Wikimedia Meta-Wiki

Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Maithili

< Requests for new languages
​
submitted verification final decision

This proposal has been approved.
The Board of Trustees and language committee have deemed that there is sufficient grounds and community to create the new language project.

A committee member provided the following comment:

The project was approved. Settings are still needed before a bug can be filed. --MF-W 08:49, 15 October 2014 (UTC) bugzilla:72346. --MF-W 08:51, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • The community needs to develop an active test project; it must remain active until approval (automated statistics, recent changes). It is generally considered active if the analysis lists at least three active, not-grayed-out editors listed in the sections for the previous few months.
  • The community needs to complete required MediaWiki interface translations in that language (about localization, translatewiki, check completion).
  • The community needs to discuss and complete the settings table below:
What Value Example / Explanation
Proposal
Language code mai (SIL, Glottolog) A valid ISO 639-1 or 639-3 language code, like "fr", "de", "nso", ...
Language name Maithili Language name in English
Language name मैथिली Language name in your language. This will appear in the language list on Special:Preferences, in the interwiki sidebar on other wikis, ...
Language Wikidata item Item about the language at Wikidata. It would normally include the Wikimedia language code, name of the language, etc. Please complete at Wikidata if needed.
Directionality no indication Is the language written from left to right (LTR) or from right to left (RTL)?
Links Links to previous requests, or references to external websites or documents.
Site URL mai.wikipedia.org langcode.wikiproject.org

Settings
Project name विकिपिडिया "Wikipedia" in your language
Project namespace विकिपिडिया usually the same as the project name
Project talk namespace विकिपिडिया_वार्ता "Wikipedia talk" (the discussion namespace of the project namespace)
Enable uploads no Default is "no". Preferably, files should be uploaded to Commons.
If you want, you can enable local file uploading, either by any user ("yes") or by administrators only ("admin").
Notes: (1) This setting can be changed afterwards. The setting can only be "yes" or "admin" at approval if the test creates an Exemption Doctrine Policy (EDP) first. (2) Files on Commons can be used on all Wikis. (3) Uploading fair-use images is not allowed on Commons (more info). (4) Localisation to your language may be insufficient on Commons.
Optional settings
Project logo file:Wikipedia-logo-V2-Mai.png This needs to be an SVG image (instructions for logo creation).
Default project timezone Asia/Nepal "Continent/City", e.g. "Europe/Brussels" or "America/Mexico City" (see list of valid timezones)
Additional namespaces For example, a Wikisource would need "Page", "Page talk", "Index", "Index talk", "Author", "Author talk".
Additional settings Anything else that should be set
Once settings are finalized, a committee member will submit a Phabricator task requesting creation of the wiki. (This will include everything automatically, except the additional namespaces/settings.) After the task is created, it should be linked to in a comment under "final decision" above.

Arguments in favour

  • Support: I support this language becouse it is a great language spoken in bihar, nepal and many other places, also Tharu language is a branch of maithili. Tharu is spoken in terai of nepal and nepal-bihar border area of bihar.

--Nepaboy 15:51, 14 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

  • Support

  1. Extensive information on the language is stored in the edit history. —{admin} Pathoschild 21:31:28, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
  2. Maithili Wikipedia, must have a good number of contributors. I will contribute, I can provide reliable sources from which articles relevant to Maithili Wiki can be created. I am finding some of the people in Nepal and India. We dont need many people at the beginning and once the wikipedia grows, community forms by itself.We have 5 dedicated people for Maithili edition and will soon get more people.

Extensive information on the language is stored in the edit history. —{admin} Pathoschild 21:31:28, 26 January 2008 (UTC) Maithili wiki should be started immediately we will contribute to it.fortnightly 100 page maithili e journal being published. http://www.esnips.com/web/videhajournal regular site http://www.videha.co.in —unsigned by Ggajendra 15:37, 26 January 2008 (UTC) I am finding problem in constructing http://translatewiki.net/wiki/MediaWiki:Mainpage/mai as what i constructed was deleted perhaps by any administrator.Which messages/recent messages iwill have to translate on the above link.what is meant by the parser etc message.Gajendra Thakur

  1. This is one of the major languages of Nepal and India. There is a very broad range of people who speak this language. This language has a long literary history. I have been working to collect people to contribute to this edition and many are willing. So, this will most probably not be one of the fruitless wikipedias. I wanted to post this request a long time ago but as my command over Maithili is something like mai-2 or mai-3 and as I am sysop-ing 7 wikipedias, I did not put up a request. However, seeing that there are other interested people over here, I think that its about time we had a wikipedia for this rich langauge.--Eukesh 17:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  1. The Tirhuta script is still alive and we will loose it we dont promote it. A language which has been ruined politically needs revival. And young Maithils are interested doing so. A language which has its own grammer and script, there is no reason to debar it from promoting itself.

