Page 265 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU
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(Upadhyay 2010:84 and Adhikari 2016:157), Bhojpuri clauses express three degrees of
honoroficity: nonhonorific, mid-honorific and honorific or full honorific as Maithili does.
They are observed in second and third person pronominals and nouns, too, because first
person remains always honorific universally. Besides, the nonhonorific usage in Bhojpuri
is the highest in the discourse, so, it is unmarked in morpheme break of the Bhojpuri
clauses in this study. The honorific agreement in all the three persons either in singular or
plural number the verb is suffixed with -नी /-ni/ as shown in (12a-d).
(12) a. बाबुजी अइनी ... ।
bɑbuji ʌini
bɑbu-ji ɑ-ini
father-H come-PST.H
'Father came ....' (09.505)
b. उहाँका अइनी ।
uɦɑ ̃ kɑ ʌini
uɦɑ ̃ -kɑ ɑ-ini
3SG.NOM.H-DEF come-PST.H
'S/he came.'
c. रउआ अइनी ।
rʌuɑ ʌini
rʌuɑ ɑ -ini
2SG.NOM.H come -PST.H
'You came.'
d. हम अइनी ।
ɦʌm ʌini
ɦʌm ɑ-ini
1SG.NOM come-PST.H
'I came.'
For mid-honorific agreement the verb is suffixed with -अ /-ʌ/ in the second
person and -अन /-ʌn/ or -एँ /ẽ/ in the third person as shown in (13a-b).
(13) a. तू अइलऽ ।
tu ɑilʌ
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