Maithili

1.Yogendra Yadava
Maithili[1]
1. Background information
1.1 Alternative names
As its name implies, Maithili is, properly speaking, a language of Mithila, the prehistoric ancient kingdom, which was ruled by King Janak and was the birthplace of Janaki or Sita (Lord Ram's concubine). This region was also called Tairabhukti, the ancient name of Tirhut comprising both Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur districts of Bihar, India. Mithila is now a region located in north Bihar (India) and the south-eastern part Nepal Terai, where its speakers have been residing since the ancient times. It has also been alternatively called Mithilaa Bhaakhaa, Tirhutiyaa, Dehaati,Thethi, Avahata or Apabhramsa.
1.2 Affiliation
There has been some controversy regarding the genetic affiliation of Maithili. According to Grierson (1981, 1903) and others, this language belongs to the Eastern subgroup of the Indo-Aryan group within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family besides Oriya, Bengali, and Assamese. Jeffers (1976; as cited in Yadav (1996:5)), however, places Maithili among “Bihari languages”, along with Bhojpuri and Magadhi. Maithili thus forms a subgroup with Bhojpuri and Magadhi and is linguistically closer to Assamese, Bangla, and Oriya than to its more contiguous languages, namely, Hindi and Nepali, which belong to the Central and Western subgroups of Indo-Aryan, respectively.
1.3 Geographic spread and number of speakers
The Maithili language is spoken mainly in the northeastern part of Indian state of Bihar and eastern part of Nepal's Terai region. There are also Maithili speaking minorities in adjoining Indian states like West Bengal, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and the central Nepal’s Terai.
There have been reported 31,900,000 (2000 census) and 2,800,000 (2001 census) Maithili speakers in India and Nepal, respectively, totalling 34,700,000. Maithili ranks 31st among the world’s languages in terms of number of speakers (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=mai).
Besides, the Maithili language is also spoken by many others as a second language in India and Nepal. In Nepal, it is the language of approximately 12.3 percent of the total population and figures second in terms of the number of speakers- next only to Nepali, the only official language.
1.4 Linguogeographical information
1.4.1 Principal dialects
Being a cross-border language and having contact with different languages, Maithili exhibits different dialectal variations in India and Nepal. According to S. Jha (1958:5-6), there exist seven regional dialects of Maithili in India. They are the standard, southern, eastern, Chikachiki, western, Jolhi, and the central colloquial dialects. Of them, standard Maithili is spoken in the north of Darbhanga district (Bihar state, India), which now forms the part of the Madhubani district. So far little attempt has been made to study the social dialects of the language.
It may, however, be said that Maithili exhibits social variations in its pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar in terms of the speaker's caste, sex, education, interpersonal relationship, and other social factors.
In Nepal a preliminary study reveals that there are three regional dialects: eastern (Morang and Sunsari districts), central (Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha and eastern Mohattari districticts) and western (western Mahottari, Sarlahi and eastern Rauthat districts). There are approximately two social dialects of Maithili in Nepal: Brahmin and non-Brahmin although there are also observable some ethnic variations. These variations are, however, just approximations and need to be verified with a sociolinguistic survey.
1.4.2 Sociolinguistic situation
1.4.2.1 Communicative and functional status of the language
In both India and Nepal Maithili is predominantly used in all the contexts of role relationship of home domain within its speech community (Yadav 1990:225). It also functions as lingua franca in communicating with non-Maithili speakers such as Hindi, Urdu and Nepali speakers in the region.
Recently it has been included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. In Nepal the Interim Constitution (2007) has recognized it as a national language like other mother tongues spoken in the country. Despite this Maithili has received no status of official language in both the countries though there has been strong thrust on making it a medium of provincial administration in Nepal’s forthcoming federal constitution.
1.4.2.2 Level of standardization
Maithili has a long tradition of written literature. As a result, the language used by great Maithili writers has been accepted as standard. Besides, Maithili is rich in vocabulary and has standard dictionaries and grammar. It has, however, been realized that the colloquial Maithili be recognized as standard as it has been used by most of its speakers. It would be a political anachronism to accept the variety of Maithili used by a few elites as standard.
There has also been an effort for reforming Maithili spellings which differ from modern spoken Maithili.
1.4.2.3. Using in education
In India Maithili has been taught as subject from secondary to doctoral levels as subject. In Nepal, however, it has been recently been introduced as subject from the primary to higher levels of education. Under the Education for All national programme of Nepal Maithili is soon going to be used as medium of instruction in primary education for reasons such as ease in learning and quality education.
Both PEN (Poets, Essayists, Novelists) and Sahitya Akademi have recognized Maithili as the 16th largest language of India and has been included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian constitution.
1.5 Writing type
Previously, Maithili had its own script, called Mithilakshar or Tirhuta, which originated fromBrahmi (of the third century B.C. Asokan inscription) via the proto-Bengali script and its similar to the modern Bengali and Oriya writing systers. Besides the Mithilakshar script, the Kaithi script was also used by Kayasthas (belonging to a caste of writers and clerks), especially in keeping written records at government and private levels. These two scripts are now almost abandoned. For the sake of ease in learnability and printing (and also perhaps under the influence of the Hindi writing system), they have been gradually replaced by the Devanagari script used in writing Hindi, Nepali and some other languages of both Indo-Aryan and Tibeto-Burman stocks spoken in adjoining areas.
