Bajjika

Bajjika
बज्जिका
The word "Bajjika" written in Devanagari script
Native to	India and Nepal
Region	Bihar of India and Terai (Madhesh Province) of Nepal
Native speakers	c. 20 million (2013 estimate)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Bihari Bajjika
Writing system	Kaithi Tirhuta
Language codes
ISO 639-3	vjk
Glottolog	bajj1234

Bajjika is an Indo-Aryan language variety spoken in parts of Bihar, India and in Nepal. ^[1]

Territory and speakers

Bajjika language is spoken in the north-western part of Bihar, in a region popularly known as Tirhut. ^[2] It is mainly spoken in the Sheohar, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Samastipur and Vaishali districts of Bihar. ^[3] A 2013 estimate based on 2001 census data suggests that there were 20 million Bajjika speakers in Bihar. ^[4]

Bajjika is also spoken by a major population in Nepal, where it has 1,133,764 speakers according to the country's 2021 census. It is the most spoken language in Rautahat, Sarlahi and Mahottari district of Madhesh Province. ^{[5] [6]}

Academy

In a move aimed at protecting indigenous language and culture, the Bihar government has decided to set up two new academies to promote local dialects; Surjapuri and Bajjika, spoken in politically influential Seemanchal and Bajjikanchal regions of the state. ^[7]

Swadesh list

The Swadesh list for Bajjika, an Eastern Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bihar, India, and parts of Nepal, is a standardized vocabulary set used for linguistic comparison. Bajjika, often considered a dialect of Maithili, lacks extensive public documentation, so its Swadesh list is typically constructed by approximation, drawing from related languages like Maithili and Hindi, with adjustments for Bajjika's unique phonological and lexical features.

S.No	English	Bajjika	IPA
1	I	हम	/ɦəm/
2	You	तू	/t̪uː/
3	we	हमनी	/ɦəməniː/
4	This	ई	/iː/
6	Who	के	/keː/
7	What	का	/kɑː/
8	No	न	/nə/
9	All	सब	/səb/
10	Many	बहुत	/bəɦʊt̪/
11	One	एक	/eːk/
12	Two	दुइ	/d̪ui/
13	Big	बड़ा	/bəɽɑː/
14	Long	लम्मा	/ləmmɑː/
15	Small	छोट	/tʃʰoʈ/
16	Women	औरत	/ɔːrət̪/
17	Man	मर्द	/mərd̪/

Films in Bajjika

Lakshmi Elthin Hammar Angna (2009) was the first formal feature film in Bajjika. Sajan Aiha Doli le ke subsequently followed. ^[8]

See also

• Bihari languages
• Tirhut

References

1. Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (2017-09-25). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN   978-3-11-026128-8.
2. Singh, Pradhuman (2021-01-19). Bihar General Knowledge Digest: Bestseller Book by Pradhuman Singh: Bihar General Knowledge Digest. Prabhat Prakashan. ISBN   978-93-5266-769-7.
3. Abhishek Kashyap 2014, p. 1.
4. Abhishek Kashyap 2014, pp. 1–2.
5. "2021 Nepal Census, Social Characteristics Tables" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 March 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
6. Abhishek Kashyap 2014, p. 2.
7. "Bihar to get two new academies to promote Surjapuri and Bajjika dialects". Outlook. Archived from the original on 2023-12-22. Retrieved 2025-08-31.
8. "Bhojpuri artist to make first Bajjika film". The Times of India . 17 August 2009. Archived from the original on 12 May 2013.

Bibliography

• Abhishek Kashyap (2014). "On the linguistic resources of Bajjika". In Vibha Chauhan (ed.). The People's Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. 6: The Languages of Bihar. Orient Blackswan.
• Abhishek Kumar Kashyap (2016). "The representation of gender in Bajjika grammar and discourse". In Julie Abbou; Fabienne H. Baider (eds.). Gender, Language and the Periphery: Grammatical and social gender from the margins. John Benjamins. ISBN   978-90-272-6683-5.
• Kathleen Kuiper, ed. (2010). The Culture of India. Rosen. ISBN   978-1-61530-149-2.
• Manish Kumar Thakur (2002). "The politics of minority languages: Some reflections on the Maithili language movement" (PDF). Journal of Social and Economic Development. 4 (2): 199–212. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-03-24. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
• Mithilesh Kumar Jha (2017). Language Politics and Public Sphere in North India: Making of the Maithili Movement. Oxford University Press India. ISBN   978-0-19-909172-0.

Further reading

• Kashyap, Abhishek Kumar. 2014. The Bajjika language and speech community. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 227: 209–224.
• Kashyap, Abhishek Kumar. 2012. The pragmatic principles of agreement in Bajjika verb. Journal of Pragmatics 44: 1668–1687.

External links

• http://www.bajjika.in Archived 2020-11-02 at the Wayback Machine Official Website of Bajjika Vikash Manch