Maithili (मैथिली)

Maithili is a Bihari language with about 35 million speakers in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, and in the Terai region of Nepal. It is a member of the East Indic group of Indo-Aryan, has official status in India, and is used in education, government and literature.

Maithili was formerly written with the Maithili script, which is also known as Mithilākṣar or Tirăhutā, and developed from the Brahmi script during the 1st century AD. It has also been written with the Kaithi script, but these days is normally written with the Devanagari script.

Maithili alphabet (Mithilākṣar / Tirăhutā)

Maithili alphabet (Mithilākṣar / Tirăhutā)

Maithili alphabet (Devanagari)

Maithili alphabet (Devanagari)

Sample text in Maithili

सभ मानव जन्मतः स्वतन्त्र अछि तथा गरिमा आ' अधिकारमे समान अछि। सभकेँ अपन–अपन बुद्धि आ' विवेक छैक आओर सभकेँ एक दोसराक प्रति सौहार्दपूर्ण व्यवहार करबाक चाही।

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Links

Information about Maithili
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maithili_language
http://languages.iloveindia.com/maithili.html
http://www.mithilaonline.com/maithili.html

Indo-Aryan languages

Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Chakma, Dhivehi, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri, Konkani, Kotia, Kutchi, Maithili, Marathi, Modi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Romany, Saraiki, Sindhi, Sinhala, Sourashtra, Sugali, Sylheti, Urdu

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