Magahi language (original) (raw)

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Indo-Aryan language spoken in India

"Magadhi language" redirects here; not to be confused with Magadhi Prakrit.

Magahi
Magadhi
मगही
The word "Magahi" written in Devanagari script
Native to	India and Nepal
Region	Magadha (southern Bihar, northern Jharkhand, and northwestern West Bengal),[1][2][3] Terai region of Eastern Nepal
Ethnicity	Magahi
Native speakers	12.7 million (2011 census)[4][5](additional speakers counted under Hindi)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-IranianIndo-AryanEastern Zone (Magadhan)BihariMagahi
Early forms	Magadhi PrakritMagadhan Apabhraṃśa Abahattha
Dialects	Southern Magahi Northern Magahi Central Magahi
Writing system	Devanagari Kaithi (formerly) Bengali (historically in Manbhum and Hazaribagh) [6] Oriya (historically in Mayurbhanj)
Official status
Recognised minoritylanguage in	IndiaJharkhand[a][7]
Language codes
ISO 639-2	mag
ISO 639-3	mag
Glottolog	maga1260
Magahi speaking region

Magahi (𑂧𑂏𑂯𑂲), also known as Magadhi (𑂧𑂏𑂡𑂲), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bihar, Jharkhand, and parts of West Bengal and Odisha in eastern India,[8][9] and in the Terai region of Nepal.[10] Magadhi Prakrit was the ancestor of Magahi, from which the latter's name derives.[11]

It has a very rich and old tradition of folk songs and stories. It is spoken in approximately twelve districts of Bihar (Gaya, Patna, Jehanabad, Aurangabad, Nalanda, Sheikhpura, Nawada, Lakhisarai, Arwal, Jamui and in some parts of Banka), twelve districts of Jharkhand (Hazaribag, Palamu, Chatra, Koderma, Jamtara, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Giridih, Deoghar, Garhwa, Latehar, Chatra) and in West Bengal's Malda district.[12]

Magahi derived from the ancient Magadhi Prakrit, which was created in the ancient kingdom of Magadha, the core of which was the area south of the Ganges and east of Son River.

Though the number of speakers in Magahi is about 12.7 million, it has not been constitutionally recognised in India. In Bihar, Hindi is the language used for educational and official matters.[13] Magahi was legally absorbed under Hindi in the 1961 Census.[14][15]

The ancestor of Magahi, Magadhi Prakrit, formed in the Indian subcontinent. These regions were part of the ancient kingdom of Magadha, the core of which was the area of Bihar south of the river Ganga.

The name Magahi is directly derived from the word Magadhi.[16]

The development of the Magahi language into its current form is unknown. However, according to linguists, Magahi along with Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Maithili and Odia originated from the Magadhi Prakrit during the 8th to 11th centuries. These different, but sister 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. The distinct shape of Magadhi can be seen in the Dohakosha written by Sarahapa and Kauhapa.

Magadhi had a setback due to the transition period of the Magadha administration.[17] Traditionally, strolling bards recite long epic poems in this dialect, and it was because of this that the word "Magadhi" came to mean "a bard". Devanagari is the most widely used script in present times, while Bengali and Odia scripts are also used in some regions and Magahi's old script was Kaithi script.[18][19] The pronunciation in Magahi is not as broad as in Maithili and there are a number of verbal forms for each person.[20] 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 the Magahi speaking area, folk singers sing a good number of ballads.

The first success in spreading Hindi occurred in Bihar in 1881, when Hindi displaced Urdu as the official language of the province. After independence, Hindi was given the sole official status through the Bihar Official Language Act, 1950,[21] ignoring the state's own languages.

