Maithili

The verb agreement system. Maithili is one of very few Indo-Aryan languages where verbs can agree simultaneously with two arguments — typically the subject and the object — and mark social-honorific level for each. Speaking to a venerable elder about a child requires different verb endings from speaking to a child about a venerable elder. The system encodes complex social relationships directly in the verb.

Across northern Bihar and southeastern Nepal in the historical Mithila region. Major Indian centres include Darbhanga, Madhubani, and Sitamarhi; Nepali ones include Janakpur, Birgunj, and the eastern Terai. Diaspora populations exist in Mauritius, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom. The total speaker count straddles the India-Nepal border with about 22 million on the Indian side.

Two: Mithilakshara (also called Tirhuta), the traditional Maithili script, an abugida descended from Brahmi closely related to the Bengali-Assamese script — and Devanagari, which is the dominant modern script for Maithili publishing in both India and Nepal. A revival movement encourages Mithilakshara use, but Devanagari has the practical advantage of being widely supported in education and digital systems.

All three are Bihari languages of the Eastern Indo-Aryan branch and historically grouped together, but they're distinct languages with different verb conjugations, vocabulary, and literary traditions. Maithili is recognized as a separate scheduled language in India; Bhojpuri and Magahi don't yet have that status. The three are not fully mutually intelligible, though they share grammatical structure.

In India, Maithili was added to the eighth schedule of the Constitution in 2003, giving it formal recognition as one of the country's scheduled languages. In Nepal, Maithili is recognized as a national language under the 2015 constitution. It's used in some local-level government, education, and media, especially in the Mithila region.