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Language Profile : Magahi (Magadhi)

I. Profile
A. Origin
After the introduction of the codified grammar (Ashtadhyayi) by Panini, Sanskrit lost its flexibility
and got limited to a literary language while other languages like Apabhramsha gained popularity.
The eastern dialect Magadhi Apabhramsha or Magadhi would later evolve into Magahi.
According to Aryani, Apabhramsha underwent phonological changes which led to the changes
/maa/-->/ma/, /dh/-->/h/ converting /maagadhii/ to /magahii/.

B. Speakers
India
Magahi or Maghi as it is called by native speakers, is spoken in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and
West Bengal.
Gearson (1927) quotes the number of speakers 6,504,817[1]. Aryani estimates the actual
number of speakers in 1951 to be around 9,890,000[1]. The census of 2001 records the
number of Magahi speakers as 12,132,383 [1].
I have lived in Hazaribagh, Patna and Ranchi. In my experience Magahi is seen as a dehati
language by not only speakers of other languages but by the native speakers too.
Nepal
In Nepal it is known as ancient Nepali.

C. Dialects and Scripts

Pandey(1980) classifies Magadhi into Standard Magahi, Eastern Magahi, Western Magahi, and
Mixed Magahi according to geographical cultural and administrative factors whereas Grierson
(1927) and Aryani (1965) have classified it into three types i.e. Standard Magahi, Eastern
Magahi and Mixed Magahi. Several dialects such as Kurmali, Khontai, Kurmali Thar, Khotta,
Pargania and Tamaria fall under the Eastern Magadhi.
Scripts that are used to write the language are Devanagari, Kaithi, Bangla and Oriya (Verma
2007)[1].
Kaithi: Both Pandey(2007) and Verma say that Kaithi is the traditional script of Magahi[1].
Verma says that kaithi is still used for personal communications.
In my experience Kaithi is no longer used. My grandfather used it as a schoolboy but its
usefulness declined over the years and he no longer remembers it.
Bangla and Oriya: Bangla and Oriya are used mainly due to coexistence with Oriya and
Bengali.

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Devnagri: Anything that is headed for publication is written in Devnagri. Devnagri is modified by
addition of avagraha(), to support the word ending vowel.
Magahi has much more folk tales and popular songs transmitted orally, than written literary
works.
One example of a folk song[2]:
Magahi:
Goar Gaura parvati
Sankar jee kariya
Maiya ge sankar jee ke ajbi rahaniya
Ho, Maiya ge Sankar jee ke ajbi rahaniya

Translation:
Fair fair parvati(a godess)
Shankar ji(a god) black
Mother! Shankar has a weird lifestyle

Meaning: Shankar is black but his wife Parvati is fair. Shankar sure got lucky. This depicts the
importance attached to skin color and external beauty in this culture.

II. Status in Language Family

Magahi is a New Indo-Aryan language. Grierson (1905) and Chatterji (1926) have given two
different classifications for the NIA languages which place Magadhi in different categories[1].

Fig.1. Griersons classification of New Indo-Aryan languages (1905)

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Fig.2. Chatterjis classification of New Indo-Aryan languages (1926)

III. Linguistic Features

A. Traditions
Some oral and written characteristic features of Magahi:
Addition of aa/wa and eeya to nouns and occasionally verbs
Magahi:
Kamliniya ke babuji bhore mar gelithin.
Stylized Hindi:
Kamliniya ke pitaji subah mar gaye.
English:
Kamlis father died in the morning.
Addition of e in adverbs,adjectives and pronouns
Magahi:
Hamanni bahute nazdeek se await hiva.
Hindi:
Ham bahute nazdeek se aa rahe hain.
English:
We are coming from very near.
Existence of several types of speech for different social contexts
The hindi aap exists in several forms for people at different levels of seniority. For example
from [2]:
Elders:
Tu aaj bajar gelhu hal ka?
Teachers or highly
respected people:
Apne aaj bajar gelthin hal ka?
Youngers:
Tu aaj bajar gelhin hal ka?
English:
Did you go to the market today?

B. Phonology
Magahi has 53 phonemes out of which 45 are segmental(consonants and vowels) and 8 are
supra-segmental (nazalization, juncture, four pitch levels and two terminal contours).

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Fig.3. List of segmental phonemes from [3].

