Surjapuri
Sura, Deshi Bhasa
सुरजापुरी, সুরজাপুরী
'Surjapuri' in Bengali & Devanagari scripts
Native toIndia, Nepal, Bangladesh
RegionBihar, West Bengal
Native speakers
2,256,228 (2011 census)[1]
Devanagari, Bengali
Language codes
ISO 639-3sjp
Glottologsurj1235

Surjapuri is an eastern Indo-Aryan language of the Bihari branch,[2] spoken in Eastern India including North Bengal, West Bengal, and some eastern parts of Purnia division of Bihar, as well as Jhapa District in Nepal, Goalpara Division of Assam in India and Rangpur Division in Bangladesh. Among speakers in some regions, it is known as 'Deshi Bhasa'. It is considered a mix of Hindi, Maithili and Bengali.[3]

Geographical distribution

Surjapuri is mainly spoken of Surjapuri Bengali in the parts of Purnia division (Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia, and Araria districts) of Bihar.[4] It is also spoken in West Bengal (Uttar Dinajpur and Dakshin Dinajpur districts, and in North Malda of Malda district, specially in Harishchandrapur and Chanchal area and Siliguri city of Darjeeling district – part of the North Bengal region within the Jalpaiguri division), Bangladesh (Thakurgaon District) as well as in parts of eastern Nepal of Jhapa District and Morang District. As of 2011, it had 18,57,930 speakers in Bihar.[3]

Surjapuri is associated with the Kamtapuri language (and its dialects Goalpariya, Rajbanshi and Koch Rajbangshi) spoken in North Bengal and Western Assam,[5] as well as with Hindi, Bengali, and Maithili.[3]

Pronouns[6][7][8]

Singular Plural
nominativeoblique nominativeoblique
1st person mũi mo- hāmrā hāmsā-, hāmcā-
2nd person tũi to- tumrā, tomrā tumsā-, tomsā-
3rd person proximal yāhāy yahā- emrā, erā ismā-, isā-
distal wahā̃y wahā- amrā, worā usmā-, usā-

Surjapuri has the oblique plural suffixes: sā (hamsā-, tomsā-) and smā (ismā-, usmā-). They are also seen in Early Assamese as: sā (āmāsā-, tomāsā-) and sambā (esambā-, tesambā-) and their occurrences are similar.[9]

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Dental/
Alveolar		 Retroflex Post-alv./
Palatal		 Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Stop/
Affricate		 voiceless p t ʈ tʃ k
aspirated pʰ tʰ ʈʰ tʃʰ kʰ
voiced b d ɖ dʒ ɡ
breathy bʱ dʱ ɖʱ dʒʱ ɡʱ
Fricative s h
Tap ɾ
Lateral l
Approximant w j

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e ə o
ɔ
Low æ ɑ
  • Nasalization is also phonemic.
  • /i, e/ in medial and initial form are heard as [ɪ, ɛ].[10]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  2. ↑ "Bihar: Tharu and Surjapuri languages facing extinction". The Print. 12 June 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 "Bihar To Get Two New Academies To Promote Surjapuri, Bajjika Dialects". Outlook India. 25 September 2022.
  4. ↑ Kumāra, Braja Bihārī (1998). Small States Syndrome in India. p. 146. ISBN 9788170226918. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
  5. ↑ Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel; Conde-Silvestre, Juan Camilo, eds. (15 February 2012). The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118257265. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  6. ↑ Toulmin 2006, p. 184
  7. ↑ Bez 2012
  8. ↑ Kakati 1941
  9. ↑ Bez 2012
  10. ↑ Srivastava & Perumalsamy 2021.

References



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