Marathi

Marathi
मराठी Marāṭhī
Marathi written in Devanāgarī and Modi
Pronunciation	[məˈɾaʈʰi]
Spoken in	India , Israel and Mauritius[1] Marathi speaking population is found in United States, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Netherlands, Canada, UAE, South Africa, Israel, Pakistan Singapore, Germany, UK, Australia & New Zealand
Region	Maharashtra, Goa, parts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Sindh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu
Total speakers	Total 90 million speakers[2] 70 million native, 20 million second language
Ranking	15[3] (native) 15[2] (combined)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Southern Indo-Aryan Marathi
Writing system	Devanagari script, Modi script (traditional)
Official status
Official language in	India (State of Maharashtra, Union territories of Daman-Diu[4] and Dadra Nagar Haveli[5])
Regulated by	Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad & various other institutions
Language codes
ISO 639-1	mr
ISO 639-2	mar
ISO 639-3	mar
Marathi is spoken in India, Mauritius and Israel. Marathi is also spoken by emigrant Maharashtrians worldwide, especially in the U.S. and Europe.
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Marathi (मराठी Marāṭhī) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of south western India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are 90 million fluent speakers worldwide.^[2] Marathi is the 4th most spoken language in India^[6] and the 15th most spoken language in the world.^[3] Marathi is the oldest of the regional literatures in Indo-Aryan languages, dating from about AD 1000.^[7]

Marathi is estimated to be more than 1300 years old, evolving from Sanskrit through Prakrit and Apabhramsha. Its grammar and syntax derive from Pali^{[citation needed]} and Prakrit. In ancient times, Marathi was called Maharashtri, Marhatti, Mahratti etc.

Peculiar features of Marathi linguistic culture include Marathi drama, with its unique flavour of 'Sangeet Natak' (musical dramas), scholarly discourses called 'Vasant Vyakhyanmala' (Lectures in Spring), Marathi folk dance called 'Lavani', and special editions of magazines for Diwali called 'Diwali anka'.

Contents 1 Geographic distribution 2 Official status 3 History 3.1 Earliest forms 4 == 4.1 12th century to 1905 4.1.1 Yadava 4.1.2 Mahanubhav sect 4.1.3 Warkari sect 4.1.4 Modern period 4.1.5 18th century 4.1.5.1 == 5 Dialects 5.1 Ahirani 5.2 Khandeshi 5.3 Varhadi 5.4 Konkani 5.5 Wadvali 5.6 Samavedi 5.7 Are Marathi 5.8 Thanjavur Marathi and Namdev Marathi 5.9 Others 5.10 Other languages having considerable Marathi influence 6 Sounds 6.1 Vowels 6.2 Consonants 7 Writing 7.1 Marathi Script == 7.2 Devanagari script 7.3 Modi script 8 Consonant clusters 9 Grammar 10 Marathi organisations 10.1 Outside Maharashtra state 11 Vocabulary 11.1 Sharing of linguistic resources with other languages 11.2 Influence of foreign languages 11.3 Word formation and origin 11.4 Forming complex words 11.5 Counting 12 Example short phrases 13 Marathi on computers and the Internet 14 Voyager Golden Record 15 See also 16 References 17 External links

Geographic distribution

Marathi is primarily spoken in Maharashtra and parts of neighboring states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, union-territories of Daman-diu and Dadra Nagar Haveli. The cities of Baroda, Surat, Ahmedabad and Belgaum(Karnataka) Indore, Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) and Tanjore (Tamil Nadu) each have sizable Marathi-speaking communities. Marathi is also spoken by Maharashtrian émigrés worldwide, in the United States, UAE, South Africa, Singapore, Germany, UK, Australia, Japan and New Zealand. The Ethnologue states that Marathi is spoken in Israel and Mauritius.^[1]

Official status

Marathi is an official language of the Indian state of Maharashtra, and a co-official language or used for official purposes in Goa, union territory of Daman and Diu^[4] and Dadra Nagar haveli.^[5] The Constitution of India recognizes Marathi as one of India's 22 official languages.^[8]

In addition to all universities in Maharashtra, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (Gujarat),^[9] Osmania University (Andhra Pradesh),^[10] Gulbarga university (Karnataka),^[11] Devi Ahilya University of Indore^[12] and Goa University (Panaji)^[13] all have special departments for higher studies in Marathi linguistics. Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) has announced plans to establish a special department for Marathi.^[14]

History

pre 1 A.D onwards Marathi | Maratha Period

Earliest forms

==

During this period only many of the South and North Indian languages were born based on their regions nature.And Marathi and Marathis were started shrunk to todays Marathis' region in India .Those Marathis who were spread all over South Asia contributed for that regions language and culture and retained spoken Marathi to be used in their houses.

