§§ 101-103.] 



1 



THE TERB. 



51 



feminine forms, and in intransitive verbs two masculine and two feminine 

 forms (each with its varieties), for each person, and it now remains to consider 

 these personal forms. 



§ 101. I shall first deal with the four personal forms of the transitive 

 verb. These four forms exhibit to a wonderful degree the luxuriance of the 

 language. They depend not only on the subject, but on the object of the 

 verb. We are accustomed, in languages like Bangali, to meet with so called 

 Respectful and Disrespectful forms of the verb, which are used according to 

 the social position in the kingdom of ideas of the subject of the verb, 

 but in Maithili this distinction of rank is carried to a much greater length, 

 for the form of the word is not only governed by the social position of the 

 subject, but by that of the object. We thus have foiir forms of each person — 



1. When the subject and object are both superior. 



2. When the subject is superior, and the object inferior. 



3. When the subject and object are both inferior. 



4. When the subject is inferior, and the object superior. 

 Examples in order would be, — 



1. He (a king) sees him (a king). 



2. He (a king) sees him (a slave). 



3. He (a slavej sees him (a, king). 



4. He (a slave) sees him (a slave). 



In each of these sentences the word " sees '" would be rendered by a 

 different form of the verb. 



§ 102. These different forms I have called as follows : — 



1. Double Honorific. 



2. Honorific-non-Honorific. 



3. Double non-Honorific* 



4. Non-Honorific-Honorific. 



The first is that form in which the subject and the object are both superior. 

 The second is that in which the subject is superior and the object inferior. 

 The third, that in which subject and object ai'e both inferior ; and the fourth 

 that in which the subject is inferior, and the object superior. 



§ 103. The intransitive verb has no object, and hence its form cannot be 

 determined by the object. It has hence for each gender and person only 

 two forms, depending only on the subject. — It prefers (but by no means 

 universally) forms corresponding to the Honorific-non-honorific and Double 

 non-honorific of the transitive verb. That is to say it prefers the forms 

 which, in a transitive verb, show the object to be inferior. The Honorific form 



* This is the general rule. Practically, however, we often find the l8l aud ;{i J forms used, 

 when no special respect is attributed to the object. 



