Bajjika
Bajjika (Western Maithili) | |
---|---|
बज्जिका (पश्चिमी मैथिली) | |
पछिमाहा बोली | |
Native to | India and Nepal |
Region | Bihar of India and Terai (Madhesh Province) of Nepal |
Native speakers | c. 20 million (2013 estimate) |
Indo-European
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | vjk |
Glottolog | bajj1234 |
Bajjika (Western Maithili) is an Indo-Aryan language variety spoken in parts of Bihar, India and in Nepal.[1] It is closely related to Maithili (of which it is often considered a dialect).
Territory and speakers
Bajjika is spoken in the north-western part of Bihar, in a region popularly known as Bajjikanchal.[2] In Bihar, it is mainly spoken in the Samastipur, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Sheohar districts. It is also spoken in a part of the Darbhanga district adjoining Muzaffarpur and Samastipur districts.[3] A 2013 estimate based on 2001 census data suggests that at the time there were 20 million Bajjika speakers in Bihar (including around 11.46 illiterate adults).[4]
Bajjika is also spoken by a major population in Nepal, where it has 793,416 speakers according to the country's 2011 census. It is the most spoken language in Rautahat and Sarlahi district of Madhesh Province.[5] [6]
Relationship to Maithili
Bajjika has been classified as a dialect of
Maithili proponents believe that the Government of Bihar and the pro-Hindi Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad promoted Angika and Bajjika as distinct languages to weaken the Maithili language movement. [10] People from mainly Maithil Brahmins and Karan Kayasthas castes supported the Maithili movement in the days when it was to be subsumed as a dialect of Hindi / Bengali, hence anti-Maithili factions branded the Maithili Language as a Brahminical language while inciting various other castes in the Mithila region to project Angika and Bajjika as their mother tongues, attempting to break away from the Maithili-based regional identity.[12] According to linguist Pandit Rahul Sankrityayan, Bajjika and Maithili are two different dialects.[13][14]
Academy
In a move aimed at protecting indigenous language and culture, the Bihar government has decided to set up two new academies to promote local dialects; Surjapuri and Bajjika, spoken in politically influential Seemanchal and Bajjikanchal regions of the state.[15]
Films in Bajjika
Lakshmi Elthin Hammar Angna (2009) was the first formal feature film in Bajjika. Sajan Aiha Doli le ke came after that.[16]
See also
References
- ISBN 978-3-11-026128-8.
- ISBN 978-93-5266-769-7.
- ^ a b Abhishek Kashyap 2014, p. 1.
- ^ Abhishek Kashyap 2014, pp. 1–2.
- ^ "2011 Nepal Census, Social Characteristics Tables" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 March 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
- ^ Abhishek Kashyap 2014, p. 2.
- ^ Ethnologue
- ^ "LSI Vol-5 part-2". dsal. p. 106.
- ^ "LSI Vol-5 part-2". dsal. p. 14.
Western Maithili
- ^ a b Mithilesh Kumar Jha 2017, p. 163.
- ^ Kathleen Kuiper 2010, p. 57.
- ^ Manish Kumar Thakur 2002, p. 208.
- ^ Kalpanā (in Hindi). Bhāgīratha Śarmā. 1972.
- ^ Śarmā, Śrīnivāsa (1974). Samakālīna ālocanā ke pratimāna (in Hindi). Maṇimaya Prakāśana.
- ^ Outlook https://www.google.com/s/www.outlookindia.com/national/bihar-to-get-two-new-academies-to-promote-surjapuri-bajjika-dialects-news-225746/amp.
{{cite web}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help) - ^ "Bhojpuri artist to make first Bajjika film". The Times of India. 17 August 2009. Archived from the original on 12 May 2013.
Bibliography
- Abhishek Kashyap (2014). "On the linguistic resources of Bajjika". In Vibha Chauhan (ed.). The People's Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. 6: The Languages of Bihar. Orient Blackswan.
- Abhishek Kumar Kashyap (2016). "The representation of gender in Bajjika grammar and discourse". In Julie Abbou; Fabienne H. Baider (eds.). Gender, Language and the Periphery: Grammatical and social gender from the margins. John Benjamins. ISBN 978-90-272-6683-5.
- Kathleen Kuiper, ed. (2010). The Culture of India. Rosen. ISBN 978-1-61530-149-2.
- Manish Kumar Thakur (2002). "The politics of minority languages: Some reflections on the Maithili language movement" (PDF). Journal of Social and Economic Development. 4 (2): 199–212.
- Mithilesh Kumar Jha (2017). Language Politics and Public Sphere in North India: Making of the Maithili Movement. Oxford University Press India. ISBN 978-0-19-909172-0.
Further reading
- Kashyap, Abhishek Kumar. 2014. The Bajjika language and speech community. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 227: 209–224.
- Kashyap, Abhishek Kumar. 2012. The pragmatic principles of agreement in Bajjika verb. Journal of Pragmatics 44: 1668–1687.
External links
- http://www.bajjika.in Archived 2020-11-02 at the Wayback Machine Official Website of Bajjika Vikash Manch