Awadhi | |
---|---|
अवधी اودھی |
|
Native to | India, Nepal |
Region | Awadh region in Uttar Pradesh, India |
Native speakers
|
2.5 million in India (2001) 501,752 in Nepal (2011) |
Devanagari | |
Official status | |
Official language in
|
Fiji (as Fiji Hindi) Nepal |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 |
|
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | awad1243 |
Awadhi (Devanagari: अवधी) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily in the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh and Terai belt of Nepal.
Awadhi was classified as an Eastern Hindi by George Abraham Grierson, who commissioned the Linguistic Survey of India.
Important works in Awadhi are the Candayan of Maulana Da’ud, the Padmavat of Malik Mohammad Jaisi (1540 A.D.), the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas (1575 A.D.), and Indravati by Nur Muhammad (1757 A.D.).
Bollywood star Amitabh Bachhan has a noted propensity for switching to Awadhi in his many movies and songs like "Hori Khele Raghuvira Awadh Ma" from Baghban and "Ek Rahe Eer Ek Rahe Beer" from Bhootnath. Recently in the serial Yudh which aired on Sony Entertainment Television (India), Bachchan spoke parts of his dialogue in Awadhi which were received with critical acclaim. According to the Hindustan Times: "We simply loved Amitabh Bachchan speaking Awadhi on TV! Only an actor of his calibre could transform himself from a high-class English speaking businessman to rattle off the dialogues in Awadhi. He has done it in the past for a few Bollywood and regional films, but not as regularly as one would have liked him, to show off grasp over the language. It was great to see him speak in fluent Awadhi in Wednesday's episode."