Definition

Noun: 1. A member of an Indo-Aryan people living in Bihar and neighboring areas: Refers to a person belonging to an ethnic and linguistic group native to the Indian state of Bihar and surrounding regions. 2. The group of Indic languages or dialects spoken by this people: Refers collectively to the languages spoken in the Bihar region, which are part of the Eastern Indo-Aryan language group.

Usage Examples

• Noun (referring to a person):
  • My neighbor is a Bihari who moved to the city for work.
  • The festival was celebrated by Biharis living abroad.
• Noun (referring to the language group):
  • Bihari includes several dialects like Bhojpuri, Maithili, and Magahi. Historical texts show the evolution of the Bihari languages.

Advanced Usage

• Used in a socio-linguistic context: The term is often used in discussions about migration, culture, and linguistic diversity within India.
  • The study focused on the migration patterns of Bihari workers.
• Used in an academic or descriptive context: Commonly found in linguistic, anthropological, or historical texts.
  • The phonology of Bihari dialects presents interesting features.

Variants and Related Words

• Bihari languages (noun phrase): The specific languages constituting the Bihari group.
  • Bhojpuri is one of the major Bihari languages.
• Bihar (proper noun): The Indian state from which the term originates.
  • Patna is the capital of Bihar.

Synonyms

• None as a direct single-word synonym for the ethnic group or language family. For the people, one might use descriptive phrases like "native of Bihar" or "person from Bihar." For the language group, "Eastern Indo-Aryan languages of Bihar" is a technical synonym.

Related Phrases

• Speak Bihari: To use one of the Bihari languages.
  • Many in the village still speak Bihari at home.
• Bihari community: Refers to the collective group of Bihari people, often in a diaspora context.
  • The Bihari community in Kolkata is very large.

Notes on Meaning

• The term "Bihari" is primarily an ethnolinguistic identifier. It is important to note that "Bihari" is not a single, standardized language but a group of closely related languages and dialects. The primary meaning depends on context: it can refer to people or their languages.

Noun

1. the Indic language spoken in Bihar (and by some people in Pakistan and Bangladesh)