Bagri language explained

Bagri
Ethnicity:	Bagri
Nativename:	बागड़ी
Region:	Bagar
Speakers:	8,556,652
Date:	2011 census
Ref:	^[1]
Familycolor:	Indo-European
Fam2:	Indo-Iranian
Fam3:	Indo-Aryan
Fam4:	Western
Fam5:	Rajasthani^[2]
Minority:	Haryana, Punjab
Script:	Devanagari, Arabic script
Iso3:	bgq
Glotto:	bagr1243
Glottorefname:	Bagri

The Bagri (बागड़ी) is a dialect bridge between Haryanvi, Rajasthani, and Punjabi and takes its name from the Bagar tract region of Northwestern India in the states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana.^[3] The speakers are mostly in India, with a minority of them in Bahawalpur and Bahwalnagar areas in modern day Pakistan.

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 Punjabi. The language has a very high (65%) lexical similarity with Haryanvi.Bagri is a community originating from Rajasthan and is also connected with the Chauhan Rajputs. Nowadays, these people are often referred to as "Kumar." Here are some castes related to the Chauhan Rajputs: Kargwal, Taak/Tak, Nirania, Sangwal, and Labardar, Damiwal.

According to the 2011 Census, there are 234,227 speakers of Bagri Rajasthani 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.^[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. Siwani and western part Loharu of Bhiwani district Badhra tehsil of Charkhi Dadri district

Features

Phonology

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

! Labial! Dental! Retroflex! Palatal! Velar!Glottal
plosive	Voiceless	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	ʈ ⟨ṭ⟩	c	k
	Aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	ʈʰ ⟨ṭh⟩	cʰ	kʰ
	Voiced	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	ɖ ⟨ḍ⟩	ɟ ⟨j⟩	g
	Breathy	bʰ	dʰ	ɖʰ ⟨ḍh⟩	ɟʰ ⟨jh⟩	gʰ
fricative			pronounced as /link/				h
sonorant	Nasal	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	ɳ ⟨ṇ⟩
	Approximant		l	ɭ ⟨ḷ⟩	j ⟨y⟩	pronounced as /link/
	Flap			ɽ ⟨ṛ⟩
	Trill		r

/ɳ/, /ɭ/ and /ɽ/ do not occur word initially.

Vowels
	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.

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.

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.^[9]

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:

Bibliography

Gusain. Lakhan. 1999. A Descriptive Grammar of Bagri. 10603/16847. Jawaharlal Nehru University. PhD.
Book: Gusain, Lakhan. 2000. Bagri. Languages of the world. Materials. LINCOM Europa. Munich. 978-3-89586-398-1.

External links

Centre for Rajasthani Studies

Notes and References

Web site: Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. www.censusindia.gov.in. 7 July 2018.
https://dspace.gipe.ac.in/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10973/18895/GIPE-070453.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y
Web site: Revised Land and Revenue Settlement of Hisar District 9006-9011 . 26 March 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170517124050/http://revenueharyana.gov.in/html/gazeteers/revised_settlement_hisar.pdf . 17 May 2017 . dead .
https://censusindia.gov.in/2011Census/C-16_25062018_NEW.pdf Census of India 2011
Gusain, Lakhan: Reflexives in Bagri. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 1994
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
http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.aspx Census India 2001
Web site: The map shows study area and the Eco-cultural regions of Haryana... | Download Scientific Diagram.
Web site: LANGUAGE - INDIA, STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES (Table C-16) . https://web.archive.org/web/20180712135523/https://censusindia.gov.in/2011Census/C-16_25062018_NEW.pdf . Jul 12, 2018 . Census of India 2011.