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Bihari languages

Not to be confused with the languages of Bihar.

Bihari
Geographic
distribution		India and Nepal
Linguistic classificationIndo-European
Subdivisions
Language codes
ISO 639-1bh (deprecated)[1]
ISO 639-2 / 5bih
Glottologbiha1245

Bihari languages are a group of the Indo-Aryan languages.[2][3] The Bihari languages are mainly spoken in the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, and also in Nepal.[4][5] The most widely spoken languages of the Bihari group are Bhojpuri, Magahi and Maithili.

Despite the large number of speakers of these languages, only Maithili has been constitutionally recognised in India, which gained constitutional status via the 92nd amendment to the Constitution of India, of 2003 (gaining assent in 2004).[6] Both Maithili and Bhojpuri have constitutional recognition in Nepal.[7] Bhojpuri is also official in Fiji as Fiji Hindi. There are demands for including Bhojpuri in the 8th schedule of Indian constitution.

In Bihar, Hindi is the language used for educational and official matters.[8] These languages were legally absorbed under the overarching label Hindi in the 1961 Census. Such state and national politics are creating conditions for language endangerments.[9] After independence Hindi was given the sole official status through the Bihar Official Language Act, 1950.[10] Hindi was displaced as the sole official language of Bihar in 1981, when Urdu was accorded the status of the second official language.[11]

  1. ^ "Change to Part 1 Language Code | ISO 639-3". iso639-3.sil.org. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  2. ^ Masica, Colin P. (1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge University Press. pp. 12, 26, 446–462.
  3. ^ Bihari at Ethnologue (23rd ed., 2020).
  4. ^ Yadava, Y. P. (2013). Linguistic context and language endangerment in Nepal. Nepalese Linguistics 28: 262–274.
  5. ^ Brass, Paul R. (1974). Language, Religion and Politics in North India. Cambridge University Press.
  6. ^ "The Constitution (Ninety-Second Amendment) Act, 2003". National Portal of India. 7 January 2004. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  7. ^ Kumayaa, Harshitha (6 September 2018). "Nepal". The Hindu.
  8. ^ Damani, Guarang (2015). "History of Indian Languages". Die-hard Indian. Archived from the original on 13 April 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  9. ^ Verma, Mahandra K. (2001). "Language Endangerment and Indian languages : An exploration and a critique". Linguistic Structure and Language Dynamics in South Asia. ISBN 9788120817654.
  10. ^ Brass, Paul R. (8 September 1994). The Politics of India Since Independence (Second ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 183. ISBN 9780521459709. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  11. ^ Benedikter, Thomas (2009). Language Policy and Linguistic Minorities in India: An Appraisal of the Linguistic Rights of Minorities in India. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 89. ISBN 978-3-643-10231-7.

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