ELT VOICES INDIA

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR TEACHERS OF ENGLISH

FEBRUARY 2014 | VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1 | ISSN 2230-9136 (PRINT) 2321-7170 (ONLINE)

Interference of Bhojpuri
Language in Learning English
as a Second Language
V. RADHIKA1
ABSTRACT
Studying the special features of any language is interesting for exploring many
unrevealed facts about that language. The purpose of this paper is to create interest in
the mind of readers to identify the special features of Bhojpuri language, which is
gaining importance in India in the recent years among the spoken languages and make
the readers to get rid of the problem of interference of this language in learning English
as a second language.

1.

Assistant Professor in English, AVIT, VMU, Paiyanoor, India.

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February 2014 | Volume 4, Issue 1
1. Introduction
The paper proposes to make an in-depth study of Bhojpuri language to enable learners to compare and contrast
between two languages, Bhojpuri and English by which communicative skill in English can be properly
perceived. Bhojpuri language has its own phonological and morphological pattern.
The present study is concerned with tracing the difference between two languages (i.e.) English and Bhojpuri,
with reference to their grammatical structure and its relevant information.
Aim of the Paper
Create interest in the mind of scholars to make the detailed study about the Bhojpuri language with reference to
their grammar pattern and to find out possible solution to eliminate the problem of mother tongue interference.
2. Origin of Bhojpuri Language
Bhojpuri language gets its name from a place called Bhojpur in Bihar. It is believed that Ujjain Rajputs claimed
their descent from Raja Bhoj of Malwa in the sixteenth century. The name Bhojpuri is got established by the
seventeenth century and first appeared in written form in 1789. It is originated as a language of Araballia chapra
and expanded to Sindhi districts of Madhya Pradesh, Eastern Uttar Pradesh , Western Bihar, Jharkhand and South
Nepal.[www.google.com]
2.1 Script of Bhojpuri Language
Bhojpuri script was originally adopted by Nastalia [Persian]. Later it accepted kaithi script. At present
Devanagari script is used for all official purposes.
2.2 Composition of Bhojpuri Language
Bhojpuri language has been accepted as common market language by South Asia like Hindi, Urdu, Nepali,
Bengali, Sinhali, Gujarati, Punjabi, etc. It creates varieties in the standard language.
2.3 Elements of Bhojpuri Language
Indo- European, Indo-Iranian and, Indo- Aryan.
2.4 Dialects of Bhojpuri Language
a.

Southern standard [Standard Bhojpuri]

b.

Northern Bhojpuri [ Madhesi]

c.

Western Bhojpuri [ Purabiya] and

d.

Nagpuri [sadani]

Other dialects of Bhojpuri are

a. Caribbean Hindustani,
b. Surinamese Hindustani,

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February 2014 | Volume 4, Issue 1
c. Samani

