Forms of Greeting and Taking Leave in English and Maithili

Abstract

The research work entitled "Forms of Greeting and Taking Leave in English and Maithili" is an endeavor of the researcher to list out and compare those forms in both languages. There were 60 native speakers of Maithili for Maithili data. They were selected by using simple random sampling procedure. The researcher used questionnaire as a tool to collect the data. For English data, he consulted secondary sources such as previous theses and different books. The findings of the study show that 'hello' and good morning/ evening/ afternoon' are the common terms of greeting and ' good bye' is the common term of taking leave, specially for the superiors and 'hi' and 'gidday' are the other terms of greeting and 'love you', 'see you' and 'cheerio' are the terms of taking leave in English, especially for juniors. In Maithili, pranām and namaste are the terms of greeting for seniors, and ki achi +first name is for junior. In case of taking leave, pranām, bidā deljāū and ham calaici are for seniors, and leta jāiciau and leta + first name + ham jāiciau are for juniors. Comparatively, the English language is richer in its terms of greeting and taking leave. There are a number of terms which are used for greeting and taking leave according to the situations or contexts. These terms have their own significance in the situations in which they are used. The study includes four chapters. The first chapter provides information about general background, language function, the English language and its significance in Nepal, linguistic scenario in Nepal, introduction to the Maithili language, objectives of the study, significance of the study and review of the related literature. The second chapter deals with methodology which consists of source of data, sample population and sampling procedure, tool for data collection, process of data collection and limitation of the study. The third chapter deals with analysis, interpretation and presentation of data. The data has been analysed and interpreted descriptively and comparatively. Findings and recommendations have been mentioned in chapter four.