Most of the languages of Bihar, the third most populous state of India, belong to the Bihari subgroup of the Indo-Aryan family. Chief among them are Bhojpuri, spoken in the west of the state, Maithili in the north, Magahi in center around capital Patna. Maithili has official recognition under the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India.[1] The official language of Bihar is Modern Standard Hindi,[2] with Standard Urdu serving as a second official language in 15 districts.[3]
Exact speaker numbers for the main Bihari languages are not known because the more educated prefer to speak in Hindi (in formal situations) and so return this answer on the census, while many in rural areas and the urban poor, especially the illiterate, list their language as "Hindi" on the census as they regard that as the term for their language.[4]
The first success of spreading Modern Standard Hindi occurred in Bihar in 1881, when it displaced Standard Urdu as the sole official medium of the province. In this struggle between Hindi and Urdu standards of the Hindustani language, the potential claims of the three large mother tongues in the region – Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi were ignored. After independence, Hindi was again given the sole official status through the Bihar Official Language Act, 1950. Urdu became the second official language in the undivided State of Bihar on 16 August 1989.
Official languages
Language and script
(L) Bhojpuri story written in Kaithi (1898), (R) Maithili language in Tirhuta and Devanagari scripts
Hindi is the official languages of the State.[6]Urdu is the second official language of the state.
Maithili (/ˈmaɪtɪli/;[7]Maithilī) is an Indo-Aryan language native to India and Nepal. In India, it is widely spoken in the Bihar.[8][9] Native speakers are also found in other states and union territories of India, most notably in Jharkhand and the National Capital Territory of Delhi.[10] According to Ethnologue, there are about 12 million Maithili speakers in India as per 2011 Census.[11]
However, in the 2011 census of India, It was reported by only 1,35,83,464 people as their mother tongue comprising about 1.12% of the total population of India,[12] as many Maithili speakers view it as a dialect of Hindi and report their mother tongue as Hindi.
In Nepal, it is spoken in the eastern Terai, and is the second most prevalent language of Nepal.[13]Tirhuta was formerly the primary script for written Maithili. Less commonly, it was also written in the local variant of Kaithi.[14] Today it is written in the Devanagari script.[15]
In 2003, Maithili was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution as a recognised regional language of India, which allows it to be used in education, government, and other official contexts.[16]
Researcher Abhishek Kashyap (2013), based on the 2001 census data, estimated that there were 20 million Bajjika speakers in Bihar (including around 11.46 illiterate adults).[22]
Magahi is spoken in the Magadh region in southern Bihar. Its heartland is Patna, Jehanabad, Nalanda, Gaya, Nawada and Sheikhpura districts, with the centres of Magahi culture being Patna, earlier called Pataliputra, and Gaya. In the west, in western Patna district, Arwal and Aurangabad districts, Magahi blends into Bhojpuri spoken across the Son river. Across the Ganga Magahi borders various dialects closely related to Maithili. In the east, in Lakhisarai and Jamui districts, Magahi blends into Angika.[24]
Khortha language is spoken in far-southern Bihar adjoining Jharkhand, on the Chota Nagpur plateau. Districts where Khortha is spoken include Aurangabad, Gaya, Nawada and Jamui.[25]
Santhali is a Munda language spoken by the Santhal Adivasis in its heartland in Santhal Parganas in northeastern Jharkhand. As an extension of this population, Santhali is spoken by many people in Jamui, Banka, Munger and Bhagalpur districts. Many Santhali people were also brought to eastern Bihar (Purnia division) as agricultural workers, so large numbers are also found in Araria, Purnia, Katihar and Kishanganj districts.
Surjapuri is a language variety spoken in Purnia division (Araria, Purnia, Katihar and Kishanganj districts), and adjoining areas of West Bengal, although it has been clubbed under Hindi in the census. In fact, it is more closely related to Assamese and Bengali than Hindi, being the western extension of the Kamatpuri group of dialects like Rajbanshi in neighbouring Nepal and Rangpuri in nearby Bangladesh. In the west it blends with eastern dialects of Maithili.[26]
^Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George (2003). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. p. 500. The number of speakers of Bihari languages are difficult to indicate because of unreliable sources. In the urban region, most educated speakers of the language name either Hindi or Urdu as their language because this is what they use in formal contexts and believe it to be the appropriate response because of unawareness. The uneducated and the rural population of the region regards Hindi or Urdu as the generic name for their language.
"India". Ethnologue. 2023. Ethnologue also lists the following languages as spoken in the state: Awadhi, Braj, Ho, Kanjari, Koch, Koda, Korwa, Kurmukar, Mahali, Munda, Nepali, Newar, Sindhi, Sora.
^Abhishek Kashyap (2014). "On the linguistic resources of Bajjika". In Vibha Chauhan (ed.). The People's Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. 6: The Languages of Bihar. Orient Blackswan. p. 1.
^Trammell, Robert Lee (1968). The phonology of the Northern standard dialect of Bhojpuri. OCLC64035989.
^Prasad, Balaram; Mukherjee, Subasis. "Magadhi/Magahi"(PDF). Languages of Bihar. Linguistic Survey of India.
^Shekhar Dash, Niladri. "Language Attitude of Khortha Speakers in Giridih: A Survey Report". Linguistic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