Hindi or just Samani

d. Mauritian -

Bhojpuri

2.5 Native Speakers of Bhojpuri Language

Bhojpuri belongs to Bihar language family which includes Maithili, Awadhi Nepali, Magahi, etc. The natives of
Bhojpuri are from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Bhojpuri remains strong in the areas between Patna and Banaras. It is
spoken in North-central, Champaran in Western Bihar, Northern parts of Jharkhand, the Poorvanchal region,
Baharaiah in Uttar Pradesh and outside of India in countries like Nepal, Mauritius, Moriband in Guyana, Fiji,
Trinidad and Tobago.
A survey about the users of Bhojpuri cannot be full and definitive because of its unreliable sources. As per 1997
census the native speakers of Bhojpuri in India were 38.5 million. But according to 2001 census the number is
increased to nearly 150 million. Bhojpuri is now used both as first and second languages in different schools in
Bihar state.
2.6. Time Span of Bhojpuri Language
The history of Bhojpuri is traced back to the eighth century from Siddha Sahitya. Kabirs Sant Sahitya in the
fifteenth century was recorded as quality Bhojpuri literature. Devi Sarakarita of Ramadatta Shukla was recorded
as Bhojpuri literature in the seventeenth century. In 1825 Bhojpuri became the medium of instruction in Bihar
schools. In the twentieth century Parichay Das is well known writer, thinker and editor in Bhojpuri literature. He
is also pioneer poet in contemporary Bhojpuri poets.
3. Development of Bhojpuri Language
Development of Bhojpuri started with Vaidiki by adopting some portions of languages like Apabhransa, Paali
Prakrit, Sanskrit and Avahatta.
3.1 Literary Value of Bhojpuri Language
Bhojpuri possesses a high literary tradition and has a continuous flow of literary wealth. In 1887 BhikariThakur
who was known as Shakespeare of Bhojpuri visited different countries and strove to spread Bhojpuri language
and its culture. Further development was made by Bhojpuri writers like Mahavir Prasad, Munish Premchand, etc.
The first story in Bhojpuri was written by Ramasmaran in 1898. In the twentieth century Dr. Ravindranath
Srivatsava was the famous writer in Bhojpuri language.
3.2 Influence of Bhojpuri language
Some of the notable personalities who influenced and spoke Bhojpuri were Swami Sahajananda freedom fighter,
the first president of India Dr.Rajendra Prasad, Prime Ministers of India like Lal Bahadur Sastri, Chandra
Shekhar, Manoj Bajpai. [www.dictionaryreference.com]. Bharatendu Harish Chandra, Father of Literary Hindi
was influenced by the tone and style of Bhojpuri language and was inspired to write in that language.

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3.3 Publications in Bhojpuri language
Now-a-days magazine like Parichhan is published from Bihar, West- Bengal and Assam in Bhojpuri- Several
organizations like The Sunday India,Bhojpuri Association of India and Global Bhojpuri Movement had
launched a worldwide movement for the recognition, promotion and preservation of Bhojpuri language. The
national news magazine The Sunday India is published in Bhojpuri by planman Media.
3.4 Development in Media
Abninetri Anjana Simha introduced Bhojpuri language in the cinema. In Bhagalpur Bhojpuri songs, dramas and
some other programmes are telecast on the T.V. channels like Mahnaa and Hanar. Ravi Kishay is the famous
actor and Nagma is the famous actress in Bhojpuri Cinema.
4. Features of Bhojpuri Language
Bhojpuri has few common features with reference to phonology, syntax and grammar with other Bihari languages
such as Awadhi, Maithili, Magahi, Nepali, etc.
4.1 Phonological Features of Bhojpuri Language
a.

Bhojpuri does not have certain phonological sound as in English. Bhojpuri simply resorts to phonological
reshaping. It doesnt use affixes. Labio dental approximant v is pronounced as voiced plosive b.
e.g.; - va sound is pronounced as ba

b.

Vasanth Pancham

- Basanth Panchami

Vasu

- Basu

Palatal fricative sha and retroflex fricative sh are merged with fricatives and pronounced identically.
There is no distinction between the sounds She and See / Sea. There is no variation in pronouncing
the words because there is only one sibilant /s/ for both palatal and dental.
e.g.: She sells sea shells in the seashore pronounced as
She shells shee shells in the shee shore.

c.

In English we have three nasal sounds but in Bhojpuri there are five nasal

sounds and that cannot be

pronounced without consonant sound.

d.

The Nastaliq (Persian) loan words z, f, are not pronounced properly by

there is a tendency in Bhojpuri to shorten a long vowel sounds.
e.g. Zameen is pronounced as Jameen,
Fakeer pronounced as fakir.

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Bhojpuri speakers and

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February 2014 | Volume 4, Issue 1
Raajeev in Hindi is pronounced as Rajeev in Bhojpuri
Naaraj is pronounced as naraj in Bhojpuri.
4.2 Syntactical Features of Bhojpuri Language
a.

Sentence pattern: In Hindi and Bhojpuri sentence always ends with verb but in English verb follows
subject and sentence ends with object.
E.g.: English

: He is a boy.

Bhojpuri
b.

: E ladka bha.

