There is a good Essay, by Garnett, on the subject of genitives: it is published in the collected volume of his Essays, which I have not at hand while I write.

page 503 note 1 Journal Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xix. p. 392, etc.

page 503 note 2 Though Dr. Trumpp's suggestion of for the Panjábí is undoubtedly correct.

paage 504 note 1 The in these words is not distinguishable in pronunciation from , though in writing it is the more frequently used of the two, probably because it is easier to write. A similar confusion between these two letters exists in Maráṭhí, and to a still greater extent in Bengálí.

page 507 note 1 In 1835 the remains of walls, a large reservoir, ditches, a brick causeway, palace, citadel, and temple of richly carved stone, were still standing. Simraon was founded by Manyupa Deva in A.D. 1097, his sixth successor, Sari Singha Deva, was defeated by Toghlak Shah in 1322, and fled to Kathmáṇḍo, where he established his throne. Simraon has been in ruins since that time. The kingdom when at its height extended from the Kosi to the Gandak, and from the foot of the hills to the Ganges. See Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal, March, 1835. The ruins have been much diminished since that date; a few fine sculptures still remain, and the mounds marking the old line of walls enclose an immense area.