ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with socio-cultural as well as sociolinguistics of Angika, as both the aspects are pretty important for establishing ‘Angikan’ identity in contemporary society. It talks about the geographical boundaries of Angikan speech community, which not only ascertains the primary claim and but also that of Angikan speech community about their language and their linguistic identity, which they associate themselves with. Almost entire native population (of the area) associates its identity with Angika as a language and its culture, not with that of Maithili. Despite Maithili commanding more respect as a standard variety, the native population of Bhagalpur is relentlessly firm and uncompromising on Angika being their Language and culture. The chapter deals with the identity issues brought by language consciousness of Angika speakers. As the “speakers know that claiming a particular language as a mother tongue is not simply a factual identification of the speech variety s/he uses for daily transactions.