1.6 Brief periodization of the history of the language
Like other Indo-Aryan languages, Maithili is believed to have evolved from Vedic and Classical Sanskrit through several intermediate stages of Magadhi Prakrit, Proto-Maithili andApabhramshas. It emerged as a distinct modern Indo-Aryan language between A.D.1000 and 1200.
Maithili has a long rich tradition of written literature in both India and Nepal. The earliest written record can be traced back as early as Vernaratnaakara, the oldest prose text in Maithili written by Jyotdirisvara Kavisekharacharya in the 14th century. The most famous Maithili writer is Vidyapati Thakur, popularly known as Mahakavi Vidyapati. Apart from being a great Sanskrit writer, he composed melodious poems in Maithili, entitled Vidyapati Padavali, which mainly deal with the love between Radha and Krishna. It is this anthology of poems that has made him popular and immortal to the present day.
Maithili flourished in its region and even outside till the 16th century. It was used in all socio-cultural activities by its speakers. It had the status of being used as mother tongue by the-then royal dynasties such as Karnatas, Oinibars, and khandwalas in Mithila, Mallas in Nepal and Sens in Morang (now a district of Nepal) (Jha 1999: iv). Maithili was also practised as a court language in the Kathmandu valley during Malla period. Several literary works (especially dramas and songs) and inscriptions in Maithili are still preserved at the National Archives in Kathmandu.
It also served as a lingua franca in the south-east Bihar (India), north-east Nepal, and also Bengal, Orissa and Assam.
In the present context there have been literary writings in all literary genres, especially poetry, plays, and fiction, from both Indian and Nepalese writers. Apart from literature, Maithili writers have also been contributing to other fields like culture, history, journalism, linguistics, etc.
In addition to written texts, Maithili has an enormous stock of oral literature in the forms of folktales in both prose and verse, ballads, songs, etc. Of them the ballads of Ras Lila (expressing the love between Radha and Krishna) and Salhes (a prehistoric king) are well known specimens.
1.7 Linguistic phenomena likely conditioned by contacts with other languages
Maithili speech community is more or less multilingual. Consequently, it has been influenced by the languages in contact, viz. Hindi/Urdu in India and Nepali/Hindi in Nepal.
2.0.0. Grammar / Structure
2.1.0. Phonology
Not all the characters in Maithili script are distinctive and phonemic. For example, theDevanagari alphabet makes short/long vowel contrasts, but they are not distinctive at the phonological level of the Maithili languages; that is to say, Maithili has only short vowels and no long ones. Besides, each consonant in writing incorporates the inherent vowel [ə], which is pronounced with the consonant in isolation but dropped if it occurs with other vowels in the sequence of a word.
Except for a few, all consonants are pronounced like their symbols. The consonants that are spoken differently are: <s, sh, s.> =[s]; <kr> =[kri];<jna>=[gya]; and <ksa>=[kcha]. Maithili writing also uses diacritical marks like the chandrabindu [ँ]or anuswar [ं] for nasalization of a vowel.
2.1.1. Inventory of phonemes
There exist 26 consonants and eight oral vowels in Maithili:
Table1: Consonants (Yadav 19984, 1996)
Bilingual
Dental
Retroflex
Palatal
Velar
Glottal
Stops
p pʰ b bʰ
t tʰ d dʰ
t̺ t̺ʰ d̺ d̺ʰ
k kʰ g gʰ
Affricates
c cʰ j jʰ
Nasals
m
n
N
Tap
R
Fricatives
S
h
Lateral
L
Approxi-mants
(w)
(y)
Table 2: Pure Vowels (Yadav 1984, 1996)
Front
Central
Back
High
i
u
Mid
e
ə
o
Low
ӕ
a
ɔ
Maithili also has a few diphthongs. Both pure vowels and diphthongs can be nasalized and are phonemic.
The germination of consonants is an important feature of the Maithili sound system. A consonant is geminated intervocally if the preceding vowel is stressed, e.g., sukkha 'draught', but *gi'rra (gi'ra) 'cause to fall' (Yadav 1996: 29-30). Stress is, however, not very significant in Maithili and has a marginal role in differentiating words. Consonant clusters in Maithili are more common in formal educated speech than in informal uneducated speech.
2.2.2. Morphophonology
The morphophonemic alternations that are very productive in Maithili include schwa /ə/ deletion (e.g., sərək-e →[sərk-e] 'only the road') and a →ə (e.g., kam-ai →kəm-ai 'salary') (Yadav 1996: 51-59; also Jha 2001).
2.3 Lexical borrowings
Most of the foreign words in Maithili have been borrowed from Sanskrit. Technical terms are mostly loanwords from English.
