Linguistic Survey of India- Vol.VI, Indo-Aryan Family Mediate Group 

Abstract

The Mediate group of Indo-Aryan vernaculars is a dialect, not of languages. It includes only one language, dialects, not of languages. It includes only one language, ms., Eastern Hindi. This language, which includes three main dialects, Awadhi, Bagheli, and Chhattis- Its Geographical Habitat. gayM’ 0CCUPies Parts °f six provinces, viz., Oudh, the North-Western Provinces, Baghelkhand, Bundelkhand, Chota Nagpur, and the Central Provinces. It covers the whole of Oudh, except the district of Havdoi, and a small portion of Eyzabad. In the North-Western Provinces, it covers, roughly speaking, the country between Benares andHamirpar in Bundelkhand! It occupies the whole of Baghelkhand, the North-West of Bundelkhand, the South! Sone tract of1 the District of Mirzapur, the States of Chand Bhakar, Sarguja and Korea, and a portion of Jashpur, in Chota Nagpur. In the Central Provinces, it covers the districts of Jabalpur and Mandla, and the greater part of Chhattisgarh with its Feudatory States. The three dialects of Eastern Hindi closely resemble each other. Indeed, Baghell Dialects. differs 80 little from Awadhi, that, were it not popularly recognised as a separate form of speech, I should have certainly classed it as a form of that dialect. Its separate existence has only been recognised in deference to popular prejudice. Chhattisgarhl, under the influence of the neighbouring Marathi and Oriya, shows greater points of difference; but its close connection with Awadhi is nevertheless apparent. The Awadhi-cum-Bagheli dialect includes the whole Eastern Hindi area of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh and of Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand, Chand Bhakar, and the districts of Jabalpur and Mandla. It is algo spoken by some scattered tribes in the Central Provinces districts to the south and west. If we wish to make a dividing line between Awadhi and Baghell, we may take the river Jamna where it runs between Eatehpur and- Banda, and, thence, the southern boundary of the Allahabad District. This is not quite accurate, for the Tirbari dialect spoken on the north bank of the Jamna in Eatehpur shows sufficient peculiarities to entitle it to be classed as Baghell; and the language of the south-east Allahabad, which is locally known as Baghell, but which I have classed as Awadhi, is a mixture of the two dialects. The boundary must be uncertain, for there is hardly any definite peculiarity which we can seize upon as a decisive test. Chhattlsgarhi occupies the remainder of the Eastern Hindi tract, that is to say the States of IJdaipur, Korea and Sarguja, and a portion of Jashpur, in Chota Nagpur, and the greater part of Chhattisgarh.