Article : In English article a is taken as an article but in Hindi and Bhojpuri

it is taken as numeral
e.g.-: English

: He eats an apple.

Bhojpuri : Hau ago seb khala.

Hindi
c.

: vah ek seb kha raha hai.

Word Order: In Hindi and Bhojpuri the word order can be changed without changing its meaning in a
sentence. But it is not possible in English.
e.g. English
Hindi

: Dog bites Raju. S V O pattern only

: Kutha Kaata Rajuko!
Rajuko kaata kutha!
Rajuko kutha kaata!
Kaata kutha Rajuko

Bhojpuri : Kukura kat lelus Rajuke!

Rajuke Kukura Kat lelus!
Rajuke kat lelus kukura!
Kat lelus Kukura Rajuke!
d.

Loan Words: Inspite of Bhojpuri accepts some loan words from different languages like Sanskrit,
Persian, Hindi and English, as English accepts loan word from Greek, Latin, French, Urdu, Hindi and
Tamil, there is a vast difference in pronouncing the accepted words.
e.g.
English

Bhojpuri

loan words

words
Sanskrit

Greek

loan

salary

Brahma
pronounced

as

bramma
Latin

rupee

Arab/ Persian

Jarur

French

memorandum

English

Doctor
pronounced

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as

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dockuter

Urdu

dobi

Hindi
Tamil

Hindi
kattamaran

4.3 Grammatical Features of Bhojpuri Language:

a.

Prefix: Passive compounds can be formed with the help of prefixes.

e.g.- Hi Kalank Akalank
Bhoj Jane Anjane
Most of the prefixes in Bhojpuri and in Hindi are in Tatsama and Tadbhava
e.g.- Tatsama
Bhoj.- Nyaya- Anyaya
Himsa Ahimsa
Tadbhava
Hi.-

pat - Anpat

Bhoj. - pad- Nipad

Some prefixes are derived from Arabic and Persian
e.g.- Hi Pasand - Na pasand
Bhoj- Niman - Na niman
b.

Suffixes: In Bhojpuri suffixes are found to be more numerous than prefixes. There are two types of
suffixes such as primary suffixes and secondary suffixes. Some suffixes change the gender in the noun
form. Genders in Bhojpuri and Hindi are determined by usage.
Primary suffixes:
Hi-

mar marna

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February 2014 | Volume 4, Issue 1
Bhoj- Dand - Dandne
Some suffixes change abstract noun into feminine genders.
e.g. Hi.-

Bholna -Bholi

Bhoj.- Kaha - Kahi

Secondary suffix aai forms abstract noun and other nouns from adjectives.
e.g. Hi. Acha Achayee
Bhoj- Bura Buraye
All above said examples are the reason for the interference of mother tongue in learning English as a second
language for the Bhojpuri learners.
5. Conclusion
Among the Indian languages Bhojpuri has been gaining a prominent place in the northern belt of India because of
its sounds, origin, development and special features of the language since the eighteenth century.
The growth and development of the Bhojpuri language may create a special interest to know about the
phonological, syntactical and semantically features of the language in the mind of future research scholars and
helps to eradicate the problem of mother tongue influence in learning English as a second language.
6. Bibliography
Gardner R.C. and Lambert.E. Attitude and Motivation in Second Language Learning, Rowley, Mass: New Busy
House, 1972.
Larsen Dianna, Principles of Language Teaching. OUP, New York: 2005.
Rt. Rev. Robert Cald Well, A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages. Ed.
1875, rpt.2007.
Shaw, D.W. English and the Indian Student. CTEFL Bulletin, Vol.

Xv.No.1, 1979.

Sasikumar V., et.al. (eds). Communication Skills in English, New Delhi: Foundation Books, 2009.
V. Zvelabil, Kamil, Dravidian Linguistics an Introduction. Ed.1990. Pondicherry. Institute of Linguistics and
Culture, rpt. 1997.
Violet Daisy, Hindi Semantics a Structural Approach. Ed.1997. Annamalai Univ.

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