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adjusted details per sources and updated info

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Reverted 2 edits by 223.235.174.157 (talk): Removal of sourced content

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{{infobox language
| name = Bajjika
| nativename = बज्जिका
| region = [[Bihar]] of [[India]] and [[Terai]] of [[Nepal]]
| speakers = {{sigfig|11.5|2}} million
| ref = {{citation needed|date=February 2013}}, Total 793,416 speakers in Nepal (2011)
| familycolor = Indo-European
| fam2 = [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]]
| fam3 = [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]]
| fam4 = [[Eastern Indo-Aryan languages|Eastern]]
| fam5 = [[Bihari languages|Bihari]]
| script = [[Tirhuta]], [[Kaithi]], [[Devanagari]]
| nation =
| isoexception = dialect
| linglist = mai-baj
| glotto = none
}}

'''Bajjika''' is a language spoken in eastern India and Nepal, considered by some, including the [[Ethnologue]], to be a [[dialect]] of the [[Maithili language]].<ref>[https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mai/17 Ethnologue: Maithili]</ref> It is spoken in the north-western districts of the [[Bihar]] state of India, and the adjacent areas in [[Nepal]].

== Territory and speakers ==

Bajjika is spoken in the north-western part of Bihar, in a region popularly known as Bajjikanchal. In Bihar, it is mainly spoken in the [[Samastipur district|Samastipur]], [[Sitamarhi district|Sitamarhi]], [[Muzaffarpur district|Muzaffarpur]], [[Vaishali district|Vaishali]], some eastern parts of [[East Champaran district|East Champaran]] and [[Saran district|Saran]] district, [[Sheohar district|Sheohar]] districts. It is also spoken in a part of the [[Darbhanga district]] adjoining [[Muzaffarpur district|Muzaffarpur]] and [[Muzaffarpur district|Samastipur]] districts.{{sfn|Abhishek Kashyap|2014|p=1}} Bajjika is spoken in the area between east bank of Narayani river to west bank of [[Bagmati River|Bagmati river]].{{citation needed|date=February 2019}} The Bajjika speaking areas roughly coincide with [[Tirhut division]].

Researcher Abhishek Kashyap (2013), based on the 2001 census data, estimated that there were 20 million Bajjika speakers in Bihar (including around 11.46 illiterate adults).{{sfn|Abhishek Kashyap|2014|pp=1-2}}

Bajjika is also spoken by a major population in [[Nepal]], where it had 237,947 speakers according to the country's 2001 census, and 793,416 speakers in 2011.{{sfn|Abhishek Kashyap|2014|p=2}} Main districts where Bajjika is spoken as mothertongue are Sarlahi & Rautahat.

== Relationship to Maithili ==

Bajjika has been classified as a dialect of [[Maithili language|Maithili]],<ref>[http://multitree.org/codes/mai-baj MultiTree]</ref><ref>[https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mai/17 Ethnologue]</ref> but its speakers now assert its status as a distinct language. 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 use of Maithili-[[medium of instruction|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, India|Mithila]] state, the Angika and Bajjika speakers made counter-demands for recognition of their languages.{{sfn|Kathleen Kuiper|2010|p=57}} In the following years, the Bajjika community saw a growth in linguistic awareness, and local movements demanding an autonomous status for Bajjika arose.{{sfn|Abhishek Kashyap|2014|p=2}}

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; many of them still consider Bajjika to be a dialect of Maithili.{{sfn|Mithilesh Kumar Jha|2017|p=163}} People from mainly [[Maithil Brahmin]]s and [[Karan Kayastha]]s castes have supported the Maithili movement, while people from various other castes in the [[Mithila, India|Mithila]] region have projected Angika and Bajjika as their mother tongues, attempting to break away from the Maithili-based regional identity.{{sfn|Manish Kumar Thakur|2002|p=208}} The exponents of Bajjika have unsuccessfully demanded an official language status for Bajjika from the federal and the state governments.{{sfn|Abhishek Kumar Kashyap|2016|p=169}}

== Films in Bajjika ==

''Lakshmi Elthin Hammar Angna'' (2009) was the first formal feature film in Bajjika. ''Sajan Aiha Doli le ke'' came after that.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-08-17/patna/28156704_1_bhojpuri-film-industry-soumya-songs | 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=dead | archive-date=12 May 2013 | work=[[The Times of India]] | title=Bhojpuri artist to make first Bajjika film | date=17 August 2009}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Bihari languages]]
*[[Tirhut division|Tirhut]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{ref begin}}
* {{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 }}
{{ref end}}

== Further reading ==

*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.

== External links ==
* 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}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Eastern Indo-Aryan languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Bihar]]
[[Category:Languages of Nepal]]

Bajjika - Revision history

Barkatofficial: adjusted details per sources and updated info

>Jakichandan: Reverted 2 edits by 223.235.174.157 (talk): Removal of sourced content