Bhojpuri (भोजपुरी)

Bhojpuri is a Bihari language spoken mainly in India, and also in Nepal,
Guyana, Suriname, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago and Mauritius. In India Bhojpuri
speakers can be found in western Bihar state, in the northwest of Jharkhand
and in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh. Bhojpuri spoken in Suriname is
know as Sarnami Hindi or Sarnami and has absorbed vocabulary from English and Dutch.

Bhojpuri used to be considered a dialect of Hindi, but is the
government of India is planning grant it the status of national
scheduled language.

Bhojpuri is closely related to Maithili and Magadhi and they are
collectively known as Bihari languages. It is also part of the eastern
Indo-Aryan languages and related to Bengali and Oriya. According to the
2001 census, the number of Bhojpuri speakers in India is 33 million,
though some people estimate the number to be 150 million in India, and a further
6 million elsewhere.

From 16th century until the mid 20th century Bhojuri was written with
the Kaithi script, and also with the
Perso-Arabic script. The Kaithi script is still used to a limited extent
today, though Devanāgarī is more common and has been used in official
documents since 1894.

Devanāgarī and Kaithi alphabets for Bhojpuri

Vowels and vowel diacritics

Consonants

Numerals

Sample text in Bhojpuri (Devanāgarī alphabet)

Transliteration

Savahi līkāni ājāde jammelā āor
oybiniyī ke barābara sammāna āor aghkāri
prāpta habe. Oybiniyī ke pāsa samajha-būjha āor
aṅtaḥkaraṇa ke ābāja hīybatā
āor hunakī ke dīsarā ke sātha bhātha
thāḍcārā ke bebahāra kare ke hīybalā.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason
and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)