Vowels
All vowels can be nazalized. For example- bhag(run) while bhang(an intoxicating herb). Vowels
can be short(/I U /) or long(/i e a u o/). Magahi has vowel harmony, where high vowels followed
by a low vowels are lowered. For example- dukan(shop) becomes dokan. In stressed syllables
vowels have the longer allophones. For example (stressed syllables in red)- Daka()
(robbery) - Dakait()(robber) As seen in the devnagri, the first vowel is changed when the
stress is shifted.
Dipthongs
The eight of them can be classified into ones having the front-off glide (the first column in the
figure above) and those having the back-off glide (the second column). Like vowels, the
dipthongs can also be nazalized. For example- chao(acting) and chaon(shade).
Consonants
Maghi has retained only /m/ and /n/ of the five nasals in NIA languages.It has only one sibilant
/s/. Maghi has no ArboPersian or English fricatives unlike modern standard hindi. This leads to
reshaping of worlds such as /film/-->/philam/.

C. Morphology

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Gender
Gender is not grammatical but nouns can be inflected to create masculin feminine forms.
Example chaonda()(boy)-chaondi(girl).
Nouns
Noun stems can be basic or derived from verbs, adjectives or other nouns. However there can
be other types of noun stems like derivationally related masculin and feminine noun pairs like
lala-lalain (merchant, the merchants wife), thematically related compounds:dal-bhat (staple
food) and translation compounds with two words meaning the same thing: garib-gurba(poor
people).

Plurals
Noun stems are pluralized using the suffix an or by placing log after the singular form. For
example- ladka(boy)-ladkan(boys)-ladka log(boys).
kukkurwa(the dog)-kukkurwan(the dogs)-but not kukkur log(cant use with
animal/inanimate).
Case Forms
Inflectional case forms are not very common. Only instance is /e/, used as a locative. For example - Hum
pokhare jaat hiyao. I am going to the pond.
However the functions of case are provided by post-positions. For example/me/-in and /par/-on | Same as hindi
/la/-a benefactive postposition | Hamra la(mere liye).
/ke/-dative, accusative and genitive | Same as hindi.
/se/-comparative, instrumental and ablative | Same as hindi.

Pronouns
Personal pronouns have three persons and two numbers. There are separate classes classes
for honorifics. And there exists an oblique form for use with postpositions. Pronouns inflect only
for nominative and genitive case, rest are provided by postpositions.

Fig.4. Case forms of personal pronoun I(ham)[4]

Explanation::
Ham - I
hamar - mine

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hamara- used with postpositions to get other forms
hamani- plural for hamara
Verbs
Verbs stems can be classified into primitive (or basic as basic ,kha-eat, bol-speak), derived
(from primitives like khiya- to feed) and complex. Complex stems are formed by adding modals
to the primitive and derived stems. For example conjunct verbs (biyah kar- to marry), compound
verbs (mar ja-die), etc.
Non-finite verbs have four kinds which are illustrated with examples below:
Neutral (habitual aspect) : u dekh-a hai (he sees)
Imperfective (progressive aspect) : u dekh-ai-t ha (he is seeing)
Perfective (stative aspect) : u sut-a-l hai (he is asleep)
(future aspect) : u sut-b-e kari ( he will definitely sleep)
Finite verbs can be of two types:
one-word finite verbs: Stem-Tense/Mode-Personal Ending
Injunctive: sun-o-iyo
Past simple: sun-l-iyo
Past subjunctive: sun-t-iyo
Future: sun-b-o
Future imperfective: sun-ih-a
two-word finite verbs: Stem-Aspect-Auxilary
These need another word to make sense. Like likh-a-t h-o-iyo.
Present tense: h-o-iyo
Past tense: ha-l-iyo
Past subjunctive mode: ho-t-iyo
Injunctive (present subjunctive) mode: ho-o-iyo
Presumptive mode: ho-b-o

D. Syntax
Magahi has a syntax similar to other NIA languages such as Subject-Object-Verb unmarked
word order, uses postpositions rather than prepositions and other features. But the point where
it varies is verb agreement. Magahi has simultaneous subject and object agreement with the
verb which is not seen in any other NIA language.

Bibliography
[1] MAGAHI AND MAGADH: LANGUAGE AND PEOPLE
by Lata Atreya, Smiriti Singh and Rajesh Kumar
in Globar Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

[2] http://magahi.isfoundhere.com/
[3] Magahi Phonology: A Descriptive Study
by Saryu Prasad
[4] The Indo-Aryan Languages
edited by Danesh Jain and George Cardona