ELT VOICES – INDIA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR TEACHERS OF ENGLISH FEBRUARY 2014 | VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1 | ISSN 2230-9136 (PRINT) 2321-7170 (ONLINE) Interference of Bhojpuri Language in Learning English as a Second Language V. RADHIKA1 ABSTRACT Studying the special features of any language is interesting for exploring many unrevealed facts about that language. The purpose of this paper is to create interest in the mind of readers to identify the special features of Bhojpuri language, which is gaining importance in India in the recent years among the spoken languages and make the readers to get rid of the problem of interference of this language in learning English as a second language. 1. Assistant Professor in English, AVIT, VMU, Paiyanoor, India. ELT VOICES – INDIA February 2014 | Volume 4, Issue 1 1. Introduction The paper proposes to make an in-depth study of Bhojpuri language to enable learners to compare and contrast between two languages, Bhojpuri and English by which communicative skill in English can be properly perceived. Bhojpuri language has its own phonological and morphological pattern. The present study is concerned with tracing the difference between two languages (i.e.) English and Bhojpuri, with reference to their grammatical structure and its relevant information. Aim of the Paper Create interest in the mind of scholars to make the detailed study about the Bhojpuri language with reference to their grammar pattern and to find out possible solution to eliminate the problem of mother tongue interference. 2. Origin of Bhojpuri Language Bhojpuri language gets its name from a place called ‘Bhojpur’ in Bihar. It is believed that Ujjain Rajputs claimed their descent from Raja Bhoj of Malwa in the sixteenth century. The name Bhojpuri is got established by the seventeenth century and first appeared in written form in 1789. It is originated as a language of ‘Araballia chapra ‘ and expanded to Sindhi districts of Madhya Pradesh, Eastern Uttar Pradesh , Western Bihar, Jharkhand and South Nepal.[www.google.com] 2.1 Script of Bhojpuri Language Bhojpuri script was originally adopted by ‘Nastalia’ [Persian]. Later it accepted ‘kaithi’ script. At present ‘Devanagari’ script is used for all official purposes. 2.2 Composition of Bhojpuri Language Bhojpuri language has been accepted as common market language by South Asia like Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, Bengali, Sinhali, Gujarati, Punjabi, etc. It creates varieties in the standard language. 2.3 Elements of Bhojpuri Language Indo- European, Indo-Iranian and, Indo- Aryan. 2.4 Dialects of Bhojpuri Language a. Southern standard [Standard Bhojpuri] b. Northern Bhojpuri [ Madhesi] c. Western Bhojpuri [ Purabiya] and d. Nagpuri [sadani] Other dialects of Bhojpuri are a. Caribbean – Hindustani, b. Surinamese – Hindustani, 11|ELT Voices – India International Journal|ISSN 2230-9136 (Print) 2321-7170 (Online) ELT VOICES – INDIA February 2014 | Volume 4, Issue 1 c. Samani – Hindi or just Samani d. Mauritian - Bhojpuri 2.5 Native Speakers of Bhojpuri Language Bhojpuri belongs to Bihar language family which includes Maithili, Awadhi Nepali, Magahi, etc. The natives of Bhojpuri are from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Bhojpuri remains strong in the areas between Patna and Banaras. It is spoken in North-central, Champaran in Western Bihar, Northern parts of Jharkhand, the Poorvanchal region, Baharaiah in Uttar Pradesh and outside of India in countries like Nepal, Mauritius, Moriband in Guyana, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago. A survey about the users of Bhojpuri cannot be full and definitive because of its unreliable sources. As per 1997 census the native speakers of Bhojpuri in India were 38.5 million. But according to 2001 census the number is increased to nearly 150 million. Bhojpuri is now used both as first and second languages in different schools in Bihar state. 2.6. Time Span of Bhojpuri Language The history of Bhojpuri is traced back to the eighth century from ‘Siddha Sahitya’. Kabir’s ‘Sant Sahitya’ in the fifteenth century was recorded as quality Bhojpuri literature. ‘Devi Sarakarita’ of Ramadatta Shukla was recorded as Bhojpuri literature in the seventeenth century. In 1825 Bhojpuri became the medium of instruction in Bihar schools. In the twentieth century ‘Parichay Das’ is well known writer, thinker and editor in Bhojpuri literature. He is also pioneer poet in contemporary Bhojpuri poets. 3. Development of Bhojpuri Language Development of Bhojpuri started with Vaidiki by adopting some portions of languages like ‘Apabhransa’, ‘Paali’ ‘Prakrit’, ‘Sanskrit’ and ‘Avahatta’. 3.1 Literary Value of Bhojpuri Language Bhojpuri possesses a high literary tradition and has a continuous flow of literary wealth. In 1887 BhikariThakur who was known as ‘Shakespeare of Bhojpuri’ visited different countries and strove to spread Bhojpuri language and its culture. Further development was made by Bhojpuri writers like Mahavir Prasad, Munish Premchand, etc. The first story in Bhojpuri was written by Ramasmaran in 1898. In the twentieth century Dr. Ravindranath Srivatsava was the famous writer in Bhojpuri language. 