Maithili
Maithili (autonym: मैथिली maithilī) is of the family of Indo-aryan langauges, which are part of the Indo-Iranian branch of the indo-european languages. It is spoken in the Indian state of Bihar and in the eastern Terai region of Nepal. Linguists consider Maithili to be an Eastern Indic language, and thus a different language from Hindi, which is Central Indic. Maithili has been considered a dialect of both Hindi and Bengali, and in fact was classified as a mother tongue of Hindi in the Census of India. In 2003 Maithili gained the status of an independent language in India. A movement to give the language official status through inclusion in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution so that it may be used in education, government, and other official contexts, resulted in Maithili being given official status in 2003. Now Maithili is among the 22 scheduled languages in the Indian constitution.