From Sanskrit: ədətt 'extreme', ənərgəl 'improper', əbəstha 'age', ar 'and'
From Persian: ədna 'not related', ədalət 'civil court', admi 'human being'
From English: tisən 'station', pen 'pen' kapi 'copy; notebook', tebul 'table'
2.4.0. Parts of speech
2.4.1. Nominal Morphology
The pronouns of Maithili distinguish person, honorificity (glossed in the article as "hh" for high honorifics, “h” for honorific, "mh" for middle honorifics, and "nh" for non-honorifics ), proximity and case:
Nominative Dative Genitive
1 ham hamraa hamar
2nh tun toraa tohar
2mh ton toraa tohar
2h ahaan əhaa-ken ahaan-k
2hh indirect apne apne-ken apne-k
3nh proximate i ekraa ekar
3nh remote u okraa okar
3h/hh proximate i hinkaa hinak
3h/hh remote o hunkaa hunak
With regard to most categories, pronouns are equally or less differentiated than verbal inflections. They are less specific with regard to the "honorific" vs "non-honorific" distinction among third person, which are registered as -aith and -athinh, respectively, on the verb. In either case, the pronoun is o. Moreover, if third person reference is proximate, all honorificity (h) distinctions are neutralized to i. Among second persons, pronouns are equally discriminatory as verb forms. However, the distinction between honorific əhaan and high-honorific apne is not encoded synthetically. Rather, apne combines with a periphrastic passive-like construction that contrasts with the active form agreeing with ahaan: apne pad̺h-al ge-l-aik. (2hhN read-PCL AUX-PT-3)'You (hh) were reading', vs. ahaan padh-ait cha-l- aunh. (2hN read-IP AUX-PT-3) 'You were reading.'
Mid- and non-honorific second persons are differentiated by tun vs. ton, respectively, but this contrast is not always maintained. It is especially among lower-caste speakers (Bickel et al. 1999).
This distinction between honorific degrees is not limited to pronouns. Proper nouns can be marked by an honorific (h) suffix (-ji) or a non-honorific (nh) suffix (-jaa, -baa, -maa), triggering corresponding verb inflection. Hari-ji bhajan gab-ait ch-aith (H.-h religious.song sing-IP AUX- 3hN) 'Hariʰ is singing a bhajan, honorific form', Hari-yaa bhajan gab-ait ai-ch (H.-nh religious.song sing-IP 3-AUX) 'Hariⁿʰ is singing a bhajan, non honorific form.' Without such making, a name has a neutral to mid-honorific value. Common nouns sometimes differentiate an honorific and non-honorific lexical form, such as bauaa 'boyʰ' vs. chauraa 'boyⁿʰ', or daiyaa 'girlʰ' vs. chauri 'girlⁿʰ'.
Grammatical gender in Miathili nouns is rather very much restricted both as a morphological category and as a syntactic category. There exist declensions like -i (chauraa 'boy'/ chauri 'girl'), -aain (guru/guruain 'teacher masculine/feminine'), etc., but they are confined to a limited number of nouns and do not apply across the board. Maithili pronominals do not encode gender distinctions at all. But in highly formal speech, Maithili verbs encode, as a syntactic category, the feminine gender associated with third person honorific nouns and pronouns in past and future tenses: o daur-l-ih/daur-t-ih. (3h run-PAST-3hN: FEM run-FUT-3hN: FEM) 'She ran/will run', o daur-l-aith/daur-t-ah. (3h run –PT-3hN run-FUT-3hN) 'He ran/will run'. It is to be noted, however, that unlike Hindi and Nepali, possessive modifiers do not agree with their nominal heads in gender: okar pati/patni 'his/her husband/wife'. However, if the modifier is an adjective it does agree with its human head noun in gender: okar pahilkaa betaa/ okar pahilki beti 'his/her first son/ his/her first daughter'.
Both Maithili nouns and pronouns are formed plural by taking sab(h), which has been grammaticalized from a full form sab(h)’all’. Alternatively, they also take lokain as a plural marker in case they are honorific.
2.4.2 Verb Morphology
The most striking feature of Maithili grammar is the extremely complex verbal system. Like other Indo-Aryan languages, Maithili has a polymorphomic inflectional verb paradigm. It consists of several elements normally to the right of the verb stem. Its structure may be expressed as follows: Verb →Stem (Asp) (Suff be) (Asp Suff) (Aux) Tense Agr1 (Agr2) (Agr3), as illustrated in:
(1) hari-ji daur-ait rah-ait cha-l-aah.
Hari-3h run-IP be-IP AUX-PT-3.h
'Hari had been running.'
Maithili verbs encode three tenses: present, past, and future:
(2) a. u cithi likh-ait ai-ch
he letter write-IP pres.3.nh-AUX
‘He writes a letter.’
b. u cithi likh-l-ak
he letter write-PT-3.nh
‘He wrote a letter.’
c. u cithi likh-at
he letter write-FUT.pres.3.nh
‘He will write a letter.’
These three tenses can combine with four aspects: simple, imperfect, progressive and perfect, thereby yielding twelve verb forms (For details see Yadava 1980a).
Unlike most of the Indo-Aryan languages, however, Maithili encodes one of the most complex agreement system of Indo-Aryan languages. In this language, not only nominative and non-nominative subjects, but also objects, other core arguments, and even non-arguments are cross-referenced, allowing for a maximum of three participants encoded by the verb affixes. An example of an intransitive clause where one argument is marked on the verb is ham sut-l-aun (1N sleep-PT-1N) 'I slept'. In a transitive clause, two arguments may be marked on the verb: ham hun-kaa madat kar-l-i-ainh (1N 3h-ACC help do-PT 1N-3h.ACC) 'I helped him'. And a ditransitive verb may have three cross-referenced arguments: ham to-raa hun-ak kitaab de-l-i-au-nh (1N 2mh-ACC 3h-GEN book give-PT-1N-2mhACC-3hGEN) 'I gave his book to you'.
