Bhojpuri to Maithili: related words can conceal different honorific agreement
Close relatives still require a fresh agreement choice
Bhojpuri and Maithili share Eastern Indo-Aryan ancestry, but a Bhojpuri sentence is not converted into Maithili by replacing a few familiar-looking words. Lohar’s Bara-Parsa Bhojpuri grammar describes three honorific degrees, while published Maithili studies distinguish different sets of address forms according to the variety and analysis. Similar social meanings can be organized through different pronouns and endings.
The GLOW study by Kumari and Chandra distinguishes Maithili second-person honorific əhɑ̃ from high-honorific əpne, and additionally discusses a specialized honorific-distant form. These categories belong to the variety documented by the researchers. They should not be imposed as a universal ranking onto every Bhojpuri listener reference or every Maithili speaker’s usage. The source relationship must be preserved through the intended target variety.
The pronoun may hide a distinction that the verb reveals
Ray’s study of Maithili nominal morphology notes that some address distinctions become clear in verbal inflection even when the pronoun does not differentiate them. The more recent GLOW paper likewise presents the same second-person tõ with different endings for non-honorific and mid-honorific interpretations. Copying a Bhojpuri pronoun’s apparent counterpart therefore cannot guarantee the right degree of respect.
This is particularly consequential in Bhojpuri requests whose listener has already been identified and is not named again. A Maithili ending can continue to identify that social relationship after the pronoun has become repetitive or contextually recoverable. Treating only the first visible address word as polite can leave later predicates inconsistent with the intended Maithili treatment.
A possessor can affect the Maithili predicate
Kumari and Chandra document constructions where a Maithili possessor triggers verbal agreement, especially second-person and honorific third-person possessors. Their example hun-kər beta sut-əl chh-əl-əinh means his son had slept, with agreement involving the respected possessor as well as the son. A Bhojpuri possessive phrase cannot be translated safely by attending only to the person performing the sleeping.
The researchers also distinguish possessive phrases in subject and object positions. This is not a general instruction to make every target verb agree with every owner. Rather, it explains why a Bhojpuri sentence about someone’s child or belongings may need a Maithili predicate whose ending reflects a relationship beyond the obvious subject noun. Identify both owner and possessed participant before deciding that an apparently extra honorific ending is redundant.
Plurality and gender require Maithili evidence, not familiarity
Ray records plural expressions using sab and lokain in Maithili pronoun paradigms. Lohar describes Bhojpuri plurality through its own forms, including clause-final particles in the variety studied. A familiar plural-looking element should therefore be checked for the construction in which it belongs, rather than moved unchanged from the Bhojpuri sentence into the target clause.
Ray also describes Maithili pronouns as marked for honorificity, number and case rather than gender. Bhojpuri’s masculine-feminine agreement in Lohar’s variety cannot consequently be represented by inventing a gendered Maithili personal pronoun. The source gender may still identify who is meant, but target pronoun selection and agreement must follow Maithili grammar. The languages’ closeness makes these small differences easier to overlook, not less meaningful.
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