Page 155 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

'rich person' 'rich people'
But such plural marker suffixes are not so common. The more practicable

plural markers are periphrastic in terms of separate plural nouns and pronouns लोग

/loɡ/ 'people' and सब /sʌb/ 'all' respectively as shown in (10a-b).
(10) Singular Plural

(a) हा6कम /ɦɑkim/ 'officer' हा6कम लोग /ɦɑkim loɡ/ 'officers'
(b) गाछी /ɡɑcʰi/ 'tree' गाछी सब /ɡʌcʰi sʌb/ 'trees'

Hence, लोग /loɡ/ is used in honorific and सब /sʌb/ in non-honorific

environments respectively. Besides these, Bhojpuri has some echowords suffixed to
nouns that indicate plurality or suggest manifoldedness as shown in (11a-b).

(11) a. खेतोत /kʰetot/ 'farms', बातोत /bɑtot/ 'talks', 6कताबुताब /kitɑbutɑb/ 'books or

books and so on', भातोत /b ̤ ɑtot/ 'boild rice and other edibles'
b. आदमी-ओदमी /ɑdmi-odmi/ 'people' पानी-ओनी /pɑni-oni/ 'water and other

drinks', तरकारी-ओरकारी /tʌrkɑri-orkɑri/ 'vegetable and other edibles'

Examples (11a-b) shows that the first letter of the word is repleced by -ओ /-o/

or -उ /-u/ in echoing.
The interrogative pronouns के /ke/ 'who (H), कौन /kɔn/ 'who (NH)' का /kɑ/ or

कथी /kʌtʰi/ 'what' do not take plural marker while referring to the multiple referents

but are reduplicated, as in (12a-d):

(12) a. आज घरे के-के आएम ?
ɑj ɡ ̈ ʌre ke ke ɑem
ɑj ɡ ̈ ʌr-e ke ke ɑ-em

today house-LOC who who come-FUT.H
'Who (all) will come at home?

b. नजदीक के भाषा सब कौन-कौन ह ?
nʌjdik ke b ̤ ɑsɑ sʌb kɔn kɔn ɦʌ
close GEN language PL which which be.3SG.PRES
'What languages are nearer to it?' (03.113)

c. अब सरकार का-का करी ?

ʌb sʌrkɑr kɑ kɑ kʌri
ʌb sʌrkɑr kɑ kɑ kʌr-i
now government what what do-3FUT.NH

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