The controllers of verb agreement in all the three types of verb agreement include not only the arguments of a predicate and the possessors but also non-arguments like nominals in postpositional phrases and possessors therein, as well as deictic referents in discourse: ton hun-kaa-lel kaaj kai-l-ah-unh (2mhN 3h-OBL-for work do-PT-2mhN-3hOBL) 'You worked for him (agreement with a non-argument)', ham toh-ar ghar-par ge-l ch-al-i-ah (1N 2mh-GEN house-at go-PCL AUX-PT-1N 2mhGEN) 'I had been to your house (agreement with a possessou)', and ham o-kraa maar-l-i-ah (1N 3nh-ACC beat-PT-1N-2mh) 'I bit him(who is related to you, etc., agreement with a deictic referent)'. However, it has been found that the system is partly reduced by lower caste speakers, who are least interested in maintaining this style, especially its emphasis on hierarchy (Bickel et al 1999; Yadava 2001).
The categories reflected in the morphology are three persons with four honorific degrees and, in the case of third person only, masculine vs. feminine gender, proximate vs. remote spatial distance and in focus vs. out of focus reference. However, not all combinations of category choices are equally represented, and there are many cases of neutralization.
A related issue in Maithili grammar is the optionality of pronouns. Not only the subject pronoun, but also the direct object and possessive within the direct object may be dropped. ham toraa maar-b-au (I-[1] you-[2nh] beat-FUT-1SUB+2nhDO) 'I will beat you' may have the following realizations: toraa maarbau, ham maarbau, or maarbau.
Like other South Asian languages, Maithili nominals involve a rich case system. They encode three types of case markings: zero-marking, clitics and –(a)k +postposition. There are two cases in Maithili that are zero-marked, viz. nominative and accusative with nonhuman nouns: nominative u daur-l-ak (he.NOM run-PT-3nh) 'he ran', accusative u kitaab kin-l-ak. (heNOM book-ACC buy-PT-3nh) 'He bought a book'.
The clitic –ken marks accusative/dative case. Ram chaura-ken maar-l-ak (Ram boy-ACC beat-PAST-3nh) 'Ram beat the boy', hari-ken bhukh laag-al (Hari-DAT hunger feel-PAST) 'Hari felt hungry'. The clitic –(a)k (on nouns and honorific pronouns) and (-(a)r with non-honorific pronouns) mark the genitive case: ham raam-ak ghar dekh-l-i-ainh (Ram-GEN house see-PT-1-3h) 'I saw Ram’s house', ham ahaan-k ghar dekh-l-aunh (I 2h-GEN house see-PT-1) 'I saw yourʰhouse', ham-ar ghar dur ai-ch (my-GEN house far 3-AUX) 'My house is far away'.
The clitic -san marks instrumentals or sources: hari pensil-san likh-l-ak (Hari pencil-INS write-PT-3nh) 'Hari wrote with a pencil', hari-ji apan gaam-san ai-l-aah (Hari-h self village-SRC come-PT-3h) 'Hari came from his village'. The clitics -me and -par mark locatives: hari-ji kothari-me ch-aith (Hari-h room-LOC AUX-PRES.3h) 'Hari is in the room', hari-ji ghar-par ch-aith (Hari-h home-LOC AUX-PRES.3h) 'Hari is at home'. It is to be noted, however, that in contrast to many other Indo-Aryan languages including Hindi and Nepali, Maithili has no ergative case marking.
An example of genitive case marker with a postposition is: ham kitaab-ak-lel/baaste ae-l ch-i (I book-GEN-P come-PCL AUX-PRES.1) 'I have come for the book'.
Like Nepali, Hindi and several other south Asian languages, there is no one-to-one correspondence between cases and grammatical relations in Maithili (Bickel et al 2000). For example, the subject of a clause may take non-nominative case marking and appear in the following cases: dative(DAT), instrumental(INS), genitive(GEN), and locative(LOC), as well as logical subject in a passive constructions: hunkaa bhukh lag-l-ain(h) (3h-DAT hunger-feel-PT-3h)'He felt hungry'. hunkaa cithi likhai-ken cha-l-ain(h) (3h-DAT letter to write be-PT-3hNN) 'He had to write a letter', hunkaa-san i kitaab padh-al nahi bhe-l-ain(h) (3h-INS this book read-PCL not become PT-3hNN) 'He could'nt read this book', hunak paisaa haraa ge-l-ain(h) (3h-GEN money lose go-PT-3hNN) 'He lost his money', hunkaa-me saaphe dayaa nahi ch-ain(h) (3h-LOC at.all mercy not be PRES3hNN) 'He has no mercy at all', hunkaa-san i cithi likh-al ge-l-ain(h) (3h-by this letter write-PCL go-PT-3hNN) 'This letter was written by him'.
There are derivational morphological processes in Maithili which apply to verbs and change their valence. These processes either increase or decrease their arguments.
Causativization is a valence-increasing process. Like Hindi but unlike Nepali, a verb in Maithili employs two types of causative verbs, e.g., kataa-/katbaa- 'have cut by someone/cause someone to have cut by someone'. Furthermore, the first causative is derived from its transitive counterpart kaat- 'cut something', which is further derived from its intransitive form kat- 'cut' (as in 'the tree is cutting well').
