Bagri language

Bagri
Bagri
बागड़ी, باگری, ਬਾਗੜੀ
	The word "Bagri" written in Devanagari script
Native to	India, Pakistan;
Region	Bagar
Ethnicity	Bagri
Native speakers	8,556,652 (2011 census)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Western Punjabi Bagri; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Devanagari, Shahmukhi, Gurmukhi
Official status
Recognised minority; language in	Bagar
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bgq
Glottolog	bagr1243

The Bagri (ਬਾਗੜੀ/ باگڑی) is a language that forms a dialect bridge between Rajasthani, and Punjabi and takes its name from the Bagar tract region of Northwestern India in the states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana.^[2] The speakers are mostly in India, with a minority of them in Bahawalpur and Bahwalnagar areas in modern day Pakistan.

Bagri is a typical Indo-Aryan language akin toq Punjabi and Rajasthani with SOV word order. The most striking phonological feature of Bagri is the presence of three lexical tones: high, mid, and low, akin to Punjabi.^[3] The language has a very high (70%) lexical similarity with Punjabi.

According to the 2022, there are 343,227 speakers of Bagri Rajasthani and 2,256,588 speakers of Punjabi Bagri.^[4]

Geographical distribution

The following table shows the Geographical distribution of Bagri speakers in the states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana.
States	Districts and tehsils
Rajasthan	Anupgarh district, Sri Ganganagar district, Hanumangarh district, Khajuwala, Chhatargarh, Loonkaransar, Pugal, Sri Dungargarh and Bikaner tehsils of Bikaner district, Taranagar, Sardarshahar, Rajgarh, Sidhmukh, Bhanipura, Ratangarh and Churu tehsils in Churu district.^[5]
Punjab	Abohar & Fazilka tehsils of Fazilka district, Southern villages of Muktsar district.^[5]^[6]^[7]
Haryana	Sirsa district ( not including North-eastern punjabi Kalawali Mandi region), Fatehabad district upto the Ghaggar River,^[8] Barwala, Adampur and Hisar tehsils of Hisar district.^[5]^[6] Siwani and western part Loharu of Bhiwani district^[9] Badhra tehsil of Charkhi Dadri district ^[10]

Features

Phonology

Bagri distinguishes 31 consonants including a retroflex series, 10 vowels, 2 diphthongs, and 3 tones.

Consonants^[11]
		Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
plosive	Voiceless	p	t	ʈ ⟨ṭ⟩	c	k
	Aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	ʈʰ ⟨ṭh⟩	cʰ	kʰ
	Voiced	b	d	ɖ ⟨ḍ⟩	ɟ ⟨j⟩	g
	Breathy	bʰ	dʰ	ɖʰ ⟨ḍh⟩	ɟʰ ⟨jh⟩	gʰ
fricative			s				h
sonorant	Nasal	m	n	ɳ ⟨ṇ⟩
	Approximant		l	ɭ ⟨ḷ⟩	j ⟨y⟩	w
	Flap			ɽ ⟨ṛ⟩
	Trill		r

/ɳ/, /ɭ/ and /ɽ/ do not occur word initially.

Vowels^[11]
	Front	Central	Back
Close	iː ⟨ī⟩		uː ⟨ū⟩
Near-close	ɪ ⟨i⟩		ʊ ⟨u⟩
Close-mid	eː ⟨e⟩	ə ⟨a⟩	oː ⟨o⟩
Open-mid	ɛː ⟨ai⟩		ɔː ⟨au⟩
Open		aː ⟨ā⟩

All vowels have their nasalised counterpart, marked with ◌̃ (ँ in Devanagari).

Bagri has 3 tones in a similar way to the Punjabi language. A rising-falling tone ◌́, a rising tone ◌̀, and an unmarked mid tone.^[11]

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.^{[clarification needed]}
Coordination and subordination are very important in complex sentences.
Parallel lexicon are existing and are very important from sociolinguistic point of view.^{[clarification needed]}

Samples

तेरो

Tero

नाम

nām

के

ke

है

hai

What is your name?

किन्नै

kinne

जावै

jāve

है?

hai

Where are you going?

इन्नै

inne

/उरने

ā

आ

Come here Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 3 word(s) in line 1, 2 word(s) in line 2 (help);

क्यूकर

kyūkara

है?

hai

How are you?

तन्नै

tannai

कुचरणीं

kučaraṇīṃ

ही

hī

करनी

karni

है

hai

के?

ke

Do you only want to disturb things?