Geographical distribution

[edit]

There are several dialects of Magahi. It is spoken in the area which formed the core of the ancient kingdom of Magadha - the modern districts of Patna, Nalanda, Gaya, Jehanabad, Arwal, Aurangabad, Lakhisarai, Sheikhpura and Nawada. Magahi is bounded on the north by Maithili spoken in Mithila across the Ganga. On the west it is bounded by the Bhojpuri and on the northeast it is bounded by Angika. A blend of Magahi known as Khortha is spoken by non-tribal populace in North Chotanagpur division of Jharkhand which comprises districts of Bokaro, Chatra, Palamu, Dhanbad, Giridih, Hazaribagh, Koderma and Ramgarh. People of Southern Bihar and Northern Jharkhand are mostly speakers of Magahi.[22] Magahi is also spoken in Malda district of West Bengal.[8][9][23] According to 2011 Census, there were approximately 12.7 million Magahi speakers.[5] Apart from India it is spoken in various districts of south eastern Nepal.[24]

| | Labial | Dental/Alveolar | Retroflex | Post-alv./Palatal | Velar | Glottal | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | | Nasal | voiced | m | n | | | ŋ | | | breathy | mʱ | nʱ | | | | | | | 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 | | | Approximant | voiced | w | l | | j | | | | breathy | | lʱ | | | | | | | Tap | voiced | | ɾ | ɽ | | | | | breathy | | ɾʱ | ɽʱ | | | | |

| | Front | Central | Back | | | --------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | High | i | | u | | Mid | e | ə | o | | Low | | aː | | | Diphthongs | əi | | əu |

• /i, u/ may also be heard as lower [ɪ, ʊ] in shortened positions.[8]
• /e, o/ may also be heard as lower [ɛ, ɔ] in more initial positions.[25]
• /ə/ can also be heard as [ʌ] in more stressed positions.[26]

Some common kinship terms:

• Culture of Magadh Region
• Culture of Bhojpuri Region
• Culture of Mithila Region
• Culture of Angika Region
• Pāli, the canonical language of Theravada Buddhism traditionally associated with the language of Magadhi
• Phool Bahadur
• Bhaiyaa

1. ^ additional official language of Jharkhand

2. ^ Grierson, G.A. (1927). "Magahi or Magadhi". Internet Archive.

3. ^ "Magahi". Omniglot.

4. ^ Atreya, Lata. "Magahi and Magadh: Language and the People" (PDF). Global Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences.

5. ^ "Magahi". ethnologue.

6. ^ a b "Abstract of Speakers' Strength of Languages and Mother Tongues - 2011" (PDF). Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. 2011. p. 6. Retrieved 22 September 2024.

7. ^ Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George (26 July 2007). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. p. 549. ISBN 978-1-135-79710-2. Retrieved 3 August 2025. In one sense, Magahi is written in four scripts, Devanagari, Kaithi, and also Bangla and Oriya. Bangla and Oriya scripts are employed in writing the forms of eastern Magahi current in the Manbhum area, such as Purulia but also in the southeastern part of the Hazaribagh district that borders on the Manbhum region. The Oriya script is used, expectedly, in areas where it coexists with Oriya, such as Mayurbhanj.

8. ^ "झारखंड : रघुवर कैबिनेट से मगही, भोजपुरी, मैथिली व अंगिका को द्वितीय भाषा का दर्जा". Prabhat Khabar (in Hindi). 21 March 2018. Retrieved 17 November 2018.

9. ^ a b c Prasad, Saryoo (2008). Magahī Phonology: A Descriptive Study. Concept Publishing Company. p. 6. ISBN 9788180695254. Retrieved 4 November 2018.

10. ^ a b Brass, Paul R. (2005). Language, Religion and Politics in North India. iUniverse. p. 93. ISBN 9780595343942. Retrieved 4 November 2018.

11. ^ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2021). "Magahi". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (Twenty-fourth ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved 2 January 2025.

12. ^ Kishore, Roshan (22 September 2017). "How a Bihari lost his mother tongue to Hindi". mint.

13. ^ Frawley, William (May 2003). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics: 4-Volume Set. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 9780195139778. Retrieved 8 November 2018.