Arguments against

It is a great language.The manuscripts found in nepal raj library are in mithilakshara script and some mistook it for assamese or bengali script,but now a days it is written in devanagari script. so there may be problem in writing mithilakshara(also known as tirhuta script) although a unicode proposal has been sent for this1.http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pandey/maithiliroadmap.pdf. Ascii tirhuta ttf is used by ist online e journal available at http://www.esnips.com/web/videha and a site http://www.videha.co.in Ist online Maithili e journal.But there will be no problem if it is written in devanagari.In exams of Union Public Service Commission of India the Maithili is written in Devanagari Script. —unsigned by Ggajendra 07:26, 27 January 2008.

General discussion

I understand that you are going to create a project in the Devangari script. There are two requirements to fulfill; you have to start the localisation of MediaWiki on BetaWiki and at least finish the most used messages and start a project in the Incubator for the Maithili language. Thanks, GerardM 11:03, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Can you provide me with information that helps clearly distinguish the differences between the Bengali and the Maithili SCRIPT. I was asked this question by Anshuman Pandey who has a pending request for the inclusion of Maithili in Unicode. Thanks, GerardM 22:23, 27 January 2008 (UTC) YES.The main charecteristics that distinguish between the Bengali and Maithili script are as follows: There is tendency towards triangular in Bengali script however in Maithili script the tendency is towards going round in vyanjana varnas.The median is Devanagari.:e.g.gha,cha,chh,tha,dha,na. There is tendency towards triangular in Maithili script however in Bengali script the tendency is towards going round in Swara varnasa,e.g.,a,aa,o,au. There is tendency towards union on edges in Bengali script, but in Mithilakshara the union happens in middle,e.g.na,Na. The fifth alphabet of ka,cha,ta,ta vargas show total difference. The fourth alphabets of ka,cha vargas show total difference. The ra of Bengali script is va of Maithili script and vice versa. The la,Na,na,sha,,ha,ksha,,Ng,chh,jha,Ta,Tha,Da,Dha are also different. 21 out of 47 (around 45%)characters of Maithili script are totally different from those of Bengali script(G.Jha,1974) The sign of avagraha(akin to roman s in look only),ankush of ganeshji( written in 4-5 ways but that used by sh.Ansuman Pandey is the most used and standardized),Aum sign and Gwang(two smaall circle connected by u and a dot placed over it,used in reference of vedic texts)and guru sign in chhanda,the same sign in sense of anudatta swara also( a small horizontal dash over the alphabet),a deergh-udatta- pronunciation(a smaal vertical dash over the alphabet used in combination of aan alphabet and shift 3 in Baraha IME),and a laghu(a small U over the alphabet) are the others that are used in context of Maithili script more frequently than in Bengali script. Two small vertical dash over the alphabet-swarit swar-repeat pronunciation of last swaras in loud voice,a small horizontal dash below the alphabet is used for komal swaras and Jihwamooliya( circle cut from half and half-rotated in opposite directions)are the others that are used in context of Maithili script more frequently than in Bengali script. Thanks gajendra thakur —unsigned by Ggajendra 08:43, 29 January 2008.

Essay

Maithili is an Indic language belonging to the group of the modern Prakrit nactilars. It is spoken both in Nepal and India. In this book an attempt la mule to present an account of some aspects of the phonetics and phonology of a variety of the `standard' dialect of this language, of which the author is a native speaker. Before we embark upon the description of the various aspects of the phonetics and phonology of this language, we roust first present in this introductory chapter some background notes ()It such issues as: (1) its speakers and linguistic boundaries; (2) its genetic chrssificalion and place among modern Indo-Aryan languages; (3) lin¬ prlisylic and phonetic studies done on it both in India and Nepal; and (4) the euwrgcncc of a standard in Maithili and its present-day situation.

