ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses South African Bhojpuri (SB) in its socio-cultural setting, and examines in the process the range of functions it has fulfilled in the past, and its current status. It describes Bhojpuri in the following commentary, much of what is said could apply to Awadhi and other dialects brought to South Africa. Bhojpuri, spoken in ten districts of Bihar wholly, and four partially, in nine districts of Uttar Pradesh and two of Madhya Pradesh, exists today in a diglossic relationship with Std Hn. Folk-attitudes of speakers of neighbouring languages to B are not negative. Outsiders claim that the language is a 'rough' one, in keeping with the stereotype of the robust Bhojpurian. The Natal Urdu system is closer to Upland B than to Coastal SB. Communication between SB speakers and Urdu speakers in Natal has never been a problem, given that the variety of Urdu spoken by many indentured migrants and B are similar in structure and lexicon.
