Bajjika

Bajjika language is spoken in the north-western part of Bihar, in a region popularly known as Tirhut.{{Cite book |last=Singh |first=Pradhuman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=399UDwAAQBAJ&dq=bajjika&pg=PT506 |title=Bihar General Knowledge Digest: Bestseller Book by Pradhuman Singh: Bihar General Knowledge Digest |date=2021-01-19 |publisher=Prabhat Prakashan |isbn=978-93-5266-769-7 |language=en}} It is mainly spoken in the Sheohar, Muzaffarpur and Vaishali districts of Bihar.{{sfn|Abhishek Kashyap|2014|p=1}} A 2013 estimate based on 2001 census data suggests that there were 20 million Bajjika speakers in Bihar.{{sfn|Abhishek Kashyap|2014|pp=1-2}}

Bajjika is also spoken by a major population in Nepal, where it has 1,133,764 speakers according to the country's 2021 census. It is the most spoken language in Rautahat, Sarlahi and Mahottari district of Madhesh Province.{{Cite web |title=2021 Nepal Census, Social Characteristics Tables |url=https://cbs.gov.np/wp-content/upLoads/2018/12/Volume05Part02.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314170005/https://cbs.gov.np/wp-content/upLoads/2018/12/Volume05Part02.pdf |archive-date=14 March 2023 |access-date=15 September 2019}} {{sfn|Abhishek Kashyap|2014|p=2}}

Bajjika has been classified as a dialect of Maithili.[https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mai/17 Ethnologue]{{cite web |title=LSI Vol-5 part-2 |publisher=dsal |page=106 |url=http://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/lsi/lsi.php?volume=5-2&pages=466#page/121/mode/1up}}{{cite web |title=LSI Vol-5 part-2 |publisher=dsal |page=14 |url=http://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/lsi/lsi.php?volume=5-2&pages=466#page/28/mode/1up |quote="Western Maithili" }} Whether Bajjika is classified as a dialect of Maithili depends on whether 'Maithili' is understood as the term for the specific standard Maithili dialect spoken in northern Bihar, or as the name for the whole language as the group of all related dialects together. When the proponents of the Maithili language in Bihar demanded the use of Maithili-medium primary education in the early 20th century, the Angika and Bajjika-speaking people did not support them, and instead favoured Hindi-medium education.{{sfn|Mithilesh Kumar Jha|2017|p=163}} The discussions around Bajjika's status as a minority language emerged in the 1950s.{{sfn|Abhishek Kashyap|2014|p=1}} In the 1960s and the 1970s, when the Maithili speakers demanded a separate Mithila state, the Angika and Bajjika speakers made counter-demands for recognition of their languages.{{sfn|Kathleen Kuiper|2010|p=57}}

Maithili proponents believe that the Government of Bihar and the pro-Hindi Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad promoted Angika and Bajjika as distinct languages to weaken the Maithili language movement. {{sfn|Mithilesh Kumar Jha|2017|p=163}} People from mainly Maithil Brahmins and Karan Kayasthas castes supported the Maithili movement in the days when it was to be subsumed as a dialect of Hindi, hence anti-Maithili factions branded the Maithili Language as a Brahminical language while inciting various other castes in the Mithila region to project Angika and Bajjika as their mother tongues, attempting to break away from the Maithili-based regional identity.{{sfn|Manish Kumar Thakur|2002|p=208}}

According to linguist Pandit Rahul Sankrityayan, Bajjika and Maithili are two different dialects.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=va8fAQAAIAAJ&q=%E0%A4%AD%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE |title=Kalpanā |date=1972 |publisher=Bhāgīratha Śarmā |language=hi}}{{Cite book |last=Śarmā |first=Śrīnivāsa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W-UNAAAAMAAJ&q=%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B2+%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%83%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%A8+%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%9C%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BE |title=Samakālīna ālocanā ke pratimāna |date=1974 |publisher=Maṇimaya Prakāśana |language=hi}}

In a move aimed at protecting indigenous language and culture, the Bihar government has decided to set up two new academies to promote local dialects; Surjapuri and Bajjika, spoken in politically influential Seemanchal and Bajjikanchal regions of the state.{{Cite web |title= |url=https://www.google.com/s/www.outlookindia.com/national/bihar-to-get-two-new-academies-to-promote-surjapuri-bajjika-dialects-news-225746/amp |website=Outlook}}

The Swadesh list of word for Bajjika, an Eastern Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bihar, India, and parts of Nepal, is a standardized vocabulary set used for linguistic comparison. Bajjika, often considered a dialect of Maithili, lacks extensive public documentation, so its Swadesh list is typically constructed by approximation, drawing from related languages like Maithili and Hindi, with adjustments for Bajjika’s unique phonological and lexical features.

Lakshmi Elthin Hammar Angna (2009) was the first formal feature film in Bajjika. Sajan Aiha Doli le ke came after that.{{cite news| url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Bhojpuri-artist-to-make-first-Bajjika-film-/articleshow/4899362.cms | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512144105/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-08-17/patna/28156704_1_bhojpuri-film-industry-soumya-songs | url-status=live | archive-date=12 May 2013 | work=The Times of India | title=Bhojpuri artist to make first Bajjika film | date=17 August 2009}}

• Bihari languages
• Tirhut

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• {{cite book |author=Abhishek Kashyap |chapter=On the linguistic resources of Bajjika |editor=Vibha Chauhan |title=The People's Linguistic Survey of India |volume=6: The Languages of Bihar |publisher=Orient Blackswan |year=2014 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259569719 }}
• {{cite book |author=Abhishek Kumar Kashyap |chapter=The representation of gender in Bajjika grammar and discourse |editor1=Julie Abbou |editor2=Fabienne H. Baider |title=Gender, Language and the Periphery: Grammatical and social gender from the margins |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8JOcDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA169 |year=2016 |publisher=John Benjamins |isbn=978-90-272-6683-5 }}
• {{cite book |editor=Kathleen Kuiper |title=The Culture of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c8PJFLeURhsC&pg=PA57 |year=2010 |publisher=Rosen |isbn=978-1-61530-149-2 }}
• {{cite journal |author=Manish Kumar Thakur |title=The politics of minority languages: Some reflections on the Maithili language movement |journal=Journal of Social and Economic Development |volume=4 |issue=2 |year=2002 |pages=199–212 |url=http://irgu.unigoa.ac.in/drs/bitstream/handle/unigoa/1461/J_Social_Econ_Develop_4_199.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y }}
• {{cite book |author=Mithilesh Kumar Jha |title=Language Politics and Public Sphere in North India: Making of the Maithili Movement |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0-pIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT158 |year=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press India |isbn=978-0-19-909172-0 }}

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• Kashyap, Abhishek Kumar. 2014. The Bajjika language and speech community. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 227: 209–224.
• Kashyap, Abhishek Kumar. 2012. The pragmatic principles of agreement in Bajjika verb. Journal of Pragmatics 44: 1668–1687.

• http://www.bajjika.in {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201102140727/http://www.bajjika.in/ |date=2020-11-02 }} Official Website of Bajjika Vikash Manch

{{Maithili language}}

{{Bihari languages}}

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Category:Eastern Indo-Aryan languages

Category:Languages of Bihar

Category:Languages of Nepal

Category:Languages of Madhesh Province