Bagri language

Not to be confused with Baar di boli.

The Bagri is a dialect bridge of Rajasthani, Haryanvi & Punjabi and takes its name from the Bagar tract region of Northwestern India in the states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana.^[3] The language has a very high (70%) lexical similarity with Puadhi Punjabi. Bagri is a typical Indo-Aryan language akin to Haryanvi, 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 Rajasthani, Haryanvi, Punjabi.

Bagri
बागड़ी
The word "Bagri" written in Devanagari script
Native to	India
Region	Bagar
Ethnicity	Bagris
Native speakers	8,556,652 (2011 census)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Western Rajasthani[2] Bagri
Writing system	Devanagari, Gurmukhi
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bgq
Glottolog	bagr1243

The speakers are mostly in India, with a minority of them in Bahawalpur and Bahwalnagar areas in modern day Pakistan. According to the 2011 census of India, there are 234,227 speakers of Rajasthani Bagri and 1,656,588 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, Jhunjhunu 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[8] Badhra tehsil of Charkhi Dadri district [8]

Features

Phonology

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

Consonants^[9]

		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^[9]

	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.^[9]

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 infected.
• 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

रोळो

rollo

है

ha

के

ke

कोई

koī

तेरै

terai

रोळो है के कोई तेरै

rollo ha ke koī terai

Do you have any problem?

तू

too

कठै

kithe

गयैड़ो

gayairo

हो

a

तू कठै गयैड़ो हो

too kithe gayairo a

Where did you go?

bhanda

bhanda

Utensils

घोड़ो

Ghodo

होव

hov

जिओं

jiya

घोड़ो होव जिओं

Ghodo hov jiya

Like a horse

कोजवाड़

kojwād

कोजवाड़

kojwād

Embarrassing.

ब्या

viahh

मे

ch

कुण

kon

आयो

pa

ब्या मे कुण आयो

viahh ch kon pa

Who came in the marriage?

टाबरो

tabaro

के

ke

करो

karo

हो

ho

टाबरो के करो हो

tabaro ke karo ho

What are you doing kids?

Kutta

Kutta

Dog

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.^[10]

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).

See also

• Rajasthani language
• List of winners of Sahitya Akademi Awards for writing in Rajasthani language
• List of Rajasthani poets
• List of Indian poets#Rajasthani

References

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. https://dspace.gipe.ac.in/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10973/18895/GIPE-070453.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y%7CBagri is classified under Rajasthani language since census 1931 according to Government of India which is available in the provided official pdf
3. "Revised Land and Revenue Settlement of Hisar District 9006-9011" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
4. Census of India 2011
5. Gusain, Lakhan: Reflexives in Bagri. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 1994
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. "The map shows study area and the Eco-cultural regions of Haryana... | Download Scientific Diagram".
9. Gusain, Lakhan. A Descriptive Grammar of Bagri. pp. 165–198.
10. "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