Awadhi language

Classification

Awadhi is an Indo-European language and belongs to the Indo-Aryan sub-group of the Indo-Iranian language family. Within the Indo-Aryan dialect continuum, it falls under the East-Central zone of languages and is often recognised as Eastern-Hindi. It is generally believed that an older form of Ardhamagadhi, which agreed partly with Sauraseni and partly with Magadhi Prakrit, could be the basis of Awadhi.

The closest relative of Awadhi is the Bagheli language as genealogically both descend from the same 'Ardha-Magadhi'. Most early Indian linguists regarded Bagheli merely as 'the southern form of Awadhi', but recent studies accept Bagheli as a separate dialect at par with Awadhi and not merely a sub-dialect of it.

Dialects

Baburam Saksena divided Awadhi into three major divisions: Western Awadhi, Central Awadhi, and Eastern Awadhi.

Among the Western Awadhi dialects are those of Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Lucknow, Unnao, and Fatehpur. The Sitapuri dialect in particular showcases an increased degree of Kannauji influence, which Saksena posited as possibly being as a result of frequent movements of Mughal armies from Kannauj to Khairabad.

Among the Central Awadhi dialects are those of Bahraich, Barabanki, and Raebareli.

Among the Eastern Awadhi dialects are those of Gonda, Faizabad, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Allahabad, Jaunpur, and Mirzapur. Azamgarhi, spoken by sections of the Muslim population of Azamgarh, is also often classified to be an Eastern Awadhi dialect, though it bears heavy Bhojpuri influence. Glottolog, contrasting with Saksena's classifications, lists Gangapari, Mirzapuri, Uttari, and Azamgarhi as the dialects of Eastern Awadhi.

Literature

Late-medieval and early-modern India

In this period, Awadhi became the vehicle for epic poetry in northern India. Its literature is mainly divided into: bhaktīkāvya (devotional poetry) and premākhyān (romantic tales).

Bhaktīkāvyas

The most important work, probably in any modern Indo-Aryan language, came from the poet-saint Tulsidas in the form of Ramcharitmanas (1575 C.E.) or "The Lake of the Deeds of Rama", written in doha-chaupai metre. Its plot is mostly derivative, either from the original Rāmāyaṇa by Valmiki or from the Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇa, both of which are in Sanskrit. Mahatma Gandhi had acclaimed the Ramcharitmanas as "the greatest book of all devotional literature" while western observers have christened it as "the Bible of Northern India". It is sometimes synonymously referred as 'Tulsidas Ramayana' or simply 'the Ramayana'.

Tulsidas's compositions Hanuman Chalisa, Pārvatī Maṅgala and Jānakī Maṅgala are also written in Awadhi.

अंडकोस प्रति प्रति निज रूपा।
देखेउँ जिनस अनेक अनूपा॥
अवधपुरी प्रति भुअन निनारी।
सरजू भिन्न भिन्न नर नारी॥

— Tulsidas, 7.81.3 chaupai, Ramcharitmanas Translation:

In each universe I saw my own self,
As well as many an object beyond compare;
Each universe had its own Ayodhya,
With its own Saryu and its own men and women.

— Translation by R.C Prasad

सिंधु तीर एक भूधर सुंदर।
कौतुक कूदि चढ़ेउ ता-ऊपर॥
बार-बार रघुबीर सँभारी।
तरकेउ पवनतनय बल भारी॥

— Tulsidas, 5.1.3 chaupai, Ramcharitmanas Translation:

On the sea-shore there was a mountain lovely,
He hopped to its peak sportively;
Over and again, the Lord he did recall
And the Son of Wind darted with energy no small.

— Translation

The first Hindi vernacular adaptation of the 'Dasam Skandha' of the Bhagavata Purana, the "Haricharit" by Lalachdas, who hailed from Hastigram (present-day Hathgaon near Rae Bareilly), was concluded in 1530 C.E. It circulated widely for a long time and scores of manuscript copies of the text have been found as far as eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Malwa and Gujarat, all written in the Kaithi script.

Satyavatī (ca. 1501) of Ishvaradas (of Delhi) under the reign of Sikander Lodi and Avadhabilāsa (1700 C.E.) of Laladas were also written in Awadhi. A translation of the Mahabharata called Bhasha Mahabharat was composed by Sabal Singh Chauhan, under his patron Raja Mitrasen of Etawah, a courtier of the court of Aurangzeb in the 17th century. This is the first complete verse translation of the epic into Awadhi Hindi language, composed in a manner and style of Tulsidas' fame chaupai metre.

Awadhi appeared as a major component in the works of Bhakti saints like Kabir, who used a language often described as being a pancmel khicṛī or "a hotch-potch" of several vernaculars. According to Sir George Abraham Grierson, the language of Kabir's major work Bijak is primarily Old Awadhi.

