The Marathi language is a member of the Indo-Aryan language family's southern branch. It has been the official language of Maharashtra state in western India since 1966 and is primarily spoken by its citizens. Marathi was formerly known by other names, such as Maharashtri, Marhatti, Mahratti, etc. There are around 90 million Marathi speakers worldwide, compared to about 68 million in India. While it ranks 15th in the globe, it is the fourth most spoken language in India. It is thought that the Marathi language originated relatively early on its own. Of the regional works of literature in Indo-Aryan languages, Marathi is the earliest.

Goa also has Marathi as one of its official languages with the designation of "Schedule Language," Marathi is one of the languages listed in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. To declare Marathi a classical language, the Maharashtra government has applied to the Ministry of Culture. In standard Marathi texts, the modern grammatical norms published by the Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad and sanctioned by the Maharashtra government are deemed as aforementioned.

Tatsama, a word borrowed from Sanskrit, has a particular significance according to the Marathi language tradition and the guidelines mentioned above. One is supposed to observe both Tassama and Sanskrit laws in this exceptional position. By doing this, Marathi will have access to a vast corpus of Sanskrit, making her prepared to respond to requests for new terminology at any time.

Devanagari hindi script
Marathi is written in the Devanagari script, just like Hindi. | Source: VisualHunt
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History of the Marathi Language

As Marathi developed from Sanskrit, which itself descended from Prakrit and Apabhramsha, it is estimated to be over 1300 years old. Pali and Prakrit are credited with influencing its syntax and grammar. The Marathi language that we hear now is the outcome of years and years of alteration and change.

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The Marathi language has a rich literary heritage. Marathi and Eastern Hindi, another Indo-Aryan language, are closely related. The poet and saint Dnyaneshwar has a lengthy literary history in Marathi, and his writings are highly read in the local tongue. Other well-known saint poets who contributed to the enrichment of Marathi at the grassroots level are Namdev, Tukaram, and Eknath. Accordingly, among all the Indian languages, Marathi is regarded to have the richest saint literature.

In Israel and Mauritius, there are also Marathi speakers. Inscriptions on stones and copper plates dating back to the eleventh century included the earliest known Marathi text. It was written in the Modi alphabet from the 13th to the middle of the 20th century, and since 1950, it has been written in the Devanagari alphabet.

There are roughly 42 dialects of Marathi, and the dialect spoken in the regions of Thanjavur and Tamil Nadu has been heavily influenced by loan words from Tamil and Kannada. Marathi is closely connected to languages like Varhadi-Nagpuri, Deccan, Gowlan, Goanese, Konkani, and Ikrani.

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Marathi Dialects

The dialects utilized by academics and print media form the basis of standard Marathi. There are 42 distinct spoken Marathi dialects, according to Indian experts. While dialects that border other major linguistic areas are very different from mainstream spoken Marathi, they have numerous parallels with other languages. These dialects differ mostly in terms of vocabulary and phonology (pronunciation and accent placement, for example). Despite the enormous number of dialects, there is a comparatively good level of intelligibility.

Varhadi

In Maharashtra's West Vidarbha region, Varhādi (वऱ्हाडि) or Vaidharbi (वैदर्भि) is spoken. While the backbend approximation ḷ [ɭ] is widely used in Marathi, it is quite evident in certain Valhadi dialects that it corresponds to the palatal approximation y (IPA: [j]). This is me. Because spoken Marathi has many phonetic variants, different parts of Maharashtra have different spoken dialects.

Zadi Boli

Zhadi Bori, also known as Zadivori (झाडिबोलि), is situated in the eastern Vidarbha region of Maharashtra's Far East, or in the regions of Gondia, Bandara, Chandrapur, Gazirori, and portions of Nagpur in Maharashtra. It is spoken in the central-western region of Gondwana, especially Zhadi Planta, an area rich in forests. It is the goal of many literary scholars to keep this Marathi dialect alive.

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Southern Indian Marathi

Many Maharashtra-born Marathi speakers who immigrated to South India spoke the dialects of Thanjavur Marathi, Namadeva Simpi Marathi, Alei Marathi (Telangana), Kasaragod (Northern Kerala), and Babsar Marathi. These dialects are strongly influenced by post-migration Dravidian languages and nonetheless maintain the fundamental structure of Marathi from the 17th century. There are speakers of these dialects in different regions of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.

Literature
Wondering how to learn Marathi? Start with Marathi literary works. | Source: VisualHunt

Other

Vijayavaur Spoken in Tanjore, Tamil Nadu, is Marathi Bene Israel East Indies Jews speak Judeo-Marathi. Speaking Marathi, Indian Christian East Indies ethnoreligious communities Maharashtrian Konkani, Malvani, Sangameshwari, Aguri, Andu, Warli, Vadvari, Samavedi, and other Marathi and Konkani languages and dialects are spoken in Maharashtra.

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Writing: Marathi Script

The Marathi language has traditionally been written on stone and copper plates using the Kadamba script and its derivatives. With a few word changes, the Marathi Devanagari alphabet, also known as Barbodhi, resembles the Hindi Devanagari system.

Some Marathi words retain the shwa, whereas other Devanagari-using languages eliminate it. Truth is pronounced 'kaala' notwithstanding Anuswara, whereas the term 'रंग' (colour) is pronounced 'ranga' in Marathi and 'lan' in other languages that use Devanagari. In this instance, anuswara is employed to prevent the pronunciation of schwa from being dropped.

Although schwa appears in spelling, it is dropped in pronunciation in the majority of other languages that utilize the Devanagari alphabet. Marathi was written in the Modi script for administrative purposes from the 13th century until the start of British control in the 19th century, but it was written in the Devanagari script for literary purposes. Since 1950, it has been written in the Devanagari Balbodhi script.