Another valence-increasing process is transitivization, whereby an intransitive verb is changed into a transitive verb by adding the suffix –au
(3) a. geetaa daur-l-ih.
Geeta run-PT-3.FEM
‘Geeta ran.’
b. Hari geetaa-ken daur-au-l-ak
Hari Geeta-ACC run-CAUS-PT-3.nh
‘Hari made Geeta run.’
Maithili valence-decreasing devices include passivization and noun incorporation.
There are two types of passivization in Maithili: morphological and periphrastic. The morphological passive is formed by adding the suffix –aa to the verb whereas the periphrastic passive is formed by adding the past participle –al to the main verb which is followed by the verb jaa ‘go’(Yadav 1996:209):
(4) a. ham kitaab kin-l-aunh.
1 book buy-PT-1
‘I bought a book.’
b. ham-raa-sa kitaab kin-ae-l.
1-ACC-by book buy-PASS-PT
‘A book was bought by me.’
c. ham-raa-sa kitaab kin-al ge-l.
1-ACC-by book buy-PCL go-PT
‘A book was bought by me.’
Like several South Asian languages, Maithili also involves noun incorporation as a valence-decreasing device. In this process a verb root combines with a noun root to form a single complex verb (or predicate), thereby decreasing the number of argument:
(5) a. ham aai i kitaab bec-ab
1 today this book sell-FUT.1
‘I’ll sell this book today.’
d. sitaa peshaa-k rup me kitaab bec-ait aich
Sita as a profession book sell-IMP PRES.3.nh-AUX
‘Sita does book selling as a profession.’
A verb in Maithili can be expanded in another way also, namely, in the form of a serial verb construction (often referred to as "compound verb") which involves a sequence of two verbs. The first of these verbs is in the form of conjunctive participle (CP) and may be referred to as a "host", while the second one is in the finite form and may be called a "light verb", e.g.
(6) hari-ji kitaab paedh le-l-aith
Hari-h book read.CP take-PT-3h)
'Hari completed the reading of the book'.
Apart from aspectual functions, serial verbs in Maithili also express other semantic functions, e.g., volitionality and control of the action by the agent as well as the speaker's attitude.
In addition, there exist other types of complex predicates in Maithili. For example, a verb can combine with a noun or adjective to a complex verb:
(7) a. raam cor-ak pichaa kae-l-ak (Noun+Verb)
Ram thief-GEN pursueN do.IP-PT-3nh
'Ram chased the thief.'
b. raam ghar saaph kae-l-ak. (Adjective+Verb)
Ram house clean do-PT-3nh
'Ram cleaned the house.'
2.4.3 Adjectives
Adjectives in Maithili can be used both attributively and predicatively as shown in (a) and (b), respectively:
(8) a. i kitaab nik ai-ch.
this book nice PRES.3.nh-AUX
‘This book is nice.’
b. ham nik kitaab kin-l-aunh.
1 nice book buy-PT-1
‘I bought a nice book.’
They do not inflect for number but sometimes take gender inflections. Unlike Hindi and Nepali, possessive modifiers do not agree with their nominal heads in gender: okar pati/patni'his/her husband/wife'. However, if the modifier is an adjective it does agree with its human head noun in gender: okar pahilkaa betaa/ okar pahilki beti 'his/her first son/ his/her first daughter'.
Unlike English Maithili adjectives do not take comparative and superlative inflections:
(9) a. i gaach namhar ai-ch
this tree tall PRES.3.nh-AUX
‘This tree is tall.’
b. i gaach ohi gaach-san namhar ai-ch
this tree that tree-COMP tall PRES.3.nh-AUX
‘This tree is taller than that one.’
this tree all-COMP tall PRES.3.nh-AUX
‘This tree is the tallest of all.’
However, there exist a few Maithili adjectives of Sanskrit origin which inflect with comparative –ar (e.g. brihat ‘great’> brihat-ar ‘greater’ and superlative –tam (e.g. unc‘high’ > unc-tar>’higher’ >unc-tam ‘highest’.
2.5 Simple clause
The normal order of constituents in Maithili is S(ubject) V(erb) O(bject), e.g., raam kitaab kinat (Ram book will.buy) 'Ram will buy a book(SVO)'. However, these constituents can be permuted in any order: kitaab raam kinat (OSV), kitaab kinat raam (OVS), kinat raam kitaab(VSO), kinat kitaab raam (VOS), and raam kinat kitaab (SVO).
The order SOV is unmarked and stylistically neutral, whereas the various permuted orders are generally accompanied by phonological and semantic effects like topicalization, focusing, afterthought, definiteness, etc (See Yadava 1997).
The freedom of word order also extends to indirect object and adverbials of various types. What is more interesting about Maithili word order is that even elements like adjectives within NPs and auxiliaries within verbal sequences can be permuted with other elements of the sentences: e.g.
(10) gitaa hariyar saari pahir-ne ai-ch
Geeta green sari wear-PERF PRES.3-AUX
'Geeta is wearing a green sari'
This sentence may have the following permutations:
(11) a. gitaa hariyar pahirne aich saari
b. gitaa saari pahirne aich hariyar
The change in word order is not only restricted to simple sentences and phrases in Maithili but also extends to complex sentences. Consider the unmarked order of the constituents in the complex sentence and how the elements of both main and subordinate clause can be juxtaposed with one another: raam hari-ken kitaab padh-baak-lel kah-l-ak (Ram Hari-ACC book read-INF tell-PT-3.nh) 'Ram told Hari to read the book' = hari-ken raam padh-baak-lel kitaab kah-l-ak, etc.