12th century to 1905

Yadava

Marathi literature began and grew thanks to the rise of both the Yadava dynasty of Devgiri (who adopted Marathi as the court language and patronized Marathi scholars) and two religious sects - Mahanubhav Panth and Warkari Panth, who adopted Marathi as the medium for preaching their doctrines of devotion. Marathi had attained a venerable place in court life by the time of the Yadava kings. During the reign of the last three Yadava kings, a great deal of literature in verse and prose, on astrology, medicine, Puranas, Vedanta, kings and courtiers were created. Nalopakhyan, Rukmini swayamvar and Shripati's Jyotishratnamala (1039 AD) are a few examples.

Mahanubhav sect

Notable examples of Marathi prose are "Līḷācarītra" (लीळाचरीत्र), events and anecdotes from the miracle filled life of Chakradhar Swami of the Mahanubhav sect compiled by his close disciple, Mahimabhatta, in 1238. The Mahanubhav sect made Marathi a vehicle for the propagation of religion and culture.

Warkari sect

This article may contain wording that promotes the subject subjectively, without imparting verifiable information. Please remove or replace such wording, unless you can cite independent sources that support the characterization.

The Mahanubhav sect were followed by the Warkari saint-poet Eknath ((1528–1599). Eknath's Bhavarth Ramayana brought the message of the Bhagvat cult to the people. Mukteswar translated the epic Mahabharata into Marathi. Social reformers like saint-poet Tukaram transformed Marathi into a rich literary language. Saint Tukaram’s(1608-49) poetry contained his inspirations. He was a radical reformer. Tukaram wrote over 3000 Abhangas .He was followed by Ramadas. Writers of the Mahanubhav sect contributed to Marathi prose while the saint-poets of Warkari sect composed Marathi poetry. However, the latter group is regarded as the pioneers and founders of Marathi literature. Jainism too enriched Marathi during Bahamani period.

Modern period

Since 1630, Marathi regained prominence with the rise of the Maratha empire beginning with the reign of Chhatrapati Shivaji (1627–1680). Subsequent rulers extended the empire northwards to Delhi, eastwards to Orissa, and southwards to Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu. These excursions by the Marathas helped to spread Marathi over broader geographical regions. This period also saw the use of Marathi in transactions involving land and other business. Documents from this period, therefore, give a better picture of life of common people - who spoke the language - than the documents in Persian which was used previously but understood only by the elites of the Islamic rulers. At the time, Saint Tukaram made important contributions to Marathi poetic literature in Warkari Pantha. But by the late 18th century, the Maratha Empire's influence over a large part of the country was on the decline.

18th century

In the 18th century, some well-known works such as Yatharthadeepika by Vaman Pandit, Naladamayanti Swayamvara by Raghunath Pandit, Pandava Pratap, Harivijay, Ramvijay by Shridhar Pandit and Mahabharata by Moropanta were produced. Krishnadayarnava and Sridhar were the leading poets during the Peshwa period. New literary forms were successfully experimented with during the period and classical styles were revived, especially the Mahakavya and Prabandha forms.

====After 1800 to 20th century The British colonial period (also known as the Modern Period) saw standardization of Marathi grammar through the efforts of the Christian missionary William Carey. Christian missionaries played an important role in the production of scientific dictionaries and grammars.

The late 19th century in Maharashtra was a period of colonial modernity. Like the corresponding periods in other Indian languages, this was the period dominated by English-educated intellectuals. It was the age of prose and reason. It was the period of reformist activism and a great intellectual ferment.

The first Marathi translation of an English book was published in 1817, and the first Marathi newspaper was started in 1835. Newspapers provided a platform for sharing literary views, and many books on social reforms were written. The Marathi language flourished as Marathi drama gained popularity. Musicals known as 'Sangit Natak' also evolved. Keshavasut, the father of modern Marathi poetry published his first poem in 1885. First Marathi periodical Dirghadarshan was started in 1840 while first Marathi newspaper Durpan was started by Balshastri Jambhekar in 1832. During colonial rule Marathis added infrastructure to the nation like Rail network road network, etc with Britishers. Good part of colonial Marathis always repected.But India or Hindustan was and is Marathis and other South Asian ethnic groups' nation, we wanted self rule and opposed colonial rule.Later Britishser's gave Independance and taking India toward's developmental phase.

The first half of 20th century was marked by new enthusiasm in literary pursuits, and socio-political activism helped achieve major milestones in Marathi literature, drama, music and film. Modern Marathi prose flourished through various new literary forms like the essay, the biographies, the novels, prose, drama etc. Chiplunkar's Nibandhmala (essays), N.C.Kelkar's biographical writings, novels of Hari Narayan Apte, Narayan Sitaram Phadke and V.S.Khandekar, and plays of Mama Varerkar and Kirloskar's are particularly worth noting. Similarly Khandekar's Yayati which has won for him, the Jnanpith Award is a very noteworthy novel. Vijay Tendulkar and C.T.Dhanolkar have written and produced a good number of plays which have earned a reputation beyond the border of Maharashtra during the last quarter of a century.

