Bagri language

Bagri (बागड़ी) is a dialect of Rajasthani language of the Indo-Aryan family. It is spoken by about five million speakers in Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar districts of Rajasthan, Sirsa and Hissar districts of Haryana, Fazilka of Punjab and Some population in some southern villages of Mukatsar district of Punjab of India speak this language.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.

Linguistic Features

• There are 31 consonants, 10 vowels, 2 diphthongs, and 3 tones.
• Retroflexion is an important feature.
• 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.
• There are three tenses and four moods in Bagri.
• 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.

Language samples

   * तेरो नाम के है| (What is your name?)
   * किन जाव है| (where are you going?)
   * इन्नै आ (Come here)
   * क्यूकर है ? (how are you?)
   * टींगर टीटणं नां मार. (hey dude! dont waste time.)
   * तन्नै कुचरणीं ही लेणीं है के ? (Do you only want to disturb things?)
   * नास में आन्गळी ना ले (Don't penetrate finger into nose?)
   * बातां गा पीसा लागै. (Talking costs money)
   * सलिमों देखण चालसी के ? (Will you go to Cinema?)
   * मुह कर जिया बताऊ जिसों (Your face looks like eggplant.)
   * क्यामी राफ चोड़ी करै है रे? (Why are you making your mouth as that of a moron?)
   * के करे ह (what are u doing )
   * पंगो ह क कोई तेर (you have any problem )
   * कीने मर गयो हो (where was u gone )
   * कठू आन लाग रह्यो ह (where are you coming from )

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

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

External links

• Centre for Rajasthani Studies
• Ethnologue Report for Rajasthani