Premākhyāns

Awadhi also emerged as the favourite literary language of the Eastern Sufis from the last quarter of the 14th century onwards. It became the language of premākhyāns, romantic tales built on the pattern of Persian masnavi, steeped in Sufi mysticism but set in a purely Indian background, with a large number of motifs directly borrowed from Indian lore. The first of such premākhyān in the Awadhi language was Candāyan (1379 C.E.) of Maulana Da'ud. The tradition was carried forward by Jayasi, whose masterpiece, the Padmāvat (1540 C.E.) was composed under the reign of the famous ruler Sher Shah Suri. The Padmavat travelled far and wide, from Arakan to the Deccan, and was eagerly copied and retold in Persian and other languages.

Other prominent works of Jayasi such as Kānhāvat, Akhrāvaṭ and Ākhrī Kalām are also written in Awadhi.

I'll tell you about my great town, the ever-beautiful Jais.

In the satyayuga it was a holy place, then it was called the "Town of Gardens."
Then the treta went, and when the dvapara came, there was a great rishi called Bhunjaraja.
88,000 rishis lived here then, and dense ... and eighty-four ponds.
They baked bricks to make solid ghats, and dug eight-four wells.
Here and there they built handsome forts, at night they looked like stars in the sky.
They also put up several orchards with temples on top.

Doha: They sat there doing tapas, all those human avataras.They crossed this world doing homa and japa day and night.

— Jayasi, Kanhavat, ed. Pathak (8), 7–8.

The Awadhi romance Mirigāvatī (ca.1503) or "The Magic Doe", was written by Shaikh 'Qutban' Suhravardi, who was an expert and storyteller attached to the court-in-exile of Sultan Hussain Shah Sharqi of Jaunpur. Another romance named Madhumālatī or "Night Flowering Jasmine" by poet Sayyid Manjhan Rajgiri was written in 1545 C.E.

Amir Khusrau (d. 1379 C.E) is also said to have written some compositions in Awadhi.

Modern India

The most significant contributions to the Awadhi literature in the modern period have come from writers like Ramai Kaka (1915–1982 C.E.), Balbhadra Prasad Dikshit better known as 'Padhees'(1898–1943 C.E.) and Vanshidhar Shukla (1904–1980 C.E.).

'Krishnayan' (1942 C.E.) is a major Awadhi epic-poem that Dwarka Prasad Mishra wrote in imprisonment during the Freedom Movement of India. In 2022 Dr. Vidya Vindu Singh has been awarded Padma Shri for her contribution in Awadhi literature.

Phonology

Vowels

Awadhi possesses both voiced and voiceless vowels. The voiced vowels are: /ə/, /ʌ/, /aː/, /ɪ/, /iː/, /ʊ/, /uː/, /e/, /eː/, /o/, /oː/. The voiceless vowels, also described as "whispered vowels" are: /i̥/, /ʊ̥/, /e̥/. Voiceless vowels only occur at the end of a word.

Vowel combinations

Consonants

Grammar

Comparative grammar

Awadhi has many features that separate it from the neighbouring Western Hindi and Bihari vernaculars. In Awadhi, nouns are generally both short and long, whereas Western Hindi has generally short while Bihari generally employs longer and long forms. The gender is rigorously maintained in Western Hindi, Awadhi is a little loose yet largely preserved, while Bihari is highly attenuated. Regarding postpositions, Awadhi is distinguished from Western Hindi by the absence of agentive postposition in the former, agreeing with Bihari dialects. The accusative-dative postposition in Awadhi is /kaː/ or /kə/ while Western Hindi has /koː/ or /kɔː/ and Bihari has /keː/. The locative postposition in both Bihari and Western Hindi is /mẽː/ while Awadhi has /maː/. The pronouns in Awadhi have /toːɾ-/, /moːɾ-/ as personal genitives while /teːɾ-/, /meːɾ-/ are used in Western Hindi. The oblique of /ɦəmaːɾ/ is /ɦəmɾeː/ in Awadhi while it is /ɦəmaːɾeː/ in Western Hindi and /ɦəmrən'kæ/ in Bihari.

Another defining characteristic of Awadhi is the affix /-ɪs/, which marks the third-person past tense of transitive verbs as in /dɪɦɪs/ "he gave", /maːɾɪs/ "he hit". The neighbouring Bhojpuri has the distinctive (i) /laː/ enclitic in present tense (ii) /-l/ in past tense (iii) dative postposition /-laː/ which separates it from the Awadhi language.

Pronouns

Notes:

^*indicates a form inflectable for gender and number :

1. mor → mōrā (masculine), mōrī (feminine), mōrē (plural)
2. hamār → hamrā (masc.), hamrī (fem.), hamrē (pl.)
3. tōr→ torā (masc.), torī (fem.), torē (pl.)
4. tumar→ tumrā (masc.), tumrī (fem.), tumrē (pl.)
5. tohār→ tohrā (masc.), tohrī (fem.), tohrē (pl.)

Word formation

Following are the morphological processes of stem formation in the Awadhi language:

Affixation

An affix is used to alter the meaning or form of a word. It can be either a prefix or a suffix.

• Example: Prefix bē– preceding the root saram means "shameless" while apna followed by –pan means "belonging-ness".

Compounding

Two or more stems are combined to form one stem.

• Example: nīlkanṭh means "blue bird" and banmānus means "forest man" or "chimpanzee".

Reduplication

This process involves the repetition of certain forms. It may be complete, partial, or interrupted.

