This is a discussion about the language and language varieties spoken in the districts of the Pūrvānchal region of the state of Uttar Pradesh, such as Maū, Balliā, and Āzamgaṛh. The speaker Mr. Maqsood Khan initiates with a short monologue on the election season in his mother tongue Bhojpuri spoken in his village Jogarī. He then proceeds to the varieties spoken in the region as he seems to have excellent knowledge on the same. The monologue then turns into a discussion about the differences of culture and language of Āzamgaṛh and Maū. It then shifts to the state of Urdu in India.

This is a story of a destitute old lady who had two sons, and she could barely feed them. After some time, an aged man comes to that old lady and asks her to hand over her sons to him to raise them. The old woman agrees to this while saying that she’ll keep one of them when they became adults, whereas he can take the other one. The old man — who was a magician — takes care of them. He educates one, whereas he keeps the other for household chores, who later learns magic from him. The latter is desperate to be reunited with his mother, but the magician wants to keep him with himself. This story narrates how by using magic, the boy tries to return.

This is a conversation primarily with Mr. Jameel, the former and currently contesting Pardhān (village head) of Rāmpūr village. Mr. Jameel explains to Maaz the presence of dichotomy in speech among the population of Azamgarh and the variety spoken in Rāmpūr and other nearby Muslim-dominated villages. In the last part of the recording, Mr. Jameel talks with a villager who passes by.

This is a conversation where Mr. Satsri Mangal, a resident of Chaudhrīpūr in Rāmpūr village, places his demands before Mr. Jameel, the former and currently contesting Pardhān (village head) of Rampur. Mr. Jameel listens to his demands, and then Mr. Satsri Mangal narrates some incidents. After that, Mr. Jameel starts a conversation with the village children who were playing cricket a while ago and gathered around the recording place after noticing some recording taking place.

This is an elicitation of a word list consisting of numerals, words related to person (body parts, body functions), the physical universe (celestial entities, nature-related objects, and events), house and household items, farm and farming equipment, and food items in the Central (Zhung) variety of the Zangskari language. Recorded in Youlang village, Ladakh Union Territory, India.

This is a conversation primarily with Mr. Akhlaque. After recording some conversations in Rāmpūr village, the researcher learns the language of the Muslims to be Bhojpuri and almost the same as that of the Hindu population, unlike that in Fatehpūr. He then moves near to Mr. Akhlaque to enquire about this. Mr. Jameel then joins the conversation and adds his opinion on the ongoing topic.

This is a conversation in (Pharaī) Chāndpūr village situated in the Maū district of UP, between Irfan Ahmad Usmani, Maaz Shaikh and his uncle Saeeduz Zafar Ali. The conversation begins with a discussion on the variety of Azamgarhi spoken in this village and continues to the Azamgarhi language and thereafter to the different local vernaculars spoken in Eastern UP and Bihar. Further, Mr. Usmani describes the village, its iconic location due to it being situated near the banks of a tributary (Pharaī in Azamgarhi) of the Ghāgrā river, and its unique tongue. Then, the conversation moves on to a discussion on relatives. Later on, his sister too joins the conversation.

This is a conversation in Karmainī village, situated in the floodplains of the Ghaghra river in North of Azamgarh, with the women of the Naṭ community. They hail from a nearby village named Nakkīb Khojaulī, and identify themselves as (Sunni) Muslims. Badrun Nisa and Sharfun Nisa start by describing why they’ve come to Karmaini. Mateenuddin, Maaz’s grandfather, asks them to narrate how their community was provided with essential supplies during lockdown due to COVID-19. They do so, after which Sharfun Nisa sings a song on demonetization and the problems faced because of it. They then give information about their village and its demography.

This is an elicitation of a word list of temporal and directional words and concepts, color terms, religious terms, words related to profession, metals and precious stones, adjectives (related to physical sensation, size and shape, quality and quantity), person-related words, abstract terms, personal pronouns, and family relations in the Central (Zhung) variety of the Zangskari language. Recorded in Youlang village, Ladakh Union Territory, India.

This is a conversation between four people in Sonwārā, the researcher’s village. Maaz, accompanied by his cousin Noman, visits Shahida Bano to document some folk songs mostly sung on the occasion of marriages. Rehana Bano—the neighbor of Shahida Bano—on noticing some folksongs being sung and recording taking place, joins the gathering at the request of Shahida. Maaz and Noman then ask her to brief them on topics such as changing times, a description of the demography of the village Sonwārā, the languages/ varieties spoken by Muslims and Hindus. Meanwhile, Maaz—on having noticed Shahida’s language to match with Bhojpuri than Azamgarhi—starts records the ongoing conversation. Shahida then extends the conversation to cover family members and some significant events along with some personal narratives. While Shahida Bano talks in Bhojpuri, the other people converse in Azamgarhi.