Except for the Christa Purana, which Father Thomas Stephens printed in Latin script in the 1600s, Marathi has only been printed in Devanagari. William Carey, the forerunner of Indian language printing, was limited to printing in Devanagari, which explains why. Later, he attempted to print at Modi, but Balbodhi Devanagari had already been granted permission to print by then.

Marathi Consonants

ka kha ga gha ṅa ca cha ja
[kə] [kʰə] [ɡə] [ɡʱə] [ŋə] [tɕə/tsə] [tɕʰə] [dʑə/dzə]
jha ña ṭa ṭha ḍa ḍha ṇa ta
[dʑʱə/dzʱə] [ɲə] [ʈə] [ʈʰə] [ɖə] [ɖʱə] [ɳə] [tə]
tha da dha na pa pha ba bha
[tʰə] [də] [dʱə] [nə] [pə] [pʰə/fə] [bə] [bʱə]
ma ya ra la va śa ṣa sa
[mə] [jə] [ɾə] [lə] [ʋə] [ʃə] [ʂə] [sə]
क्ष ज्ञ
ha la kśa dña/jña
[ɦə] [ɭə] [kɕə/kʂə] [dnʲə]

Marathi Numbers 1-10

One - एक (Ek)

Two - दोन (Don)

Three - तीन (Teen)

Four - चार (Chār)

Five - पाच (Pāch)

Six - सहा (Saha)

Seven - सात (Saat)

Eight - आठ (Āṭh)

Nine - नऊ (Nau)

Ten - दहा (Daha)

Devanagari

The standard script used to write Marathi is called Abugida, which is the Balbodi form of Devanagari script. It has sixteen initial vowels and thirty-six consonants. It is written on the left side first. Compared to the Devanagari script used to write Hindi and other languages, the Marathi script differs slightly from the Hindi script. The Marathi alphabet employs Western punctuation and adds extra characters. In 1807, William Carey noted a customary duality in the use of letters between Devanagari for sacred writings and Modi for business and administration, much as there is in other parts of India.

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The Devanagari script is well recognized among educators in Maharatta; however, businessmen are more familiar with the Nagari script, which has much larger and more diverse forms, even though the number of characters and forces is almost the same. Vowel ligature with the consonant 뤎/ka It is written on the left side first. There are some subtle differences between Hindi and other languages and the Marathi language employed by Devanagari. There are vowels and consonants used that are absent from other languages written in Devanagari script.

Modi Alphabet

From the 13th century until 1950, Marathi was written in the Modi alphabet, a cursive script designed to minimize the lifting of the pen from the paper during writing, especially for business use. rice field.

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Marathi Consonant Clusters

In Devanagari, consonant letters have their shwa by default.

Thus tayache is ``təyāche'' rather than ``tyāche''. To form ``tyāche'', it is written as ट + याहे, resulting in यहे.

A jodakshaal (consonant cluster) is formed when two or more consecutive consonants are followed by a vowel.

Here are some examples of consonant clusters: his – tyāche – “his” Suggestion – prastāva – “suggestion” Vidya – Vidya – “Knowledge” Myan – “sheath/sheath” Tvarā – tvarā – “immediately/rapidly” importance – mahattva – “importance” only – factor – “only” Bakhlia – “doll” Kaṇherī – “oleander” (known for its flowers) nhāṇe – “to bathe”

Therefore – mhaṇāna – “thus” Taṟhā – “Different modes of behaviour” Kolha – kolhā – “fox” Kevha – kevhā – “when” Marathi has a number of words rarely found in world languages, such as those denoting so-called “nasal aspirates” (ṇh, nh, mh) and liquid aspirates (rh, ṟh). There are some double letters. , lh, and vh). Some examples are shown above.

Eyelash reph/raphar

Eyelash lefa/rafaal (रेफ/ रफार) (र्‍) is present not only in Nepali but also in Marathi. The eyelash reph/raphar (र्‍) is generated in Unicode by the sequences [ra tro ] + [virāma CL] + [ZWJ] and [rra ऱ ]+ [virāma CL] + [ZWJ]. In Marathi, when 'र' is the first consonant of a consonant cluster and at the beginning of a syllable, it is written as eyelash refha/rafar.

Analysing poetry is open to interpretation.
For the love of Indian languages, approach learning in a fun way. | Source: Wallpaper Flare
Braille

In February 2008, Swagat Solart launched India's first Braille newspaper, a nightly magazine covering news, politics, and current affairs, Marathi Sparsdnyan.

Marathi Grammar

Marathi's grammar is comparable to those of other contemporary Indo-Aryan languages. Jain Acharya Hemachandra is a Prakrit grammarian from Maharashtra. William Carey published the first book in modern times that was solely focused on Marathi grammar in 1805. The form of Marathi is agglutinative, inflectional, and analytical. Marathi preserves the three grammatical genders of masculine, feminine, and neuter, in contrast to the majority of other Indo-Aryan languages.

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In Marathi, the primary word order is subject-object-verb. Marathi uses case markers and verb agreement in a split-active manner. It functions as an active verb in compositions including either obligatory or perfect transitive verbs ("should," "must"). Elsewhere, it has nominative status. Compared to other Indo-European languages, Marathi is distinct in that it conveys the inclusive and exclusive of us that is shared by Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic languages. The two anaphora pronouns swətah and apəṇ, as well as the widespread usage of participle formation, are two further ways in which Dravidian and Tamil are comparable. The presence of Dravidian language tendencies in Marathi has been observed by numerous academics.

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Shreyanjana

Shreyanjana is an archaeologist who ironically finds the written word to be the most powerful means of storytelling. A travel buff and a photography enthusiast, she has been writing and sharing stories of all sorts ever since she can remember.