Magahi language
| Magadhi | |
|---|---|
| मगही magahī | |
| Native to | India and Nepal |
|
Native speakers
|
14 million (2001 census) Census results conflate some speakers with Hindi. |
|
Early forms
|
Magadhi Prakrit
|
| Devanagari, Kaithi | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | maga1260 |
The Magahi language, also known as Magadhi, is a language spoken in parts of India and Nepal. Magadhi Prakrit was the ancestor of Magahi, from which the latter's name derives. Magahi has approximately 18 million speakers.
It has a very rich and old tradition of folk songs and stories. It is spoken in eight districts in Bihar, three in Jharkhand, and has some speakers in Malda, West Bengal.
Though the number of speakers in Magahi is large, it has not been constitutionally recognised in India. In Bihar Hindi is the language used for educational and official matters. Magadhi was legally absorbed under Hindi in the 1961 Census.
The ancestor of Magahi, Magadhi Prakrit, formed in the Indian subcontinent in a region spanning what is now India and Nepal. These regions were part of the ancient kingdom of Magadha, the core of which was the area of Bihar south of the Ganges.
The name Magahi is directly derived from the word Magadhi, and educated speakers of Magahi prefer to call it Magadhi rather than Magahi.
Grammarian Kachchayano wrote of the importance of Magadhi, "There is a language which is the root (of all languages); men and Brahmans spoke it at the commencement of the kalpa, who never before uttered a human accent, and even the supreme Buddhas spoke it: it is Magadhi."
The development of the Magahi language into its current form is unknown. However, language scholars have come to a conclusion that Magahi, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Assamese and Oriya originated from the Mithila Prakrit or might be Bengali Prakrit during the 8th to 11th centuries. These different dialects differentiated themselves and took their own course of growth and development. But it is not certain when exactly it took place. It was probably such an unidentified period during which modern Indian languages begin to take modern shape. By the end of the 12th century, the development of Apabhramsa reached its climax. Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Maithili and other modern languages took definite shape in their literary writings in the beginning of the 14th century. The distinct shape of Magadhi can be seen in the Dohakosha written by Sarahapa and Kauhapa. Magahi had a setback due to the transition period of Magadha administration. Traditionally, strolling bards recite long epic poems in this dialect, and it was because of this that the word "Magahi" came to mean "a bard". Kaithi is the script generally used for it. The pronunciation in Magahi is not as broad as in Maithili and there are a number of verbal forms for each person. Historically, Magahi had no famous written literature. There are many popular songs throughout the area in which the language is spoken, and strolling bards recite various long epic poems which are known more or less over the whole of Northern India. In Magahi spoken area folk singers sing a good number of ballads. Introduction of Urdu meant a setback to local languages as its Persian script was alien to local people.
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