Page 35 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

works have to be cross-checked for reliability and validity to meet the objectives of
this study to present sociolinguistic, phonetic, phonological, morphophonemic,

mrophosyntactic and discourse-pragmatic properties of the Bhojpuri language from
functional-typological perspective and adaptive approach to grammar.

1.4 Research methodology
1.4.1 Collection of data
This is a field-based study of the Bhojpuri language. Though the spread of

Bhojpuri has been found in the Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara, Parsa, Chitwan, Nawalparasi
(east and west from Susta) and Rupandehi districts of the Federal Democratic Republic

of Nepal, the dialect spoken in Bara and Parsa is central and considered the standard
one, in accordance with Lohar (2006) and Lohar and Regmi (2012). Therefore, the

primary data were collected from the Bhojpuri native speakers mainly from Bara and
Parsa districts, whereas, the other native speakers were also consulted with.
Different methods of field linguistics were used in collecting data. The

researcher is a native speaker from Bara and this research is oriented to write
grammar of the language in the standard dialect. Ultimately, it is based on purposive

sampling for presentation of sociolinguistic aspects of the language as well as on
random sampling for grammar. Therefore both primary and secondary data were used

in the study.
As Lohar (2006) and Lohar and Regmi (2012) have already presented reports

of the sociolinguistic survey of Bhojpuri and the researcher already involved in the
field study, the aspects of the sociolinguistic features of the language rely upon the
2
secondary data, collected and used in those surveys.
To verify nature of aspirate sonorants in Bhojpuri consonants, the researcher
consulted with a number of informants for samples. Among them, the samples from

six informants were selected for analysis avoiding the technical error as far as
practicable. For morphosyntactic analysis of the language, Folk-tales, radio
conversations and monologues, interviews, procedural activities were collected from

different sources. The four folk-tales, An Ill-mannered Old Woman, Peasant Couple
and the Children, A Family of Deaf and Dumb and Two Chapatis or Three?; two

radio interviews, one on contemporary politics and Bhojpuri and the other on the
contemporary situation of the Bhojpuri language and literature; a magazine interview

2. Please see Annex I for the details of data collection for Lohar (2006) and Lohar and Regmi (2012).
9