An Introduction to the Maithili Dialect of the Bihari Language as Spoken in Nort  (Paperback, George A. Grierson)

About The Book: In submitting the following somewhat full grammar of the Maithili dialect to the Asiatic Society of Bengal Wish to explain the sources of my information. They may be divided into two classes; First forma obtained by translating into Maithili. Second forms obtained by translating from Maithili. The first I obtained as follows: I printed paradigms of all the forms in Hindi and Sanskrit Grammar and circulated them as widely as possible amongst the Pandits, village school masters, and educated native gentlemen of Northern Mithila, with directions to give the exact translation of each of these forms in their own native language. I was enabled, in this way, to collect some fifty most useful books of forms, supplied by representatives of all classes of society, from the village guru, who knew little more than the herd-boys he taught, to the most learned Pandits of Mithila. I am glad to say that the utmost interest was taken in my design, for the people are proud of their language and were pleased at the idea of its being made a polite one by obtaining the honour of print. These books of paradigms formed the basis of this grammar. They were compared with each other; and where one was found wanting, another supplied the deficiency. At the same time, it must not be imagined that they showed many mutual discrepancies: on the contrary, considering the many varied sources from which they were derived, their unanimity was wonderful and justifies me in hoping that what I here publish will be found accurate. About The Author: Sir George A. Grierson OM KCIE FBA (7 January 1851 – 9 March 1941) was an Irish administrator and linguist in British India. He worked in the Indian Civil Service but an interest in philology and linguistics led him to pursue studies in the languages and folklore of India during his postings in Bengal and Bihar. He published numerous studies in the journals of learned societies and wrote several books during his administrative career but proposed a formal linguistic survey at the Oriental Congress in 1886 at Vienna. The Congress recommended the idea to the British Government and he was appointed superintendent of the newly created Linguistic Survey of India in 1898. He continued the work until 1928, surveying people across the British Indian territory, documenting spoken languages, recording voices, written forms and was responsible in documenting information on 179 languages, defined by him through a test of mutual unintelligibility, and 544 dialects which he placed in five language families. Grierson was born in Glenageary, County Dublin. His father and grandfather (George Grierson) were well-known Dublin printers and publishers. His mother Isabella was the daughter of Henry Ruxton of Ardee. He was educated at St. Bees School, and from the age of 13 at Shrewsbury. He then went up to Trinity College, Dublin, where he was a student of mathematics. Grierson qualified for the Indian Civil Service in 1871 ranking twenty-eighth for the year. He continued studies at Trinity College for two probationary years where he was influenced by Robert Atkinson, professor of oriental languages. He took a deep interest in languages, won prizes for studies in Sanskrit and Hindustani before leaving for the Bengal Presidency in 1873.