|
Awadhi (Devanagari: अवधी) is an Indo-Aryan language, part of the Hindi-Urdu continuum. It is spoken chiefly in the Awadh (Oudh) region of Uttar Pradesh, although its speakers are also found in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Nepal. Furthermore, the Fiji Hindi dialect spoken by Indo-Fijians is considered a variant of Awadhi, although it has Bhojpuri influence. Awadhi in slightly different forms (influenced by Brij Bhasha, Bundeli and Bagheli) is also spoken in the Vatsa country (Lower Doab) south of Awadh region which includes Kanpur and Allahabad. It is also spoken in most of the Caribbean countries where the people of Uttar Pradesh were taken as indentured workers by the British India government. According to 2001 census, it ranks 29th in the List of languages by number of native speakers in World.
Although today it is only considered a dialect of Hindi, before the Standardization of Hindi, it was one of the two most important literary dialect of Hindustani (the other being Brij Bhasha). Important works in Awadhi are the Candayan of Maulana Da’ud, the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, the Padmavat of Malik Mohammad Jaisi. Most of the Hindu literature, including Chalisas such as Hanuman Chalisha, are written in Avadhi.
|
|
RSS