Page 594 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

Table 15.11 Tense marking system in Bhojpuri and its close neighbours
Languages Tense markers

Past present Future
Bhojpuri -ल /-l/ -ल /-l/ -ब /-b/, -म /-m/, -ई /-i/

Chitoniya Tharu -ल /-l/ -स /-s/ -ब /-b/, -त /-t/

Maithili -ल /-l/ -छ /-cʰ/ -ब /-b/, -त /-t/

Awadhi -य /-y/ -त /-t/ -ई /-i/

Darai -ल /-l/ -त /-t/ -

Hindi -य /-y/ -त /-t/ -ग /-ɡ/

Nepali -य /-y/ -छ /-cʰ/ -ल /-l/

Rājbanshi -ल /-l/, -न /-n/ -च /-c/ -ब /-b/, -म /-m/

Table 15.11 shows that Bhojpuri shares the past marker with its neighbours
except Awadhi, Hindi and Nepali. So, Bhojpuri and its close neighbour NIA
languages in two groups: -ल /-l/ past and -य /-y/ past except Rājbanshi as it has one

more past marker -न /-n/. Likewise Bhojpuri is unique among its neighbours with its

present marker -ल /-l/ whereas its neighbours Awadhi, Darai and Hindi are grouped

with the present marker -त /-t/ and the others with -स /-s/, -छ /-cʰ/ or -च /-c/.

Similarly, Bhojpuri shares the future marker -ब /-b/ with Chitoniya Tharu, Maithili

and Rājbanshi; -म /-m/ with only Rajbanshi and -ई /-i/ with Awadhi.
Masica (1991:257) mentions the NIA verbal system, like the nominal,

normatively involving successsive layers of 'inflectional' elements to the right of the
lexical base to basically mark tense, aspect and mode. Verma (2003:579) mentions

Bhojpuri having an elaborate inflectional system for tense, aspect and mode with
further marking for agreement in terms of person, number, honorificity and gender.

But gender in verb morphology is not so common in the NIA as Bhojpuri also drops
eastwards. We have highlighted the verb morphology in detail in Chapter 10.
e) Adverb morphology

As its close neighbours Maithili, Awadhi and Nepali, adverbs in Bhojpuri are
inflected for both exclusive and inclusive emphasis. The exclusive emphatic marker is

-ही /-ɦi/ and -T /-ɦu/ is the inclusive one in Bhojpuri. Awadhi and Hindi have separate

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