In which district of Madhya Pradesh is ‘Pawari/Bhoyari’ dialect spoken?

Madhya Pradesh is linguistically diverse: alongside standard Hindi, several regional belts and communities have their own recorded dialects, each tied to a specific geographic area or community rather than spoken uniformly across the state — for example Bagheli in the Baghelkhand belt of the east, Bundeli in the Bundelkhand belt, Malvi in Malwa, Nimadi in Nimar, and community-linked dialects such as Pawari (also called Bhoyari), spoken by the Powar/Pawar community along the Madhya Pradesh–Maharashtra border.

Pawari/Bhoyari is recorded as the dialect of the Powar community concentrated in Betul district, which lies in the southern part of Madhya Pradesh bordering the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra — the same dialect continuum extends across this state border. The Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission's official answer key for the State Forest Service Main Examination (conducted 20 August 2023) keys this question to Betul as well.

• Rewa lies in the Baghelkhand region of eastern Madhya Pradesh, an area associated with the Bagheli dialect rather than the Powar-community belt.

• Satna is also part of the Baghelkhand belt of eastern Madhya Pradesh, sharing that same Bagheli-linked linguistic zone.

• Sidhi lies further east in the Vindhya/Baghelkhand belt of Madhya Pradesh, again within the Bagheli-speaking zone rather than the Powar-community area.

• Betul, on the Madhya Pradesh–Maharashtra border, matches the documented home of the Powar community and the Pawari/Bhoyari dialect.

Therefore, Betul is the district associated with the Pawari/Bhoyari dialect.