Bagheli language

Bagheli is a language of the Baghelkhand region of central India. It is often considered to be a dialect of Hindi language, and is classified such by the Indian Census Report (1991).

The Bagheli speakers are found mainly in six districts of Madhya Pradesh (Rewa, Satna, Sidhi, Shahdol, Umaria and Anuppur), and also in some districts of Uttar Pradesh like Allahabad and Mirzapur.

History

The language spoken in Baghelkhand has been known as Bagheli since the 13th century. Bagheli is a regional language used for intra-group and inter-group communication. It is also known as Baghelkhandi, Rimahi and Riwai (Rewa district).

Dr. George Grierson in his Linguistic survey of India classified Bagheli under Indo-Aryan, Eastern Hindi. The extensive research by Dr. Bhagawati Prasad Shukla also agrees with Dr. Grierson’s classification. Ethnologue classifies Bagheli as Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, and East Central zone (Grimes 1992:552). According to Dr. Bhagawati Prasad Shukla, Bagheli language has three major divisions:
#Pure Bagheli
#West Mixed Bagheli
#Southern Broken Bagheli

Indian Census report 1991 classifies Bagheli/Baghelkhandi as a dialect of Hindi under Scheduled language list. The dialects of Bagheli language are Remai, Riwai, Godwani (spoken by Gonds) and Kumhari (spoken by Kumhars).

Language boundaries

Rewa, Satna, Sidhi, Shahdol, Umaria and Anuppur are primary districts of Bagheli speaking area. Bagheli speaking area extends up to Allahabad and Mirzapur districts of Uttar Pradesh, Jabalpur districts of Madhya Pradesh and Bilaspur and Koriya districts of Chhattisgarh.

Available Materials

* There are radio and TV programmes in Bagheli. All India Radio broadcasting Bagheli songs and agricultural programmes from Shahdol, Satna, Rewa and Bhopal stations.
* There are no notable written materials available in this language, except some unpublished poems.
* Most of the local people are interested in the development of their language, but the lack of literacy is drawing them back from this effort.
* Madhya Pradesh University in Rewa provides multiple opportunities to learn and research in this language.
* Mr. Rajiv Lochan Sharma was the first person to broadcast the bagheli poetry at AIR Bhopal. The entire 14 episodes of the bagheli serial " Eya Baghelkand Kai Darati' based on Bagheli and Bahelkand was broadcasted by All India Radio Rewa in the year 2005-2006 written by Mr. Rajiv Lochan Sharma.Mr. Sharma is the recepiant of Madhya Pradesh prestigious 'Akshar Aditya'award for the development of Bagheli.

Further reading

* Pathak, R. S. "The Phonetics of Bagheli: A Phonetic and Phonological Study of a Dialect of Hindi". New Delhi: National Pub. House, 1980.
* Shukla, Hira Lal. "Contrastive Distribution of Bagheli Phonemes". Raipur: M.P., Alok Prakashan, 1969.
* Shukla, Bhagvati Prasad. 1972. Bagheli Bhasha aur sahithya (Hindi). Allahabad: Sahitya bhavan Pvt. Ltd
* Koshy, Binoy; Tutum Padung and GB Amar. 2004. A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF BAGHELI SPEAKERS IN MADHYA PRADESH. Unpublished research by NLCI

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=BFY Ethnologue record]