1.1 Maithili: Its Speakers and Linguistic Boundaries Maithili is spoken mainly in the eastern and northern regions of the state of llihar in India and in the Tarai districts of Nepal. According to some estimates (e.g. Davis, 1973: 316; R. Yadav, 1984: 1), this language is spoken by a total of more than 21 million people in India and Nepal. Map I shows the main languages of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent and the tognipliical boundaries of their native speakers. In the map an arrow used to show the Maithili-speaking area. The exact dimensions of the rtrea have been fluctuating from age to age (e.g. see Mishra, 1976: 1-5, (irr' wore details); it has nevertheless managed to keep itself always dis¬lillp'ui,tihed in common parlance as a distinct "country with its own tra¬dilions, its own poets, and its own pride in everything belonging to itself' (t iriersou, 1881: 2). Today this area is known as Tirhut or Mithila. But in the earliest known period of history it was called Videha and it in¬eluded several kingdoms in it-- --Milhila and Vaishali being the most nlpollant ones (see for more details, Sharwa, 1979: 5 72).It was about a century ago Ihat ( iricrsorn ( 1883a: 16) took pains to dcl-ine and (lei aIrcate in exact terms the Iiuguistic boundaries of Maithili¬s;lu•aknlp, areas:

Maithili was originally the language of the ancient Mithila, the kingdom of Janaka, the father of Sita, which was bounded on the west by the, river Gandak, on the north by the Himftlaya mountains, un the east by the Kosi, and on the south by the Ganges. It has, however, in later times been encroached upon by Bhojpuri on the west, and in revenge has itself crossed the Ganges and occupiedNorth Patna and so much of the Munger and Bhagalpur districts as lie to the south of that river. It has also crossed the Kosi and occupied Purnea.

Map 2 given earlier is based on the above geographical boundary of the Maithili-speaking community and it demarcates an area of about 30,000 square miles. According to Mishra's (1976: 2) estimates, out of this total area of 30,000 square miles "roughly 10,000 square miles lie in the kingdom of Nepal (Tarai) and 20,000 square miles in India". Map 2 thus includes roughly the districts of Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Vaishali, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Samastipur, Saharsa, Supaul, North Munger, North Bhagalpur and parts of Champaran and Pumea in the Indian Republic, and those of Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari, Dhanusha, Siraha, Saptari and Morang in the kingdom of Nepal. These geographical boundaries include all those principal areas where the main concentration of the Maithili¬speaking population lies these days.

1.2 Maithili: Its Genetic Classification and Its Place Among Modern Indo-Aryan Languages During the last one hundred years or so, various linguists have attempted to classify the Indo-Aryan languages (e.g. Grierson, 1883a and 1918; Chatterji, 1926/1970; S. Jha, 1958; G. Jha, 1974; Jeffers, 1976; Mishra, 1976). But in their classification these linguists do not always agree with one another. In some cases there still prevails a good deal of controversy, and on some points the opinions of these linguists are still divided.

To begin with, one of the earliest classifications of the modem Indo¬Aryan languages is that of Grierson (1883a)-as shown in Figure 1.1¬where he categorises Maithili as one of the three dialects of what he used to call the `Bihari' language. In his later publications, Grierson (e.g. 1918, 1919 and 1927/reprint 1967) provided a somewhat different group¬ing of the Indo-Aryan languages. Figure 1.2 shows Grierson's three main divisions-i.e. (1) Outer Sub-branch, (2) Mediate Sub-branch, and (3) Inner Sub-branch-that he later made of the Indo-Aryan languages (see Grierson, 1918 and 1927/reprint 1967, for more details). But even here he still grouped Maithili as a dialect of the so-called `Bihari' lan¬guage.

Ever since Grierson's major publications on the so- called `Bihari' language, it has been customary-especially among western linguists-to refer to Maithili as a dialect of the `Bihari' language. This name (i.e. `Bihari') of an imaginary language seems to have been given by Grierson perhaps on his assumption that the existence of the state of Bihar in India justifies the existence of a Bihari' language-in the same way perhapsas Guja at has Gujarati, Punjab has 1'1-mjabi, Bengal has Bengali, or, for that matter, Nepal has Nepali. But in classifying the languages of Bihar, it was rather unfortunate that Grierson committed an error of over¬generalisation. For, there never was in the past nor is there at present any `Bihari' language spoken either in Bihar or in Nepal. Most later writers on Maithili (e.g. S. Jha, 1958; Mishra, 1969 and 1976; G. Jha, 1974; R. Yadav, 1979a and 1981) have therefore justifiably resented the use of the term `Bihari' language. Mishra (1969: 270) discusses and defends the case of Maithili in his scholarly article and sums up the general feelings of modern Maithili writers in the following forceful terms: There never was in the past nor exists- to-day a language called Bihari. There is no mention of it in any literature, any document or any record. There is not a single individual who speaks or writes in the Bihari language as defined by Grierson. It has no script, no literature, no actual existence. It is purely a creation of Grierson's mind and lives in the philological works of the scholars who thought¬lessly copy Grierson's classification.