14. ^ "History of Indian Languages". Diehardindian.com. Archived from the original on 26 February 2012. Retrieved 29 February 2012.

15. ^ Verma, Mahandra K. (2001). "Language Endangerment and Indian languages : An exploration and a critique". Linguistic Structure and Language Dynamics in South Asia. ISBN 9788120817654.

16. ^ Verma, Sheela (2008). Magahi Folklore and Folk Tales. Manohar. p. 31. ISBN 9788173048043. Aryani (1965), on the basis of several data, estimated the number of Magahi speakers at approximately 9,900,000 for 1951. Surprisingly enough, the 1971 census figures show only 6,638,495 speakers for Magahi. This discrepancy can be understood in the context of the socio-linguistic phenomenon of educated urban speakers naming their language of schooling, Hindi, as their mother-tongue. Obviously, the number of Magahi speakers did not really decline between 1951 and 1971 but was simply swallowed up by the census figures for Hindi.

17. ^ Jain Dhanesh, Cardona George, The Indo-Aryan Languages, pp449

18. ^ Maitra Asim, Magahi Culture, Cosmo Publications, New Delhi (1983), pp. 64.

19. ^ Verma, Sheela (2008). Magahi Folklore and Folk Tales. Manohar. p. 28. ISBN 9788173048043. Hindi is the formal language of the region, used in schools and law courts. Magahi today employs the Devanagari script borrowed directly from Hindi in place of the Kaithi script used earlier.

20. ^ Verma, Sheela (2008). Magahi Folklore and Folk Tales. Manohar. pp. 31–32. ISBN 9788173048043.

21. ^ "Maithili and Magahi". Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2020.

22. ^ Brass Paul R., The Politics of India Since Independence, Cambridge University Press, pp. 183

23. ^ Verma, Sheela (2003). "Magahi". In Jain Dhanesh, Cardona George, The Indo-Aryan Languages. London: Routledge.

24. ^ Verma, Sheela (2008). Magahi Folklore and Folk Tales. Manohar. pp. 29–30. ISBN 9788173048043.

25. ^ "2011 Nepal Census, Social Characteristics Tables" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 March 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2019.

26. ^ Sinha, Anil Chandra (1966). Phonology and morphology of a Magahi dialect. Poona: Deccan College.{{[cite book](/wiki/Template:Cite%5Fbook "Template:Cite book")}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)

27. ^ Verma, Sheela (2003). Magahi. In George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain (eds.), The Indo-Aryan Languages: London: London & New York: Routledge. pp. 498–514.

• Munishwar Jha. "Magadhi And Its Formation," Calcutta Sanskrit College Research Series, 1967, 256 pp
• Saryu Prasad - "A Descriptive Study of Magahi Phonology", PhD thesis submitted to Patna University.
  • Prasad, Saryoo (2008). Magahī Phonology: A Descriptive Study. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 9788180695254. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
• A.C. Sinha (1966) - "Phonology and Morphology of a Magahi Dialect", PhD awarded by the University of Poona.(now Pune)
• G.A. Grierson. Essays on Bihari Declension and Conjugation, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. iii, pp. 119–159
• Hoernle, A.F. Rudolf & Grierson, G.A. A Comparative Dictionary of the Bihari Language.
• Prasad, Swarnlata (1959). Juncture and Aitch in Magahi. Indian Linguistics, Turner Jubilee Volume, 1959 pp. 118–124.
• Sweta Sinha (2014) - "The Prosody of Stress and Rhythm in Magahi", PhD thesis submitted to Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
• Sweta Sinha (2018)- "Magahi Prosody", Bahri Publications: New Delhi. ISBN 978-93-83469-14-7.

• Magahi - A Historical language Archived 27 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine
• Jain Scriptures
• Magahi Detailed Description by Grierson, G.A.
• Magahī Phonology: A Descriptive Study by Saryoo Prasad