Select languages...
Awadhi linguistic data
Select languages above to compare their features side by side
Common questions about Awadhi
What linguistic data does this Awadhi page show?
Word order, tone, gender count, case marking, adposition direction, syllable structure, consonant inventory traits, vowel system, morphological alignment, script, register stratification, speaker count, and geographic area. Each row is one feature with Awadhi's value visible; you can add other languages to read the same feature side by side.
Where do the Awadhi data points come from?
Typological features are merged from URIEL+ (Mortensen et al.) and a curated set authored against descriptive grammars. Speaker counts come from Ethnologue and Glottolog. Geographic area is computed from the Asher 2007 world language atlas. Similarity scores combine genetic distance, typological overlap, and lexical-borrowing data.
Why is Awadhi historically important?
Awadhi was the literary medium of major medieval Hindi-tradition poets — most notably Tulsidas, whose 16th-century Ramcharitmanas (a Hindi-language retelling of the Ramayana) is one of the most-recited devotional texts in northern India. Modern Standard Hindi is based on the Khariboli dialect, not Awadhi, but Awadhi remains read and recited.
How does Awadhi relate to Hindi?
Both are Indo-Aryan, but Awadhi sits in the Eastern Hindi group while Standard Hindi descends from Khariboli (Western Hindi). They share core grammar (SOV, postpositions, two genders, split-ergative past) but diverge in vocabulary, verb endings, and pronoun forms. Awadhi is sometimes classified as a Hindi 'dialect' politically but a separate language linguistically.
Why does Awadhi have a high similarity score with Bhojpuri or Hindi?
All three are Indo-Aryan, in geographically adjacent Hindi-belt dialect continua, sharing core grammar and substantial vocabulary. Awadhi shares more morphology with Bhojpuri (both Eastern) than with Standard Hindi (Western). The factor breakdown chip on the row tells you which dimensions contributed most.
Sources for Awadhi
The grammatical descriptions on this page are informed by the following published reference and descriptive grammars. Grammatical facts themselves are not subject to copyright; the scholars who documented them deserve attribution.
- Verma, M.K. (2003). "Awadhi." In G. Cardona & D. Jain (eds.), The Indo-Aryan Languages, pp. 408–445. Routledge, London.
- Kellogg, S.H. (1893). A Grammar of the Hindi Language (3rd ed.). Kegan Paul, London. [Covers Awadhi as a dialect]
- Tiwari, U.N. (1960). Awadhi bhāṣā aur sāhitya. Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Allahabad.
- Grierson, G.A. (1903). Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. VI. Calcutta. [Eastern Hindi section]
- Masica, C.P. (1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge University Press.