Bundelkhandi

Bundeli, also known as Bundelkhandi, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Bundelkhand region of central India. It is widely described as a language in its own right, though some linguists classify it as a dialect of Hindi; it forms part of the Western Hindi subgroup of the Indo-Aryan family.

Bundeli is spoken primarily in the Bundelkhand area, spanning parts of Uttar Pradesh (including Jhansi, Lalitpur, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Banda) and Madhya Pradesh (including Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Panna, and the Sagar region). Diaspora communities can be found in major Indian cities and elsewhere.

Bundeli is usually written in the Devanagari script; Kaithi has historical usage in local records. The language exhibits distinctive lexical and phonological features that set it apart from Standard Hindi, while retaining high mutual intelligibility with it.

The language includes regional subdialects. Bundeli is associated with a rich body of folk literature and oral tradition, including songs and storytelling that reflect Bundelkhand's history and rural life.

Bundeli has no official status as a separate language in India and coexists with Hindi in education and media. It is used in local literature, theatre, radio, and online content to varying degrees, and there are efforts to document and promote its use among younger speakers to prevent language shift.