Topics: Languages
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The store front for a doctor's office which advertises in Hindi, English, and Urdu (left to right) |
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In Arampur, we can hear not only three distinct but closely related Indian languages Hindi, Urdu and Bhojpuri but also English, Sanskrit, and Arabic. Hindi became India's national language in 1947 and it is the most widely spoken language in India. The Hindi belt extends through North India and includes Bihar and the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan. Hindi is an Indo-European language (and so distantly related to English) and is written in the Sanskrit Devanagari script. Hindi is not only an official governmental language, but a kind of lingua franca throughout much of North and Central India since many Indians have either studied it in school or are familiar with it due to the enormous popularity of Hindi films. In Arampur, Hindi is a medium of instruction in schools and for official legal or commercial transactions as well as being the language of much of the news and entertainment media available in the village and the primary means of communication with those who are not familiar with Bhojpuri, the native language of the area.
Urdu shares a similar grammatical structure with Hindi but has a vocabulary and script derived from Persian and Arabic. It is now the national language of Pakistan. While Urdu is often considered to be the chief language of India's Muslims, its influence and use extends beyond the Islamic community. Urdu has an especially rich literary tradition and its poetry is particularly beautiful and sophisticated. In Arampur, many well educated Muslim families speak Urdu at home and on the village's streets we can see many signs written in Urdu. There are Urdu language newspapers available in Arampur and there are occasionally performances of qawwali--a lively form of devotional music that has Urdu as a medium. In everyday speech, of course, Hindi and Urdu are virtually indistinguishable.
Bhojpuri is the most widely spoken language in Arampur. Bhojpuri refers to a particular region of Bihar although as a language Bhojpuri is spoken by at least 50 million people in Western Bihar and Easter Uttar Pradesh. Lingusitically, Bhojpuri is most closely related to Hindi although it shares some characteristics with Bengali. It is also subject to wide regional variations. For example, "is" may be expressed in Bhojpuri as "ha," "hou," "ba" or "bate." One can hear numerous Bhojpuri variations in Arampur that reflect the linguistic diversity of the area--in addition to verbal variations there will be variations in vocabularly--one person's Bhojpuri might have words readily understandable to any speaker of Hindi while the Bhojpuri of another might be suffused with specifically local nouns and phrases. Bhojpuri has a rich oral tradition of song and poetry and an ever growing literature. Bhojpuri would be spoken by most residents of Arampur with their family and friends and would also be the usual medium of communication in local business transactions. Bhojpuri also affects the way Hindi is spoken in Arampur. For example, many residents of Arampur will never use the first person singular (mein) when speaking Hindi and instead use the first person plural (ham). Many residents of Arampur will also ignore the gender of nouns when speaking Hindi and also do not use the ergative "ne" after pronouns with transitive verbs in the past tense.
English, Sanskrit, and Arabic can also be read and heard in Arampur. Many Arampur residents have studied English in local schools or at university and one can see not a few signs and advertisements in English. English words also appear with great frequency in spoken Hindi and Bhojpuri. Sanskrit can often be heard during religious rituals performed in homes and in local temples. The most ancient Hindu texts were composed in Sanskrit. Similarly, Muslims occasionally recite Arabic in ceremonial or informal prayers at their homes, mosques, and tombs. Many Muslim children attend one of the two local madarsas (Arabic: madrasa) to learn how to recite Arabic, the language of the Quran. |