Birhor

About

The Birhor Living Dictionary is currently under construction. Existing data in the dictionary will be expanded through the addition of multimedia and sample sentences in 2025. The data in this dictionary was compiled in person through elicitation and interviews with fluent Birhoɽ speakers between 2018 and 2021. Considering the severity of the Covid-19 situation in India in 2020-2021 and given the time constraints under which this dictionary was created, we are very much aware that there may still be numerous mistakes which will have to be corrected in upcoming revised editions. The Birhor are a Munda-speaking, forest-dependent semi-nomadic tribal community with fewer than 20,000 members concentrated in the eastern central Indian state of Jharkhand and adjacent northern parts of the state of Odisha. Only a few thousand fluent speakers of the Birhor language remain at present as their way of life and their language are both under threat. Until recently, many Birhor subsisted as hunter-gatherers living in leaf-huts setting up camps at the edge of village market areas, selling rope and rope products in local village markets; many now have been forced to live in settled agricultural communities, as forest degradation and urban encroachment has made hunting and gathering no longer viable as a way of life. Officially a ‘primitive’ tribal group, the Birhor stand at the very bottom of the complex and multi-tiered ethno-religious and linguistic hierarchies that dominate Indian life. In northern Odisha, two different groups are officially known as ‘monkey-eaters’ and overtly despised. The cultural and environmental context that the Birhor people are living in is changing rapidly and their language and culture are both poorly documented. Both will likely soon disappear without immediate action. Their knowledge of medicinal and nutritional uses of forest products is vast and unrivaled in India. In 2019, we began a new project documenting Birhor language and culture. Our field…

Grammar

Bibliography coming soon