Bhojpuri grammar (Bhojpuri: भोजपुरी व्याकरण) is the grammar of the Bhojpuri language. In many aspects, it is quite similar to other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages.
See main article: Bhojpuri Nouns. Nouns in Bhojpuri have three forms, viz. short, long and redundant. Thus, for ghōṛā (Horse), the forms will be ghōṛā, ghoṛwā and ghoṛawā respectively. In some cases, the long form ends with /ē/, ghoṛwē. The redundant form has two more variants, /-ā/ and /-yā/. Thus for kukur (a dog), it can take the form kukurā and for māli (a gardener) maliyā. /-ā/ is used with nouns which have a disyllabic structure like bhatār, bhatarā ("husband") or sonār, sonarā ("goldsmith"). The suffix /-yā/ is added to nouns ending in /-i/, including feminine forms derived by adding /-i/, like bētī, betiyā ("daughter") and aurat, auratiyā ("women"). The oblique forms of nouns are identical to the nominative with the exception of verbal nouns.
The redundant form, as it is called by Greirson, actually does the grammatical task of coding definiteness in the noun morphology. It is same as the definite articles the and la of English and French respectively. Thus, ghorawā is "the horse" and maliyā is "the gardener".
To characterize nouns the suffixes -wala and -iya are extensively used. -wala is also used in Hindustani but its use is more extensive in Bhojpuri where it can replace the adjective-forming suffixes of borrowed words, e.g. /-dār/. For instance, becomes ijjatwalā in Bhojpuri. The suffix /-iyā/ (also /-aiyā/, /-vaiyā/ variations) is also used extensively as characterizing suffix, as in kalkatiyā, characteristic or belonging to Kolkata, and puraniyā, characterized by old age.
The Animate nouns in Bhojpuri are gendered. Those referring to females are feminine and rest are masculine. The feminine is formed by adding /-i/, /-in/ and /-ni/ to masculine nouns, e.g. /ājā/ ("grandfather") → /ājī/ ("grandmother") or /māli - mālin/ and /babuā - babunī/ (boy - girl).
To form the plural in Bhojpuri, the final long vowel is shortened and -n, -nh or -ni is added. In some cases, nouns of multitude like sabh (all) or lōg (people) are added to nouns to make plurals.
| Definition | Singular Form (Short) | Singular Form (long) | Plural Form | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| House | ghar | gharwā | gharan/gharwan/ ghar sabh | |
| Horse | ghoṛā | ghoṛwā | ghoṛan/ghoṛwan/ghōṛā sabh | |
| Boy | laïkā | laïkwā | laïkan/laïka sabh | |
| King | rājā | rajwā | rājā lōg |
Cases are generally formed by adding prepositions to the Nominative case or the oblique form (if exists) of the nouns. Sometimes true cases are also found, such as an Instrumental and Locative formed by adding -ē, as in Bengali. Thus, the locative and Instrumental case of ghar ("house") is ghare ("in/by the house"). These case forms are only found in the singular, however.
| Short | Long | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | ||
| Nominative | |||||
| Accusative | |||||
| Genitive | |||||
| Locative | |||||
Nouns can be preceded by quantifiers. The quantifiers -gō, -ṭhō and -ṭhē are used with numeral to emphasize countability as opposed to totality. The limiter expression in Bhojpuri are marked morphologically by using the suffixes -ē and -ō, to show inclusiveness and exclusiveness respectively, as in ham āmē khāïb (I will eat only mangoes) and ham āmō khāïb (I will eat mango, too).
The first-person pronoun has two forms viz. inferior (mē) and superior (ham). The inferior form was used in Old Bhojpuri but is obsolete in Modern Bhojpuri and is mostly found in poetry. Ham is used as the first-person singular pronoun; the oblique form is Hamrā, however sometimes ham (ham-kē) also serves as oblique form. In the Sadri dialect, mōe is used instead of ham.
| Form | First Person | Second Person | Third Person | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inferior | Superior | Inf. | Formal | Honorific | Inf. | Formal | Honorific | ||
| Singular | Nom. | मे (mē) | हम (ham) | तें (tēṃ) | तूँ (tūṃ) | रउवा (raüvā) / रवा (ravā) / रउरा (raürā) / अपने (apnē) | ई (ī), ऊ (ū) | इहाँ के (ihāṁ kē), उहाँ के (uhāṁ kē) | |
| Obl. | मोहि (mohi) / मो (mō) | हमरा (hamrā) | तो (tō) / तोहि (tōhi) / तोरा (tōrā) | तोहरा (tohrā) | रउवा (raüvā) / रवा (ravā) / रउरा (raürā) / अपना (apnā) | ए (ē), एह (ēh), एकरा (ekrā), ओ (ō), ओह (ōh), ओकरा (okrā) | इन (in), इनका (inkā), इनकरा (inkarā), उन (un), उनका (unkā), उनकरा (unkarā) | इहाँ (ihāṁ), उहाँ (uhāṁ) | |
| Gen. | मोर (mōr), मोरे (mōrē) | हमार (hamār) / हमरे (hamarē) | तोर (tōr) / तोरे (tōre) | तोहार (tohār) / तोहरे (tohrē) | राउर (rāür) / रउरे (raürē) / अपने के (apnē kē) | एकर (ekar), ओकर (okar) | इनकर (inkar), उनकर (unkar) | इहाँ के (ihāṁ kē), उहाँ के (uhāṁ kē) | |
| Plural | Nom. | हमनी के (hamnī kē) | हमहन (hamhan) | तोहनी के (tohnī ke) | तूँ लोग (tuṃ lōg) | रउरा सभ/लोग, अपने सभ/लोग (raürā sabh/lōg, apnē sabh/log) | एकनी के (ekanī kē), ओकनी के (okanī kē) | इ लोग (I Iōg), उ लोग (u lōg) | इहाँ सभ (ihāṁ sabh), उहाँ सभ (uhāṁ sabh) |
| Obl. | हमनी (hamnī) | हमहन (hamhan) | तोहनी (tohnī) | तूँ लोग (tūṃ lōg) | एकनी (ekanī), ओकनी (okanī) | ||||
The proximate demonstrative pronouns ("this" or "those") of Modern Bhojpuri are given in the following table.
