Maithili language

Indo-Aryan language spoken in India and Nepal

Maithili (Nepali: मैथिली; /ˈmtɪli/;[2] Maithilī) is an Indo-Aryan language. It is spoken in Nepal and northern India. It is spoken by 34.7 million people. Of those, 2.8 million are Nepalese people. It is the second largest national language of Nepal.[3] In ancient times, Maithili language was written in Mithilakshar.[4] Now it is written in Devanagari script.

Maithili
मैथिली, মৈথিলী
Native toIndia, Nepal and Bangladesh
RegionBihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Koshi Province, Bagmati Province, Rangpur Division
EthnicityMaithil
Native speakers
30 million (2000–2001)[1]
Tirhuta (Mithilakshar)
Kaithi (Maithili style)
Devanagari
Official status
Official language in
   Nepal Interim Constitution 2007
India 8th schedule of Constitution of India, Bihar
Language codes
ISO 639-2mai
ISO 639-3mai
Glottologmait1250
Part of a series on
Constitutionally recognised languages of India
Category
Scheduled Languages

A
Assamese
B
Bengali
Bodo
D
Dogri
G
Gujarati
H
Hindi
K
Kannada
Kashmiri
Konkani
M
Maithili
Malayalam
Marathi
Meitei (Manipuri)
N
Nepali
O
Odia (Oriya)
P
Punjabi
S
Sanskrit
Santali
Sindhi
T
Tamil
Telugu
U
Urdu

Related

Official languages of India
Languages with official status in India

References

change
  1. Maithili at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
  2. "Maithili". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2nd ed. 1989.
  3. Lewis, M. P. (ed.) (2009). Maithili Archived 2013-09-22 at the Wayback Machine Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
  4. Yadava, Y. P. (2013). Linguistic context and language endangerment in Nepal. Nepalese Linguistics 28: 262–274.