Maithili Language Guide

Also spoken in
India, Nepal
Script
Devanagari
Speakers
13M (2011)

Where it's spoken

A reference grammar describes Maithili as an eastern Indo-Aryan language spoken in the eastern and northern regions of the Indian state of Bihar and in the southeastern plains of Nepal, known as the tarai. India's constitution lists Maithili in its Eighth Schedule of languages. In India's most recent national census, Maithili ranks thirteenth among the scheduled languages by speakers' strength, a count in which each language includes the mother tongues that the census groups under it.

Sources

Script & pronunciation

A reference grammar says that Maithili has been written in three scripts, Mithilaksar (also known as Tirhuta), Kaithi and Devanagari, and that today it is written in Devanagari. This app's Maithili cards use Devanagari, with a hyphen-separated Latin romanization beside each card, as in अहाँ (A-haan).

The Unicode Standard says that Devanagari, like the other scripts of South Asia, is an abugida in which most symbols stand for a consonant plus an inherent vowel, and that a dependent vowel sign is used for any other vowel. A virama sign suppresses the inherent vowel of the consonant it is applied to; this app's card containing ध्यानसँ ("with attention" is the card's own gloss) joins ध and य this way, with the inherent vowel of ध suppressed. The Unicode Standard also says that the candrabindu, the mark written over अहाँ, indicates nasalization or final nasal closure of a syllable.

Sources

Grammar essentials

The basic unmarked word order in Maithili is subject, object, verb, according to a reference grammar, so the verb stands last, as in this app's card हम नहि बुझैत छी। ("I don't understand"). The same grammar says that Maithili postpositions, unlike prepositions, always follow the noun they are attached to, giving "from the shop" as an example with the word for "from"; in this app's card हम जापानसँ आएलहुँ। ("I have come from Japan") the postposition सँ is written joined to the end of जापान.

The grammar also says that the negator stands before the verb, as in हम नहि बुझैत छी।, where नहि comes right before बुझैत. A linguistics paper states that Maithili lacks gender agreement, and this app's note on the same card says "No gender".

Sources

Politeness & etiquette

A linguistics paper describes four levels of honorificity in the second person, non-honorific, mid-honorific, honorific and high-honorific, each triggering its own verb ending, although in the paper's examples the honorific and high-honorific levels take the same ending. A reference grammar calls the honorific pronoun the safest and most frequently used one in Maithili and says it is used between strangers in order to avoid offense, while the non-honorific pronoun should either be avoided or used with extreme caution. This app's card अहाँ ("You (polite)") is that honorific pronoun, and its own notes say to always use it with strangers and elders and call अपने the higher level.

With the honorific "you" the present-tense helper verb is छी, the same form the reference grammar gives after "I", as in this app's cards हम नहि बुझैत छी। ("I don't understand") and की अहाँ हमर सामान राखि सकैत छी? ("Can you keep my luggage?").

Sources

Browse all TravelPhrases languages