Taking the unmarked order into consideration, Maithili, like all languages of the South Asia sprachbund ('linguistic area'), is a head-final language, whereby we mean that the head of a phrase follows its complements. Thus, the head of a verb phrase (VP) is a verb (V) and it follows its complements (object NP); the head of a postpositional phrase (PP) is a postposition (P) and it follows its complement (object NP); and the head of a noun phrase (NP) is a noun (N) and it follows its complement (genitive marker -ak): raam [VP hari-ken maar-l-ak] (Ram3nhN Hari-ACC beat-PT-3.nh) 'Ram beat Hari', [PPnepaal me] (Nepal in) 'in Nepal', [NP raam-ak kitaab] (Ram-GEN book) 'Ram's book'.
2.6 Complex constructions
In this section we will discuss two major types of complex constructions: coordination and subordination.
2.6.1 Coordination
Maithili has these semantic types of the coordinations (the terms used by Payne (1985) and Liljegren (2008)): conjunction, disjunction and rejection.
Conjunction
The coordinator aa, alternatively aar, is often used to combine two noun phrases, adjective phrases and clauses, as shown in (12a) and (12b), respectively:
(12) a. ham ek-got kitaab aa ( r) du-got kalam kin-l-aunh
1 one-class book and two-class pen buy-PT-1
‘I bought a book and two pens.’
b. i kitaab rucikar aa( r) upyogi ai-ch.
this book interesting and useful PRES.3nh-be
‘This book is interesting and useful.’
c. ham ek-got kathaa padh-l-aunh aa(r) caah pi-l-aunh
1 one-class story read-PT-1 and tea drink-PT-1
‘I read a story and took tea.’
Noun phrases are, however, also conjoined by juxtaposition, in a list-like manner:
(13) ham kitaab kalam kin-l-aunh.
1 book pen buy-PT-1
‘I bought a book and a pen.’
Two clauses can be combined by mudaa to give an adversative meaning to indicate semantic contrast:
(14) hari aai aa-ot mudaa ham ghar par nahi rah-ab.
Hari today come-FUT3nh but I home at not remain-FUT31
‘Hari will come today but I will not be at home.’
Disjunction
Disjunction in Maithili often uses ki or yaa between two alternative noun phrases or clauses:
(15) a. raam bhaat ki/yaa roti khae-t
Ram rice or bread eat-FUT3nh
‘Ram will eat either rice or bread.’
b. raam padha-at ki/yaa TV dekh-at.
Ram read=FUT3nh or TV watch-3nh
‘Ram will either read or watch TV.’
Rejection
Rejection is formed in Maithili by phrase- or clause-initial ne (ta)…ne:
(16) a. raam ne bhaat khae-t ne roti
Ram neither rice eat-FUT3nh nor bread ‘Ram will neither eat rice nor bread.’
b. raam ne padha-at ne TV dekh-at.
Ram neither read=FUT3nh nor TV watch-3nh
‘Ram will neither read nor watch TV.’
2.6.2 Subordination
Maithili has the following types of subordination:
1. Clausal complementation,
2. Relativization,
3. Converbal constructions
4. Adverbial clauses
Clausal complementation
One of the major strategies employed in Maithili subordination is complement clauses. It has been found that Maithili has two major forms of complement clauses: finite and non-finite. Both these forms, which can occur as subject or direct object, are selected by the intrinsic properties of the predicates which require them.
(17)raam ghar par ai-ch se se u kah-l-ak.
Ram home at PRES.r.nh-AUX that he.3nh say-PT-3.nh
‘He said that Ram would come home.’
(18)u kah-l-ak je hari bimaar ai-ch.
3nh say-PT-3.nh that Hari sick 3.nh-AUX
‘He said that Hari was sick.’
In these examples the predicate kahab is a verb. There can be non-verbal predicates such as an adjectival or nominal as shown in (19a) and (19b), respectively.
(19) a. raam ghar par ai-ch se se nishcit ai-ch.
Ram home at PRES.3.nh-AUX that certain PRES.3nh-AUX
‘That Ram will come home is certain.’
b. sitaa ghar nahi pahuc-l-ih se tathya ai-ch.
Sita home not reach-PT-3.Fem that fact 3.nh-AUX
‘It is a fact that Sita did not reach home.’
Non-finite clausal complements in Maithili can be one of the following types (Yadav1996):
(i) infinitival
(20) ham kitaab kin-a caah-ait ch-i.
ham book buy-INF want-IMP AUX-PRES.1
‘I want to buy a book.’
(ii) nominalized
(21) hin-kaa padh-ab /padh-naai nik lag-ait ch-ainh
3.h-ACC read-NOM read-NOM good feel-IMP AUX-PRES.3h.ACC
The identical subject in (20) involves equi-NP deletion. Also note that the case of the subject hin-kaa in the nominalized clause of (21) is demoted from nominative to accusative.
