What we check
Maithili translation depends on audience, script, and review fit.
Maithili is an Indo-Aryan language of the Bihari branch, spoken by 34 million people across India's Mithila region (northern Bihar) and Nepal's Terai lowlands. It holds the distinction of being both an Indian scheduled language (recognized in the Eighth Schedule since 2003) and Nepal's second most spoken mother tongue. Maithili's literary heritage predates modern Hindi by centuries — the poet Vidyapati's 14th-century compositions remain foundational texts in South Asian literature. The language preserves a complex honorific system with multiple politeness tiers encoded in verbs, pronouns, and vocabulary, exceeding Hindi's simpler two-level model. The historical Tirhuta script, once used for Maithili manuscripts, has been almost entirely replaced by Devanagari in contemporary use, though cultural preservation efforts continue. Google Translate added limited Maithili support only recently, and outputs frequently default to Hindi grammatical patterns.
We confirm the language variety, subject matter, review approach and timing for Maithili during project scoping. We check the proposed linguists for the variety and domain the work needs.
- Maithili is spoken by approximately 34 million people across Bihar (India) and the Terai region of Nepal, making it one of India's 22 scheduled languages and the second most spoken mother tongue in Nepal
- The historical Tirhuta (Mithilakshar) script, once used for Maithili literature, is now nearly extinct and has been replaced by Devanagari in all practical contexts
- Maithili has an elaborate honorific system with multiple levels of politeness encoded in verb conjugations, pronouns, and vocabulary — more complex than Hindi's two-level system