| Nominative | Non Honorific | ī, haï | eknī kē, inhan kē,hekni kē, hinhan kē |
|---|---|---|---|
| Formal | ī lōg | ||
| Honorific | |||
| Oblique | Non Honorific | ||
| Formal | |||
| Honorific |
| Direct | jē, jawan, jaün, jinhī or sabh | Same as Singular along with जिन्हनि (jinhani) and जिन्हनि लोग (jinhani log) |
| Oblique | जे (jē), जवना (javanā), जउना (jaünā), जेह (jeh), जिन्हि (jinhi), जेकरा (jekrā), जिनकरा (jinkarā), जेहकरा (jehkarā) | |
|---|---|---|
| Genitive | जेकर (jēkar), जेहकर (jehkar), जिनकर (jinkar) |
| Case | Demonstrative | Relative | Interrogative | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd person | |||||||||
| Proximal | Non-proximal | ||||||||
| Nominative | Informal | ī, haï | eknī ke, hēknī ke, inhan ke, hinhan ke, ī log (logan/sabh) | ū, haü | oknī ke, hoknī ke, unban ke, hunhan ke, ū log (logan/sabh) | jē, jawan, jaün | jeknī kē, jinhan kē, | kē, kewan, kawan, kaün | kē, kewan, kawan lōg, kaün |
| Formal | ī, inhī, hinhī | ū, unhī, hunhī | ū log (logan, sabh) | jē lōg, jinhan lōg | |||||
| Honorific | ihāṃ kē | ihāṃ sabh (sabhan/sabhani ke) | uhāṃ kē | uhāṃ sabh (sabhan/sabhani ke) | jihāṃ kē | jihāṃ sabh (sabhani) | |||
| Oblique | Informal | ē, eh, hē, ekrā, hekrā | eknī, heknī, inhani, hinhanī | ō, oh, ho, okrā, hokrā | okanī, hoknī, unhani | jē, jekrā, jeh, jawanā, jaünā | jeknī, jinhan | kē, keh, kawanā, kaünā, kewanā, kekrā, kehakarā | kē, keknī, kinhan |
| Formal | in, inkarā, inkā, inhani ka | i log (logan) | un, unkā, unkarā,. hunkā, hunkarā | u log (logan) | jē, jeh, jawanā, jaünā, jin, jinkā, jinkarā | jē lōg, jawan lōg | kinkarā, kinkā | kinhan, kawan log | |
| Honorific | ihāṃ | ihāṃ (sabh/sabhan/sabhani) | uhāṃ | uhāṃ (sabh/sabhan/sabhani) | jihāṃ | jihāṃ sabh (sabhan/sabhani) | kihāṃ | ||
| Genitive | Informal | ēkar, hēkar | eknī ke, heknī ke | ōkar, hōkar | oknī kē, hokni kē | jēkar, jehakar | jeknī ke | kēkar | keknī ke |
| Formal | inkar, hinkar | i log (logan) | unkar, hunkar | u log (logan) | jinkar | je/jawan/jaün log ke | kinkar | kawan log | |
| Honorific | ihaṃ ke | ihāṃ sabh ke (sabhan/logan/log) | uhāṃ kē | uhāṃ sabh ke (sabhan/logan/log) | jihaṃ | jihāṃ sabh ke (sabhan/logan/log) | |||
Like the nouns, adjectives also have short, long and redundant forms, e.g. baṛ, baṛkā, baṛkawā. Sometimes, the suffixes -han and -har are also used with adjectives, e.g. lām - lamhar and baṛ - baṛhan.
Adjectives don't agree in gender with the noun. Hence the adjective baṛ (big) is same for laïkā ("boy") and laïki ("girl"), just as in other Magadhan languages. In Bhojpuri, however, the long form with suffix /-ka/ and /-kī/ is gendered, thus baṛkā and baṛkī are used for masculine and feminine respectively.
There are no inflexions for comparative and superlative forms. The words equivalent to "more" like besi, jiādā, dhēr and "less" like kam are used before the adjectives while comparing:
Sometime comparison is done using the numerals unaïs (nineteen) and bīs (twenty), where former is used for less and later for more.
The superlative is expressed by adding sabh mē or sabh sē or sabh mē baṛhi kē or sabh se baṛhi kē (best of all) before the adjective, for example u laïka sabh mē nīk hawe (the boy is best of all).
Chaterji has classified Bhojpuri verbs into two categories viz. primary root and secondary root. The former one are those which are inherited from Old Indo-Aryan while the latter are causitive, denominative or compounded. Like Bengali, Bhojpuri has two moods, indicative and imperative.
The earliest mentions of some grammatical features of Bhojpuri can he found in Buchanan's report on Shahabad in 1812. A detailed grammatical sketch of Bhojpuri was first published by Beames in 1868. In 1877, J.R. Reid tried to give a picture of the Bhojpuri spoken in Azamgarh district. Greirson's Linguistic Survey of India Vol. V, Part II, published in 1903, contained a skeleton grammar of Bhojpuri with specimens.