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Bihari Hindi

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Bihari Hindi is a form of Hindi mainly spoken in the Bihar and Jharkhand states of India. The differences between Bihari Hindi and Standard Hindi are less pronounced than the differences between Standard Hindi and some of the other regional forms. The first characteristic is in the pace of speaking, which is very slow and many times accompanied with a stretching of the last word of the sentence.

Contents

Grammar

Bihari and Standard Hindi have several differences in grammar, relating to pronouns and the gender of words

Gender of Nouns

In Bihari Hindi, every non-living object is considered masculine, while in Standard Hindi, all nouns have either a masculine or feminine gender. For example, the noun बारिश "barish" (rain) is classified as feminine in Standard Hindi, while it is masculine in Bihari Hindi. Due to the inflection of Hindi grammar, this has an effect on the rest of the phrase:

Standard Hindi - बारिश हो रही है ("barish ho rahi hai"), बारिश (rain) is feminine and as such the accompanying verb is conjugated in its feminine form (rahi)

Bihari Hindi- बारिश हो रहा है ("barish ho raha hai"), बारिश is now masculine and the construction reflects that (raha).

Pronouns

Another difference between the two dialects is the use of pronouns. Many speakers of Bihari Hindi use the word हम ("hum") for both the first-person singular pronoun ("I") and the first-person plural pronoun ("we"), while in Standard Hindi, मैं ("main") is used for the first-person singular, while हम ("hum") is used only as the first-person plural pronoun. Similarly, Bihari Hindi speakers from Madhubani and Darbhanga tend to use the word आप ("aap") as the only second-person pronoun (you), while in Standard Hindi आप is used as an honorific or plural second-person pronoun and तुम ("tum") is used in more informal situations.

Phonology

There are several allophones in Bihari Hindi compared with Standard Hindi

  • The sound ड़(ṛa) in Standard Hindi is expressed as र(ra) in many Bihari Hindi words
  • Words with sha (श) are pronounced as sa (स)
  • e.g.: शादी ("shaadi" Eng. 'marriage') in Hindi is pronounced as सादी ("saadi")

  • The sound व (va/wa) is pronounced as ब (ba)
  • e.g. रवी ("ravi" Eng. 'sun') is pronounced as रबी ("rabi").

  • Some speakers add a vowel before words that begin with a consonant in Standard Hindi, usually an अ (aa) or इ (ee) depending upon words. Example: ग्यारह ("gyarah", Eng. 'eleven') pronounced as इग्यारह "egyarah".
  • Though a non-phonological element of language, the pace of speaking in Bihari Hindi is slower than that of Standard Hindi and many times accompanied with a stretching of the last word of the sentence.

    Vocabulary

    Bihari Hindi has many regional words, such as 'burbak/baklol' (fool), 'ka' (what), 'aayen' (what you mean),'habakna' (caught), 'kaisan' (how), 'begari' (unemployment) etc.

    References

    Bihari Hindi Wikipedia