Bhojpuri language

|states=India, Nepal, Mauritius, Netherlands, Fiji, Guyana, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore, United States, United Kingdom, Réunion, Suriname
|region=Nepal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal
|speakers=26.6 million Ethnologue http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=bho (1997)
|ranking=6
|familycolor=Indo-European
|fam2=Indo-Iranian languages
|fam3=Indo-Aryan languages
|fam4=List of Eastern Indo-Aryan languages
|fam5=Bihari languages
|script=Devanagari, Kaithi
|iso1=bh|iso2=bho|iso3=bho
|notice=Indic}}

Bhojpuri () is a regional language spoken in parts of north-central and eastern India. It is spoken in the western part of state of Bihar, the northwestern part of Jharkhand, and the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, as well as an adjoining area of southern plains of Nepal. Bhojpuri is also spoken in Guyana, Suriname, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago and Mauritius. The variant of Bhojpuri of the Surinamese Hindustanis, is also referred to Sarnami Hindi or just Sarnami when it is mixed with (Creole) English or Dutch words. In Guyana and Trinidad a smaller percentage of the Indians know Bhojpuri compared to Suriname.

The Bhojpuri language is part of the Eastern-Hindi or Begali continuum of languages which once exended from Assam and Begal to Benares. While the rest of Bihar and UP slowly adopted the new Hindi standard, the language remained strong in the areas between Patna and Benares.
The government of India while taking census, disagree, and consider Bhojpuri to be a dialect of Hindi. But now the government of India is preparing to grant it statutory status as a List of national languages of India.

Bhojpuri shares vocabulary with Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu and other Indo-Aryan languages of northern India. Bhojpuri and several closely related languages, including Maithili language and Magadhi language, are together known as the Bihari languages. They are part of the Eastern Zone group of Indo-Aryan languages which includes Bengali language and Oriya language.

There are numerous dialects of Bhojpuri, including three or four in eastern Uttar Pradesh alone.

The scholar, polymath and polyglot Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan wrote some works in Bhojpuri. Other eminent writers include Viveki Rai. There have been other writers who have written in Bhojpuri but the number is small compared to the number of speakers. Some other notable Bhojpuri personalities are legendary freedom fighter Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, first president of India Rajendra Prasad, Manoj Bajpai, and former Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri, Chandra Shekhar. Bihar Kokila Padma Shri Sharda Sinha is a famous Bhojpuri folk singer.