| Thēthi | |
|---|---|
| ठेठी मैथिली • Thethi Maithili | |
 The name of Thēthi written in Tirhuta | |
| Native to | India, Nepal |
| Region | Mithila |
| Ethnicity | Maithils |
Native speakers | 1,65,420 |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | tati1242 Tati (Maithili) |
Thēthi, also known as Thēth, Thethiya, Thenthi, or Thati, is a Maithili dialect, mainly spoken in the Mithila region of India and Nepal.[1][2] It is spoken mainly in Kosi, Purnia and Munger divisions of Bihar, India and in Koshi Province of Nepal.[3] It has 165,000 speakers in India according to the 2011 census.[4]
In the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages—Bangla, Maithili, Assamese, and Oriya—The vowel অ underwent a historical shift to [ɔ] (a rounded “aw/o” sound, like in English off). Linguists explain this as the Eastern Indo-Aryan vowel shift, likely caused by substrate influence from pre-Indo-Aryan languages in Bengal and Mithila that lacked [ə], along with the natural tendency for [ə] to drift into a clearer [ɔ] in rapid speech. As a result, speakers of Bangla and Thēthi Maithili pronounce অ as “O” like, while Hindi and related languages kept it as “A/uh.[5]
Name (Spelling) Maithili Pronunciation
Amit → pronounced Omit [ɔmit]
Ajay → pronounced Ojoy [ɔdʒɔj]
Amar → pronounced Omar [ɔmər]
Jay → pronounced Joy [dʒɔj]
References
[edit]- ^ www.ldcil.org http://web.archive.org/web/20230821143616/https://www.ldcil.org/download/LDCIL_Release_Documentation.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 August 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Maithili at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Ray, Kaushal Kishor (November 2009). "Reduplication in Thethi dialect of Maithili language". Nepalese Linguistics. 24: 285–290.
- ^ "Language census of India 2011" (PDF).
- ^ "Maithili Variations". lisindia.ciil.org. Central Institute of Indian Languages.
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