3.2 Influence of Bhojpuri language Some of the notable personalities who influenced and spoke Bhojpuri were Swami Sahajananda freedom fighter, the first president of India Dr.Rajendra Prasad, Prime Ministers of India like Lal Bahadur Sastri, Chandra Shekhar, Manoj Bajpai. [www.dictionaryreference.com]. Bharatendu Harish Chandra, ‘Father of Literary Hindi’ was influenced by the tone and style of Bhojpuri language and was inspired to write in that language. 12|ELT Voices – India International Journal|ISSN 2230-9136 (Print) 2321-7170 (Online) ELT VOICES – INDIA February 2014 | Volume 4, Issue 1 3.3 Publications in Bhojpuri language Now-a-days magazine like ‘Parichhan’ is published from Bihar, West- Bengal and Assam in Bhojpuri- Several organizations like ‘The Sunday India’,‘Bhojpuri Association of India’ and ‘Global Bhojpuri Movement’ had launched a worldwide movement for the recognition, promotion and preservation of Bhojpuri language. The national news magazine ‘The Sunday India’ is published in Bhojpuri by planman Media. 3.4 Development in Media Abninetri Anjana Simha introduced Bhojpuri language in the cinema. In Bhagalpur Bhojpuri songs, dramas and some other programmes are telecast on the T.V. channels like Mahnaa and Hanar. Ravi Kishay is the famous actor and Nagma is the famous actress in Bhojpuri Cinema. 4. Features of Bhojpuri Language Bhojpuri has few common features with reference to phonology, syntax and grammar with other Bihari languages such as Awadhi, Maithili, Magahi, Nepali, etc. 4.1 Phonological Features of Bhojpuri Language a. Bhojpuri does not have certain phonological sound as in English. Bhojpuri simply resorts to phonological reshaping. It doesn’t use affixes. Labio dental approximant ‘v’ is pronounced as voiced plosive ‘b’. e.g.; - ‘va’ sound is pronounced as ‘ba’ Vasanth Pancham - Basanth Panchami’ Vasu - Basu b. Palatal fricative ‘sha’ and retroflex fricative ‘sh’ are merged with fricative‘s’ and pronounced identically. There is no distinction between the sounds ‘She’ and ‘See’ / ‘Sea’. There is no variation in pronouncing the words because there is only one sibilant /s/ for both palatal and dental. e.g.: She sells sea shells in the seashore – pronounced as She shells shee shells in the shee shore. c. In English we have three nasal sounds but in Bhojpuri there are five nasal sounds and that cannot be pronounced without consonant sound. d. The Nastaliq (Persian) loan words ‘z’, ‘f’, are not pronounced properly by Bhojpuri speakers and there is a tendency in Bhojpuri to shorten a long vowel sounds. e.g. Zameen is pronounced as Jameen, Fakeer pronounced as fakir. 13|ELT Voices – India International Journal|ISSN 2230-9136 (Print) 2321-7170 (Online) ELT VOICES – INDIA February 2014 | Volume 4, Issue 1 Raajeev in Hindi is pronounced as Rajeev in Bhojpuri Naaraj is pronounced as naraj in Bhojpuri. 4.2 Syntactical Features of Bhojpuri Language a. Sentence pattern: In Hindi and Bhojpuri sentence always ends with verb but in English verb follows subject and sentence ends with object. E.g.: English : He is a boy. Bhojpuri : E ladka bha. b. Article : In English article ‘a’ is taken as an article but in Hindi and Bhojpuri it is taken as numeral e.g.-: English : He eats an apple. Bhojpuri : Hau ago seb khala. Hindi : vah ek seb kha raha hai. c. Word Order: In Hindi and Bhojpuri the word order can be changed without changing its meaning in a sentence. But it is not possible in English. e.g. English : Dog bites Raju. – S V O pattern only Hindi : Kutha Kaata Rajuko! Rajuko kaata kutha! Rajuko kutha kaata! Kaata kutha Rajuko Bhojpuri : Kukura kat lelus Rajuke! Rajuke Kukura Kat lelus! Rajuke kat lelus kukura! Kat lelus Kukura Rajuke! d. Loan Words: Inspite of Bhojpuri accepts some loan words from different languages like Sanskrit, Persian, Hindi and English, as English accepts loan word from Greek, Latin, French, Urdu, Hindi and Tamil, there is a vast difference in pronouncing the accepted words. e.g. English Bhojpuri loan loan words words Sanskrit Brahma Greek salary pronounced as bramma Latin rupee Arab/ Persian Jarur French memorandum English Doctor pronounced as 14|ELT Voices – India International Journal|ISSN 2230-9136 (Print) 2321-7170 (Online) ELT VOICES – INDIA February 2014 | Volume 4, Issue 1 dockuter Urdu dobi Hindi Hindi Tamil kattamaran 4.3 Grammatical Features of Bhojpuri Language: a. Prefix: Passive compounds can be formed with the help of prefixes. e.g.- Hi –Kalank –Akalank Bhoj – Jane – Anjane Most of the prefixes in Bhojpuri and in Hindi are in Tatsama and Tadbhava e.g.- Tatsama Bhoj.- Nyaya- Anyaya Himsa – Ahimsa Tadbhava Hi.- pat - Anpat Bhoj. - pad- Nipad Some prefixes are derived from Arabic and Persian e.g.- Hi – Pasand - Na pasand Bhoj- Niman - Na niman b. Suffixes: In Bhojpuri suffixes are found to be more numerous than prefixes. There are two types of suffixes such as primary suffixes and secondary suffixes. Some suffixes change the gender in the noun form.