Bundeli (Devanagari: बुन्देली/बुंदेली) or Bundelkhandi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Bundelkhand region of central India. It belongs to the Central Indo-Aryan languages and is part of the Western Hindi subgroup.

Classification

A descendant of the Sauraseni Apabhramsha language, Bundeli was classified under Western Hindi by George Abraham Grierson in his Linguistic Survey of India. Bundeli is also closely related to Braj Bhasha, which was the foremost literary language in north-central India until the nineteenth century.

Like many other Indo-Aryan languages, Bundeli has often been subject to a designation as a dialect, instead of a language. Furthermore, as is the case with other Hindi languages, Bundeli speakers have been conflated with those of Standard Hindi in censuses.

Grierson divided Bundeli into four dialect groups:

  • Standard Bundeli, Bundeli, language of Tikamgarh, Lalitpur, Mahoba etc.
  • Northeastern Bundeli (closely related to Bagheli)
  • Northwestern Bundeli (similar to Braj Bhasha)
  • Southern Bundeli (mixed or broken Bundeli with slight influences from Marathi)

Geographical distribution

thumb|Bundelkhand region|class=skin-invert-image

The Bundelkhand region comprises regions of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Bundeli is spoken in the Gwalior, Ashoknagar, Morena, Bhind, Datia, Shivpuri, Guna, Chanderi, Orrchha, Banda, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Chitrakoot, Mahoba, Chhatarpur, Panna, Tikamgarh, Sagar, Damoh, Niwari districts.

thumb|Traditional [[Folk music (Lokgeet) in Bundeli]]

Phonology

Consonants

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

|+ Phonemes of Bundeli

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! colspan="2" |

! Labial

! Dental

! Alveolar

! Retroflex

! Palatal

! Velar

! Glottal

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! colspan="2" | Nasal

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! rowspan="4" | Plosive/<br/>Affricate

! <small>voiceless</small>

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! <small>voiceless aspirated</small>

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! <small>voiced</small>

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! <small>voiced aspirated</small>

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! colspan="2" | Fricative

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! colspan="2" | Flap

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! colspan="2" | Approximant

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Grammar

Sanskrit final, initial, and surplus medial vowels are frequently lost in ways much common to Hindi.

Nouns

Two genders &ndash; masculine and feminine &ndash; are taken by all nouns in Bundeli, indiscriminate of their animacy.

References

Bibliography

  • Bundelkhand NEWS [http://www.bundelkhandnews.com/]
  • Learn Bundelkhandi on Bundelkhanddarshan.com
  • www.bundelkhand.com
  • BundelkhandInfo.org