बातां

bātāṃ

गा

gā

पीसा

pīsā

लागै

lāgai

है.

hai

Talking costs money.

के

ke

करे

kare

है?

ha

What are you doing?

रोळो

rollo

है

ha

के

ke

कोई

koī

तेरै

terai

Do you have any problem?

तू

too

कठै

kathai

गयैड़ो

gayairo

हो

ho

Where did you go?

कठैउं

kaṭhū

/

ān

कडूं

lāga

आण

rahyo

लाग

ha

रह्यो

है?

Where are you coming from? Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 7 word(s) in line 1, 5 word(s) in line 2 (help);

भांडा

bhanda

Utensils

घोड़ो

Ghodo

होव

hov

जिओं

jiya

Like a horse

कोजवाड़

kojwād

Embarrassing.

ब्या

bayha

मे

mai

कुण

kun

आयो

aayo

Who came in the marriage?

टाबरो

tabaro

के

ke

करो

karo

हो

ho

What are you doing kids?

Official status

There are two varieties of Bagri, Bagri Rajasthani and Bagri Punjabi. During the census, Bagri Rajasthani, spoken in Haryana and Rajasthan, is considered a Hindi dialect while Bagri Punjabi, spoken in Punjab, is considered a Punjabi dialect.^[12]

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 & Blair Rudes (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:

Bagri is the First language in Sirsa district.
Bagri is the First language in western Fatehabad district Hisar, Bhiwani, Charkhi dadri.
Bagri is the First language of Ganganagar district, Hanumangarh district, north-western part of Churu district and a major language in north-western part of Jhunjhunu district in Rajasthan.
Bagri is the major language in Fazilka district and as a minor language in southern villages of Muktsar district of Southern Punjab (India).

References

^ "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
^ "Revised Land and Revenue Settlement of Hisar District 9006-9011" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
^ Gusain 2000, p. 14.
^ Census of India 2011
^ ^a ^b ^c Gusain, Lakhan: Reflexives in Bagri. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 1994
^ ^a ^b Gusain, Lakhan: Limitations of Literacy in Bagri. Nicholas Ostler & Blair Rudes (eds.). Endangered Languages and Literacy. Proceedings of the Fourth FEL Conference. University of North Carolina, Charlotte, 21–24 September 2000
^ Census India 2001
^ https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-map-shows-study-area-and-the-Eco-cultural-regions-of-Haryana-Modified-after-Singh_fig2_364830044
^ https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-map-shows-study-area-and-the-Eco-cultural-regions-of-Haryana-Modified-after-Singh_fig2_364830044
^ https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-map-shows-study-area-and-the-Eco-cultural-regions-of-Haryana-Modified-after-Singh_fig2_364830044
^ ^a ^b ^c Gusain, Lakhan. A Descriptive Grammar of Bagri. pp. 165–198.
^ "LANGUAGE - INDIA, STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES (Table C-16)" (PDF). Census of India 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 July 2018.

Bibliography

Gusain, Lakhan (1999). A Descriptive Grammar of Bagri (PhD). Jawaharlal Nehru University. hdl:10603/16847.
Gusain, Lakhan (2000). Bagri. Languages of the world. Materials. Munich: LINCOM Europa. ISBN 978-3-89586-398-1.

External links

Centre for Rajasthani Studies

[1] "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 7 July 2018.

[2] "Revised Land and Revenue Settlement of Hisar District 9006-9011" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2016.

[FOOTNOTEGusain200014-3] Gusain 2000, p. 14.

[4] Census of India 2011

[GL1-5] Gusain, Lakhan: Reflexives in Bagri. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 1994

[GL2-6] Gusain, Lakhan: Limitations of Literacy in Bagri. Nicholas Ostler & Blair Rudes (eds.). Endangered Languages and Literacy. Proceedings of the Fourth FEL Conference. University of North Carolina, Charlotte, 21–24 September 2000

[7] Census India 2001

[8] ttps://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-map-shows-study-area-and-the-Eco-cultural-regions-of-Haryana-Modified-after-Singh_fig2_364830044

[9] ttps://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-map-shows-study-area-and-the-Eco-cultural-regions-of-Haryana-Modified-after-Singh_fig2_364830044

[10] ttps://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-map-shows-study-area-and-the-Eco-cultural-regions-of-Haryana-Modified-after-Singh_fig2_364830044

[:0-11] Gusain, Lakhan. A Descriptive Grammar of Bagri. pp. 165–198.

[Census_Lang-12] "LANGUAGE - INDIA, STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES (Table C-16)" (PDF). Census of India 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 July 2018.

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