Bagri language

Bagri
बागड़ी
Native to	Rajasthan (India)
Native speakers	2.1 million (2000)[1] Census results conflate some speakers with Hindi.[2]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Western Rajasthani–Marwari Rajasthani Bagri
Official status
Official language in	No official status
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bgq
Glottolog	bagr1243[3]

A Bagri speaker in Patiala, Punjab.

Bagri (बागड़ी) is a Rajasthani language of the Indo-Aryan family. Bagar refers to the sandy tract of north-western India and parts of Pakistan.^[4] Bagri language is spoken by about five million speakers in the sandy bagar tract, which includes Hanumangarh , Sriganganagar districts and some villages in Taranagar sub distict of churu district Rajasthan, Sirsa district, Adampur tehsil of Hisar district and Fatehabad districts of Haryana, Fazilka of Punjab and some southern villages of Muktsar district of Punjab of India. Bagri as minor language is spoken in Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar areas of Punjab of Pakistan.

Bagri is a typical Indo-Aryan language having SOV word order. The most prominent phonological feature of Bagri is the presence of three lexical tones: high, level, and low. The Bagri language has a very high 65% lexical similarity with Haryanvi.

Features

Phonology

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

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.
• Coordination and subordination are very important in complex sentences.
• Parallel lexicon are existing and are very important from sociolinguistic point of view.

Samples

Bagri	Transliteration	Translation
तेरो नाम के है	Tero nāma ke hai	What is your name?
किन्नै जावै है?	kinn jāv hai	Where are you going?
इन्नै आ	innai ā	Come here
क्यूकर है ?	kyūkara hai	How are you?
टींगर टीटणं नां मार	ṭīṅgara ṭīṭaṇaṃ nāṃ māra	Hey kid! Don't waste our time.
तन्नै कुचरणीं ही करनी है के ?	tannai kučaraṇīṃ hī leṇīṃ hai ke	Do you only want to disturb things?
नास में आन्गळी ना ले	nāma meṃ āngaḷī nā le	Don't penetrate finger into nose.
बातां गा पीसा लागै है.	bātāṃ gā pīsā lāgai	Talking costs money.
सलिमों देखण चालसी के ?	salimoṃ dekhaṇa čālasī ke	Will you go to Cinema?
मुह कर जिया बताऊ जिसों या मुंह कर बताऊ बरगो	suha kara jiyā batāū jisoṃ	Your face looks like eggplant.
मान ग्या र , सागी है बटो	Maan gya r , saagi h bto	Shame on You , same as Asshole.
क्यांमी राफ चोड़ी करै है रे?	kyāmī rāpha čoṛī karai hai re	Why are you making your mouth as that of a moron?
के करे है?	ke kare ha	What are you doing?
रोल्लो है के कोई तेरै	rollo ha ke koī terai	you have any problem
तू कठै गयैड़ो हो	too kathai gayairo ho	Where did you go?
कठैउं आन लाग रह्यो है?	kaṭhū ān lāga rahyo ha	Where are you coming from?
भांडा	bhanda	Utensils.
घोड़ो होव जिओं	Ghodo hov jiya	Looking like a horse
कोजवाड़	kozwaD	embarrassing.

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

Bagar region where bagri language is spoken

• 

  Bagri is main language in Sirsa district

• 

  Bagri is main language in western Fatehabad district

• 

  Bagri is main language in western Hisar district

• 

  Bagri is main language in western Bhiwani district

• 

  Bagari is main language in eastern parts of Ganganagar district, Hanumangarh district, Churu district and Jhunjhunu district in Rajasthan

• 

  Bagari is main language in Fazilka district (now a separate district, formerly southern part of Firozpur district) and southern villages of Muktsar district of Punjab (India)

• 

  Bagri as minor language is spoken in Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar district of Punjab, Pakistan, though not considered parts of Bagar tract.

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. Bagri at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
2. Census India 2001
3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Bagri". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
4. Revised Land and Revenue Settlement of Hisar District 9006-9011

External links

• Centre for Rajasthani Studies