BrajBhasha

BrajBhasha (ISO 639-3: bra, Glottocode: braj1242) belongs to the Western group of the Indo-Aryan language family, a branch of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of Indo-European languages.

Speakers

According to the 2011 Census of India (Statement 1), BrajBhasha (grouped under Hindi) has an estimated speaker population of approximately 1.6 million.

Distribution in India

The language is primarily spoken in the historic Braj (Vraj) region of Northern India. Its principal distribution encompasses western Uttar Pradesh (focusing on Mathura, Agra, Aligarh, and Hathras districts), northeastern Rajasthan (principally Bharatpur and Dholpur districts), and the southern fringes of Haryana.

Major grammatical features

• Phonology: BrajBhasha distinguishes between aspirated and unaspirated stops, and features a robust contrast between oral and nasalized vowels. A defining phonological and morphological characteristic is the realization of masculine nouns and adjectives ending in a final /-o/ or /-au/ sound, where Standard Hindi typically features /-ā/.
• Morphology: The language employs postpositions for case-marking, with characteristic genitive markers such as kau or ko. It features a split-ergative nominal alignment in transitive past-tense constructions. Nouns and adjectives inflect for gender (masculine and feminine) and number.
• Syntax: BrajBhasha is characterized by a default Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order. It is a head-final language where auxiliary verbs follow main verbs and noun modifiers precede the noun they modify.

Further reading

To learn more about the language's historical role as a premier literary medium of medieval Northern India, its grammar, and its modern variants, search the BrajBhasha Language Wikipedia Entry.