A finite complement clause functioning as subject may be extraposed. When extraposed, the complementizer se is replaced by je and expletive i ‘it’ is used as the subject of the matix clause:
(22) a. i nishcit ai-ch je raam ghar par ai-ch
it certain PRES.3.nh that Ram home at PRES.3.nh-AUX
‘It is certain that Ram is at home.’
b. i tathya ai-ch je sitaa ghar nahi pahuc-l-ih
it fact PRES.3.nh-AUX that Sita home not reach-PT-3.FEM
Non-finite complement clauses, however, take no complementizer nor do they involve extraposition.
2. Relativization
A relative clause in Maithili is formed by the use of a relativizer, which is the relative pronounje and its inflected forms. The following examples illustrate the restrictive and the non-restrictive relative clauses respectively:
(23) ham[ je kitaab mahag ch-aek se/u
1 REL book expensive be-PRES.3nh COREL that
nahi le-b
not take-FUT.1
‘I won’t buy the book which is expensive.’
((24) mukesh [je netaa ch-aeth] aai bhasan de-t-aah
Mukesh REL leader be-PRES.3h today speech give-FUT.3h.
‘Mukesh, who is a leader, will deliver a speech today.’
In a restrictive relative clause, the relativizer je(in its various forms) can occur with or without an accompanying common noun:when the latter is present the relativizer serves as a determiner.The NP of the relative clause is coreferential with the head NP of the main clause. The head NP consists of the correlative pronoun se(in its various forms), either with or without an accompanying common noun. Both the relativized and the head NP may be either present or suppressed-depending upon the relative word order of the head noun and the relative clause.The following examples illustrate the Syntactic Strategy used in the formation of the restrictive relative clauses in Maithili: sentences are relative subordinate clauses :
(25) [ je khet hariyar ai-ch] se o/u ham-ar ai-ch
REL field green be- PRES.3.nh COREL that 1-GEN be- PRES.3nh
‘The field that is green is mine.’
(26) u vidyaarthi [je o raait pada-l-ak] (se)o ekhan sut-al ai-ch
that student Rel night read-PT-3nh COREL now asleep PRES.3nh-AUX
‘ The student who read last night is now asleep.’
Basing our analysis on the relative position of the head NP vis-a-vis the relative clause, there are three types of restrictive relative clauses in Maithili; postnominal, prenominal and internal.
Postnominal: In a postnominal relative clause the head NP (consisting of a determiner and a common noun or a personal pronoun) occurs outside the relative clause and the relative clause follows the head NP. The typical word order is thus: determiner + head + relative clause. The examples which follow illustrate:
(27) u maaster [ je iskul me nahi ch-al ] se hat-aa
that teacher REL school in not be-PT.3nh COREL move-CAUS
de-l ge-l
give- PCL go- PT.3nh
‘The teacher who was not in the school was sacked.’
. (28) mithiles-ak bhaai [jin-kar tang rel me kaet
mithilesh-GENIT brother REL(H)-GENIT leg train in cut
ge-l-ainh ] (se) æ-l ch- aith
Go-PT-3h) COREL come-PERF AUX-PRES.3h
‘Mithilesh’s brother whose leg got cut in the train has come.’
Sentences in (27) and (28) are all postnominal relative clauses as the head u maastar(27), and mithiles-ak bhaai (28) occur outside the relative clauses and the relative clauses follow the head NPS. The relative clauses are marked by the relativizer je and its honorific and case – inflected forms. The common noun which might otherwise accompany the relativizer within the relativized NP has been deleted in all sentences .
Prenominal: In a prenominal relative clause the head NP occurs outside the relative clause and the relative clause precedes the head NP. The Typical word order thus is: relative clause + determiner+ head, as exemplified below:
(29) [je kaailh raait naac-əl ] se/ u natuaa
REL yesterday night dance-PT.3nh COREL DEM dancer
akhan sutal ai-ch
now asleep PRES.3nh-AUX
‘The dancer who danced last night is now asleep.’
(30) [ jak-raa ahaan nahi rakh-l-auh ]
REL-ACC/DAT you (H) not keep – PT-2h
tahi/ ohi nokar ke ham raaikh le-l-aunh
COREL DEMONS servant ACC/DAT 1 keep take-PT-1.
‘I have employed the servant whom you did not keep.’
Note that unlike postnominal relative clauses, pronominal relative clauses require that there head NP contain a correlative/demonstrative determiner.
Internal: In an internal relative clause (traditionally known as relative- correlative) the head NP occurs inside the relative clause .The main clause too may have the head NP repeated in it, in which case the head NP is preceded by the correlative- demonstrative-determiner; usually, however, the head NP is deleted and only a correlative-demonstrative-third person pronoun is used. The following examples are illustrative:
(31) [je sherpaa everest par pahine cadh - l ] se/ u tenzing ch-əl
REL sherpa Everest on first climb-PT-3nh REL he Tenjing be-PT.3nh
‘The sherpa who climbed Mt. Everest first was Tenjing.’
(32) [je natuaa raait naac-al ] ok-raa/
REL dancer night dance – PT.3nh 3nh-ACC/DAT
ohi natuaa ke mahendr paac rupaiyaa de-l-thinh.
DEMONS dancer ACC/DAT mahendra five rupees give- PT-3h
‘Mahendra gave five rupees to the dancer who danced last night.’
