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Chhattisgarhi linguistic data
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Common questions about Chhattisgarhi
What linguistic data does this Chhattisgarhi 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 Chhattisgarhi's value visible; you can add other languages to read the same feature side by side.
Where do the Chhattisgarhi 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.
Is Chhattisgarhi a Hindi dialect or a separate language?
Linguistically, Chhattisgarhi sits in the Eastern Hindi group alongside Awadhi and Bagheli, distinct from the Khariboli base of Standard Hindi. Politically and administratively, it has often been classified as a Hindi dialect, but in 2007 the state of Chhattisgarh declared it the official state language. Mutual intelligibility with Standard Hindi is partial.
Where is Chhattisgarhi spoken?
Primarily across the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, plus adjacent areas of Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Jharkhand. The language area corresponds roughly to historical Daksina Kosala. Major sub-varieties include Surgujia (north), Khalwahi (central, the standard), and Halbi (transitional toward Marathi/Odia).
Why does Chhattisgarhi have a high similarity score with Hindi or Awadhi?
All three are Indo-Aryan languages of the Hindi belt, sharing core grammar (SOV, postpositions, two genders), substantial cognate vocabulary, and Devanagari script. Chhattisgarhi sits closer to Awadhi (both Eastern Hindi) than to Standard Hindi (Western). The factor breakdown chip on the row tells you which dimensions contributed most.
Sources for Chhattisgarhi
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.
- Grierson, George Abraham (1906). Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. VI: Eastern Hindi. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. [Chhattisgarhi section]
- Kavyopadhyaya, Hira Lal et al. (1921). A Grammar of the Chhattisgarhi Dialect of Eastern Hindi. Calcutta: The Baptist Mission Press.
- Sharma, Deo Narain (1981). Chhattisgarhi Bhasha: Ek Adhyayan. Raipur: Chhattisgarhi Academy. [descriptive study of Chhattisgarhi]
- Verma, Manindra K. (1976). "The Structure of the Noun Phrase in English and Hindi." In Studies in Language. [includes split ergativity in Eastern Hindi languages]