It was very unfortunate that about a century ago even various reputed scholars sadly misunderstood the case of Maithili and grouped this lan¬guage in all sorts of way. For example, Kellogg (1876/1893) and Hoernle (1880) regarded it as a dialect of Eastern Hindi; Beames (1872/reprint 1966: 84-85), on the other hand, thought of it as a dialect of Bengali; and, as stated earlier, Grierson (e.g. 1881, 1883a, 1885 and 1903/reprint 1968) grouped it as one of the three dialects of what he called the `Bihari' language-the remaining two dialects of `Bihari' being Bhojpuri and Magahi.

The criteria which are generally used, especially in historical linguis¬tics, for the establishment of language `sameness' or language `split' are mainly two: (1) the notion of shared innovation, and (2) the criterion of phonological restructuring. A brief mention of the linguistic principles involved in these two criteria must be made here in order to clarify the situation concerning the position of Maithili among the modern

Approved

The Language Committee and Board have approved this project now since its test-project on Incubator fulfilled the activity requirements, localization requirements and the content was verified by a linguist. However, before I can file the bug to request the creation of the wiki, the settings need to be known ("Wikipedia" in Maithili for the sitename and project namespace, logo, time zone, etc. Please fill it in the table at the top of the page and discuss below if necessary. --MF-W 08:49, 15 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! Thanks a lot for approving the Maithili Wikipedia. We are preparing the Wikipedia logo with Maithili text. Hopefully it will be uploaded by tomorrow (16 October). Other details will be provided ASAP.--Ganesh Paudel (talk) 10:48, 15 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Warburg for approving the most awaited project ...  Biplab Anand (Talk to me) 02:16, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@MF-Warburg:: Hi, The needful settings are filled above and logo uploaded by the community members. Thanks  Biplab Anand (Talk to me) 11:00, 20 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
We still need the name of the "Project talk" namespace (=Wikipedia talk). --MF-W 13:41, 21 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@MF-Warburg:: Project talk namespace is provided. Biplab Anand (Talk to me) 05:25, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Logo is uploaded sucessfully. I want to thanks each and everyone who contributed in the project and also want to thank the Language committee and board for approving the project.
  1. Mr. Biplab Anand
  2. Mr. Janak Bhatta
  3. Mr. Saroj Dhakal
  4. Mr. Ganesh Poudel
  5. Mr. Ram Prasad Joshi
  6. Mr. Ramesh Singh Bohora
  7. Mr. Naman Bhagat
  8. Mr. Satish Kumar Dutta
  9. Mr. Nirmal Dulal
  10. Mr. Krish Dulal
  11. Mr. Tulsi Bhagat
  12. Mr. Satyam Mishra
  13. Mr. Muzammil
  14. Mr. Umeshberma

Bijay chaurasia (talk) 15:36, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi all, the logo of Maithili Wikipedia needs text on it. We need your suggestions on it. Shall it contain text in Mithilakshar (Tirahuta) or Devanagari? Please write your opinion below. --Ganesh Paudel (talk) 05:02, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

  1. I support Mithilakshar (Tirahuta) --Ganesh Paudel (talk) 05:02, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  2. I support Mithilakshar (Tirahuta)-- Bijay chaurasia (talk) 07:14, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  3. I support Mithilakshar (Tirahuta) --(जनक राज भट्ट (talk) 09:52, 16 October 2014 (UTC))[reply]
  4. Thanks @Bijay chaurasia:. The Logo text are in Mithilakshar/Tirhuta script.  Biplab Anand (Talk to me) 01:48, 17 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Thanks @Bijay chaurasia:. I support that the Logo text are in Mithilakshar/Tirhuta script. Tulsi Bhagat (talk) 05:44, 17 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Mithilakshar (Tirahuta) or Devanagari?

To Maithili community, why you are using Devanagari? whether you have a separate script called Mithilakshar (Tirahuta). If you will not implement in wikipedia, you script will be die in future. There are unique block published by Unicode consortium http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U11480.pdf. Thanks. Jayantanth (talk) 05:07, 19 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Logo for Approval

 

Maithili Wikipedia Logo in Mithilakshar/Tirhuta script.

  1. Support  Biplab Anand (Talk to me) 08:07, 20 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Support Bijay chaurasia (talk) 17:05, 20 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Support --जनक राज भट्ट (talk) 07:32, 21 October 2014 (UTC))[reply]

Note: I protected this file from re-uploading/moving as bug is now filed. If anyone wants to overwrite the logo, contact me on Commons. — revimsg 08:56, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Maithili&oldid=26027083"