Marathi language

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by the Marathi people of Maharashtra, a state in the western region of India. It is the official language of Maharashtra and co-official language in the union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

History

The history of Marathi is several millennia old. The earliest evidence of Marathi dates back to about 2000 years ago. The language evolved from Prakrit, Sanskrit and Maharashtri. Marathi has the third largest number of native speakers in India, after Hindi and Bengali.

Dialects

Marathi is primarily spoken in Maharashtra and parts of neighbouring states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The dialects of Marathi include Varhadi, Ahirani, Khandeshi, Judeo-Marathi, East Indian Marathi, and Malvani.

Writing system

Marathi uses the Devanagari script for writing. The Devanagari alphabet used by Marathi is slightly different from the standard Devanagari script used by Hindi. The script includes additional letters which are not found in other languages that use the Devanagari script.

Literature

Marathi literature began and grew owing to the rise of the Seuna dynasty of Devgiri, who adopted Marathi as the court language and patronized Marathi scholars. Modern Marathi literature was marked by a theme of social reform.

Phonology

Marathi has a number of features that set it apart from most other Indian languages. For example, Marathi has inclusive as well as exclusive forms of 'we' and also a neuter gender which is rarely present in languages like Hindi and Punjabi.

Grammar

Marathi grammar shares similarities with other modern Indo-Aryan languages. The primary word order of Marathi is SOV (subject-object-verb).

See also

• Marathi people
• Marathi literature
• Marathi cinema
• States of India by Marathi speakers

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