Page 224 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

e) Plural सन /sʌn/, स /sʌ/, जा /jɑ/

Bhojpuri has both suffixal and postpositional plural markers, already discussed
with characteristics of nouns in this chapter. Among them, सब /sʌb/ 'all', लोग /loɡ/

'people' and जा /jɑ/ are themselves pronoun, noun and verb respectively. But under the

process of grammaticalization , they have become plural marker particles. Besides, सन
8
/sʌn/ and स /sʌ/ have been derived from सब /sʌb/ and placed as plural marker particles
in Bhojpuri. They have clause-final position in general, as shown in (117a-c).

(117) a. िछतराइल बाड़ऽ सन ।

cʰitʌrɑil bɑɽʌ sʌn
cʰitʌrɑ-il bɑɽʌ sʌn

scatter-PP be.2/3.PRES PL
'They are all scattered.' (04.231)

b. दुनू भाई खुब खुश भइलन स ।
dunu b ̤ ɑi kʰub kʰus b ̤ ʌilʌn sʌ

du-nu b ̤ ɑi kʰub kʰus b ̤ ʌ-ilʌn sʌ
two-EMPH brother highly happy become-3.PST.MH PL

'Both the brothers became overjoyed.' (10.044)
c. खाके चलनी जा ।

kʰɑke cʌlni jɑ
kʰɑ-ke cʌl-ni jɑ

eat-SEQ walk-PST.H PL
'We moved after meal.'

f) Dubitatives
The dubitative modality codes the speaker's doubts about the truth of the
whole proposition, (Frajzyngier 2016:266-7). The dubitative mood not only marks

doubt about the truth value of a proposition but also about the identity of an argument
within a proposition (Whitehead 2004:18). Bhojpuri has dubitative modality marked

by the particle 6क /ki/, कानू /kɑnu/, हँनू /ɦʌnu/ and कादो /kɑdo/ occurred generally at
̃
clause-final position. Hence, कादो /kɑdo/ 'mud' has been grammaticalized to be

dubitative particle in Bhojpuri. Such dubitatives are shown in (118a-d).

8. Hopper and Traugott (2017: xiii) defines grammaticalization as the change whereby lexical items
and constructions come in certain linguistic contexts to serve grammatical functi ons and, once
grammaticalized, continue to develop new grammatical functions.
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