Bhojpuri language has different names as Bajpuri, Bihari, Bhojapuri, Bhozpuri, , Deswali, Khotla, and Piscimas belonging to the Indo-European language family. Its closest relatives are Maithili and Magahi. It is a direct descendant of Sanskrit language but due to the absence of written records there is very limited information about its history. Although Bhojpuri is not among the established literary languages of India, it has a strong tradition of oral literature.
Among the official languages in India, Bhojpuri is excluded but the government of India is considering changing its status to that of a national scheduled language.
There are about 5,05,79,447 Bhojpuri speakers as per the 2011 census. It is primarily spoken in the western part of Bihar and the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh along with some adjoining areas of Madhya Pradesh.
Speakers of the Bhojpuri Language
In countries like Nepal, there are about 74,000 people use it as a second language. It has 336,000 speakers in Mauritius. The other variants of the Bhojpuri language are spoken by the descendants in Guyana, Fiji, Trinidad, Suriname, and Tobago whose main occupation is based on plantation works.
Vocabulary of Bhojpuri
The basic vocabulary of Bhojpuri language has its origin in Sanskrit. It uses prefixes and suffixes for deriving words from basic elements, along with reduplication and compounding. Over the years Bhojpuri has borrowed words from languages like Hindi, Bengali, and other neighbouring Indo-Aryan languages, along with English.
Similar words of Bhojpuri and Hindi
| English Words | Bhojpuri | Hindi |
| Hello | prannam | प्रणाम (Prannam) |
| Excuse me. | maf kara | माफ करा (maf kara) |
| Thank you. | dhanyavad | धन्यवाद (dhanyavad) |
| Brother | bhai | भाई (bhai) |
| Sister | bahin | बहिन (bahin) |
Certain Bhojpuri vocabularies have 90% lexicon similarity with Hindi based as mentioned above. Also, some word leaves Persian/Arabic/Turkic loan words, along with similarity in western Hindi languages like Braj, Bhasha, Haryanvi Punjabi and Bengali.
| English | Bhojpuri | Comparable Language |
| Pain | Baatha | Batha (Bengali) |
| Watermelon | Hinwana | Indwana (Dogri) |
| Near | Niyare | Nere (Punjabi) |
| Daylight | Ghaam | Ghaam (Haryanvi) |
| Hot | Tatal | Tato (Rajasthani) |
| To take out | Kadhna | Kadhna (Haryanvi, Rajasthani) |
Bhojpuri language dialects
Bhojpuri has the three major child dialects that include
- Southern Standard Bhojpuri is prevalent in areas of Bhojpur, Bhabua, Buxar, Saran, Siwan, Rohtas, Ballia and eastern Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh and Gopalganj in Bihar, It is referred to as ‘Kharwari’ which is further divided into ‘Shahabadi’ and ‘Chapariyah’.
- Northern Standard Bhojpuri is common in the areas of Basti in Uttar Pradesh, Deoria, Gorakhpur and north Bihar and Nepal. The variety of spoken cast of Gandak river between Gorakhpuri Bhojpuri and Maithili in Champaran, Northern Bhojpuri has Maithili influence.
- Western Standard Bhojpuri is prevalent in the areas of Azamgarh, Varanasi, Ghazipur, and Mirzapur. ‘Banarasi’ is used as a local name for the Banaras Bhojpuri. It is also referred to as “Purbi” or “Benarsi“.
- Nagpuria Bhojpuri is the southernmost dialect sometimes referred to as ‘Sadani‘ found in Chota Nagpur region of Jharkhand especially in Palamau and Ranchi with more Magahi influence.
Writing System of Bhojpuri
Historically, Bhojpuri was written in Kaithi scripts but since 1894, Devanagari served as the primary script. At present almost all Bhojpuri texts are written using the Devanagari script even in the overseas islands where Bhojpuri is spoken. The Kathi script was considered informal in Mauritius but in modern Mauritius, Bhojpuri script is Devanagari.
Bhojpuri Alphabets
अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ए ऎ ऒ औ क ख ग घ ङ च छ ज झ ञ ट ठ ड ढ ण ड़ ढ़ त थ द ध न प फ ब भ म य र ल व श ष स ह
Bhojpuri Numerals
Bhojpuri numerals are usually in Latin transcription.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| ēk | dui | tīn | cāri | pã:c | cʱæ | sāt | ātʰ | nao | das |
Thus, Bhojpuri is not only the most alive language in the whole world but is also the most rapidly developing language. In the oral tradition of Bhojpuri, there is so much wisdom, especially in music, cinema, and philosophy.