Although prenominal and internal relative clauses are treated above as two separate types of restrictive relative clauses, it may be possible to treat them as subtypes of what have traditionally been called the correlative clauses.
Converbal constructions
Most of the South Asian languages (including Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Dravidian and Austric languages) typically employ non-finite clauses instead of finite clauses to realize clause linkage (cf. Masica, 1976). One of such constructions is sequential converbal constructions (also known as 'conjunctive participle/participial clauses', 'absolutive' or'purvakaalik kriyaa 'prior tense verb').
The simultaneous or progressive converbal clause encode 'simultaneity', i.e. the activity overlapping with the activity encoded in the matrix clause. They are exemplified as follows:
(33) padh-aet u bhaat khae-l-ak.
read-CONV he rice eat-PT-3.nh
‘He ate rice while reading.’
The sequential converbal marker in Maithili is -ka/-ke, which follows the verb stem:
(34) snaan ka ka/ke o khaa-it ch-aith. (Jha, 1971:74)
bath having done he eat-Hab. Aux-Pr.3.hon.
'Having taken bath, he eats.'
The sequential converbal basically refers to 'anteriority' ( to use Givon's term), i.e. the event occurring immediately prior to the event encoded in the following verb, which may be another sequential converb or a finite verb in the matrix clause. It is exemplified as follows:
(35) khaanaa khaa-ka/ke sab aadami suit rah-al.
meal eat-CONV all people sleep remain-PT.3nh
‘ Having eaten meal, everyone went to sleep.’
Thus, the sentence in (35) contains a sequence of events: 'Everyone ate meal and then went to sleep.'
It is, however, to be noted that Maithili, as several other South Asian languages, have non-specialized sequential converbs, which are open to a range of meanings including cause (as shown in (36)) and manner (as shown in (37)), apart from its core meaning, viz. anteriority or temporal priority ( as shown in ()).
(36) okar saphaltaa-k khabar suin-ka ham his success -POSS news hear-CONV I
bahut khush bhe-l-aunh
much happy become-PT-1
'I was very happy to hear of his success.'
A sequential converbal clause is normally joined to the left of the matrix clause in Maithili, as shown in (37). They can be also postposed in marked constructions as a discourse strategy to express afterthought or focus:
(37) ham bahut khush bhe-l-aunh okar saphaltaa-k khabar suin-ka
The tense and the mood of the matrix verb have broad scope which extends to the sequential verb. In sequential converbal constructions both negation and question have narrow scope; i.e. their scope remain restricted to the matrix clause and do not extend to sequential converbal constructions (See Yadava for details).
The subject of a sequential converb in Maithili can be either a null NP, viz. PRO or a lexically overt NP. These two options for Maithili have been illustrated in (38a) and (38b), respectively.
(38) a. [ PROi ghar aaib -ka/ke] raami sut-al.
home come-CONV Ram sleep-PT3.nh
‘Having come home Ram slept.’
b.[tor-aa kaail nahi aaib-ka/ke] kuc kaam nahi ho-yat. 2nh-DAT tomorrow not come_CONV some work not happen-FUT
Mention must, however, be made of certain lexically specified expressions such as time/weather expressions where subject identity constraint is violated:
(39) ghar khais ke das aadmi mair gel.
house fall CONV ten persons died
'The house having collapsed, ten persons died.'
It is, however, to be noted that lexical subjects occur only in such converbal clauses which express cause and effect relation, temporal clauses and the clauses with opposite verbs. They are banned from sequential converbal clauses.
Other adverbial constructions
Besides converbs, Maithili uses some other adverbial constructions including time, place,
Time
Time constructions are formed by correlatives such as jakhan –takhan, jahiyaa –tahiyaa, etc., e.g.
(40) jakhan ham ghar pug-l-aunh takhan sab sut-al ch-al
when 1 home reach-PT-1 then all sleep-PTCP AUX-PT.3.nh
‘When I reached home all had slept.’
Place
Place constructions take the coorelative jata-tata:
(41) jata ahaan ch-i tata ham ae-b.
where you be-PRES.1 there 1 come-FUT.1
‘I’ll come where your are.’
Conditional clauses
Conditional clauses are generally formed by the correlative jaun/jadi – ta:
(42) jaun/yadi ahaan kaaj kar-ab ta saphal hae-b.
If 2h work do-FUT.2h then success be-FUT.2h
‘If you work then you’ll succeed.’
2.7 Sentence modifications
The two major types of sentence modifications are interrogative and negative.
2.7.1 Interrogatives
Maithili interrogatives do not involve change in word order. They are mainly polar and constituent interrogatives. Polar interrogatives or ‘yes-no questions’ are expressed optionally by ki attached to the end of a declarative sentence:
(43) hari ghar bech-at (ki)?
Hari house sell-FUT.3.nh Q
‘Will Hari sell the house?
They also involve rising intonation at the end.
In constituent interrogatives the questioned constituents are replaced by interrogative words in situ; i.e. the interrogative words remain in their original position:
(44) hari ki bech-at ?
Hari what sell-FUT.3.nh
‘What will Hari sell?
2.7.2 Negation
Negative sentences are formed by adding the negative particle nahi preverbally:
(45) ham raam-ke kitaab nahi de-l-aunh
I Ram-ACC book not give-PT-1
‘I did not give the book to Ram.’
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[1] A version of this article will appear in Languages of the World in Russian medium.