1. Complete reduplication: It denotes continuity of action.
   • Example: jāt-jāt for "going on".
2. Partial reduplication: It denotes similarity of one object to other.
   • Example: hãpaṭ-dãpaṭ for "panting".
3. Interrupted reduplication: It stresses on the instant condition of the action that follows and expresses abundance of something.
   • Example: khētaī khēt "between the fields"; garmaī garam "the very hot".

In popular culture

Entertainment

The 1961 film Gunga Jumna features Awadhi being spoken by the characters in a neutralised form. Gabbar Singh's speech in the 1975 film Sholay was a mix of Khariboli and Awadhi, inspired by Dilip Kumar's dacoit character Gunga from Gunga Jumna. In the 2001 film Lagaan, a neutralised form of Awadhi language was used to make it understandable to audiences. The 2009 film Dev.D features an Awadhi song, "Paayaliya", composed by Amit Trivedi. In the television series Yudh, Amitabh Bachchan spoke parts of his dialogue in Awadhi, which received critical acclaim from the Hindustan Times. Awadhi is also spoken by the residents of Ayodhya and other minor characters in Ramanand Sagar's 1987 television series Ramayan. The lyrics of the song "Rang Barse Bhige Chunar Wali", from the movie Silsila starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha, are in Awadhi dialect. Hrithik Roshan's character Vedha Betal in the 2022 Hindi feature film Vikram Vedha also featured him speaking in the Awadhi dialect.

The Awadhi folk song "Mere Angne Mein Tumhara Kya Kaam Hai" has become popular in Bollywood with a neutralised version of it being in the 1981 film Laawaris starring Amitabh Bachchan, as well as being in the 1970 film Bombay Talkie and the 1975 film Maze Le Lo, it was also released as a single by Neha Kakkar in 2020. Another Awadhi folk song that became popular through Bollywood was "Holi Khele Raghuveera", which was neutralised and sung by Amitabh Bachchan and put into the 2003 film Baghban starring Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini.

The 1982 movie Nadiya Ke Paar was in Awadhi (the 1994 remake by the same director, Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, was in Hindi.)

Folk

The genres of folklore sung in Awadh include Sariya, Byaah, Suhag, Gaari, Nakta, Banraa (Banna-Banni), Alha, Sawan, Jhula, Hori and Barahmasa.

Sample phrases

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The following text is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, written in Awadhi:

Awadhi in Devanagari Script

अनुच्छेद १ - सब मनइन कां गउरव औ अधिकारन के मामिला मां जनमजात आजादी औ बरोबरी मिली बा। वन्हैं बुद्धी औ अन्तरात्मा कै देन मिली बा औ आपस मां यक दुसरे के साथे भाईचारा के भाव से बरताव करै कां चाही।

Awadhi in Kaithi Script

𑂃𑂢𑂳𑂒𑂹𑂓𑂵𑂠 १ - 𑂮𑂥 𑂧𑂢𑂅𑂢 𑂍𑂰𑂁 𑂏𑂇𑂩𑂫 𑂌 𑂃𑂡𑂱𑂍𑂰𑂩𑂢 𑂍𑂵 𑂧𑂰𑂧𑂱𑂪𑂰 𑂧𑂰𑂁 𑂔𑂢𑂧𑂔𑂰𑂞 𑂄𑂔𑂰𑂠𑂲 𑂌 𑂥𑂩𑂷𑂥𑂩𑂲 𑂧𑂱𑂪𑂲 𑂥𑂰𑃀 𑂫𑂢𑂹𑂯𑂶𑂁 𑂥𑂳𑂠𑂹𑂡𑂲 𑂌 𑂃𑂢𑂹𑂞𑂩𑂰𑂞𑂹𑂧𑂰 𑂍𑂶 𑂠𑂵𑂢 𑂧𑂱𑂪𑂲 𑂥𑂰 𑂌 𑂄𑂣𑂮 𑂧𑂰𑂁 𑂨𑂍 𑂠𑂳𑂮𑂩𑂵 𑂍𑂵 𑂮𑂰𑂟𑂵 𑂦𑂰𑂆𑂒𑂰𑂩𑂰 𑂍𑂵 𑂦𑂰𑂫 𑂮𑂵 𑂥𑂩𑂞𑂰𑂫 𑂍𑂩𑂶 𑂍𑂰𑂁 𑂒𑂰𑂯𑂲 𑃀

Romanisation

anucchēda 1 - saba mana:ina kāṁ ga:urava au adhikārana kē māmilā māṁ janamajāta ājādī au barōbarī milī bā. vanhaiṁ buddhī au antarātmā kai dēna milī bā au āpasa māṁ yaka dusarē kē sāthē bhāīcārā kē bhāva sē baratāva karai kāṁ cāhī.

Translation

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Dialect Variations

The Awadhi language comes with its dialectal variations. For instance, in western regions, the auxiliary /hʌiː/ is used, while in central and eastern parts /ʌhʌiː/ is used.

The following examples were taken from Baburam Saxena's Evolution of Awadhi, and alternative versions are also provided to show dialectal variations.