After Indian independence, Marathi was accorded the status of a scheduled language on the national level.

By May 1, 1960, Maharashtra emerged re-organised on linguistic lines adding Vidarbha and Marathwada region in its fold and bringing major chunks of Marathi population socio-politically together. With state and cultural protection, Marathi made great strides by the 1990s.

A literary event called Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (All-India Marathi Literature Meet) is held every year. In addition, the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Sammelan (All-India Marathi Theatre Meet) is also held annually. Both events are very popular amongst Maharashtrians.

                          English or other foreign languages are not new Marathis. During colonial period itself great Marathis like Dr. Ambedkar, Tilak, Gokhale, etc went to get western edutaion with their parents hard cash.This much of imporatance for education was given by Marathis.It is Dr.Ambedkar single handedly reformed and tok India towards development. India's development is vastly because of great Marathi man(God) called Dr.Ambedkar.
                                        Asia's first stock exchange(created by British Monarchy and Scinia's of Gwalior), Asia's first city to get electricity(The then Bombay provicial colonial rule and Marathis brought electricity to Mumbai) ,and other first in South Asia is The Great Mumbai(Bombay) Marathi language and Marathi peoples' pride and Marathis contribution to the nation called India.
 

Recent times

==

            Most people in India became racist by promoting their race and language and harmig Marathis' and other good people and manipulating history by misusing authoririties in New Delhi.Marathis' are always with Gods' side.Only God and Dr.Ambedkar's secularism protects and promotes our Marathi and Marathi culture.

Dialects

Standard Marathi is based on dialects used by academics and the print media, and is influenced by the educated élite of the Pune region. Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad (MSP) is the apex guiding body for literary institutions of Marathi language. From time to time, MSP helps out in discourses on various aspects of Marathi and in laying down precedents by framing rules whenever required.

Indic scholars distinguish 42 dialects of spoken Marathi. Dialects bordering other major language areas have many properties in common with those languages, further differentiating them from standard spoken Marathi. The bulk of the variation within these dialects is primarily lexical and phonological (e.g. accent placement and pronunciation). Although the number of dialects is considerable, the degree of intelligibility within these dialects is relatively high.^[2] Historically, the major dialect divisions have been Ahirani, Khandeshi, Varhadi, Wadvali, Samavedi and Are Marathi.

Ahirani

Ahirani is spoken in the west Khandesh North Maharashtara region.

Ahirani is a language today spoken in the western and southern parts of Jalgaon (Chalisgaon, Bhadgaon, Pachora, Erandol, Dharangaon, Parola, Amalner talukas), Nandurbar(Shahada, Maharashtra,Taloda,Navapur), Dhule and eastern Nashik (Baglan, Malegaon and Kalwan talukas) districts of Maharashtra. It is further divided into dialects, such as the Chalisgaon, Malegaon and Dhule groups. Amalner is considered the cultural capital of Khandesh. Amalner has witnessed Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan.

Adapting and bending the words from Hindi and Gujarati, Ahirani has created its own words which are not found in these languages. Ahirani is a colloquial form and uses the Modi script for its writing.

Dr. D.G. Borase, Dr. Ramesh Suryawanshi, Dr.Vijaya Chitnis have studed Ahirani with linguistic point of view. Ahirani Bhasha Vadnyanic Ahyas, Mhani Kosha and Ahirani Shabdkosha (First dictionary of Ahirani language Pub.1997), Khandeshatil Krushak jivan Sachitra Kosha (Pictorial Dictionary Pub-2000) of Dr. Ramesh Suryawanshi are basic books on Ahirani language.

Khandeshi

Khandesh was old district of Bombay presidency. Later it was devided in East Khandesh and West Khandesh. Now East Khandesh is known as Jalgaon Districtand West Khandesh is knownas Dhule district. The Ahirani is languages of Ahiras. They lived in Khandesh. Their affected the people livingin Khandesh.

The Khandesh territory as a dich, was surrounded by ranges of satpura and Sanhydri (Known as Chandwad and Ajanta ) and the river Waghur. The language spoken by the people in Khandesh, which is affected by Ahiras'Ahirani is known as Khandeshi. Ahirani is base language. Khandeshi is the wide concept than the Ahirani. Khandeshi has social based and taritorial based dailects. Taptayngi, Varlyangi, Khallyangi, Baglani, Nandurbari, Ghatoi, Dhakani, Jamneri are tetorial based dailects of khandeshi.

Ahirani, Bhilli, Rajputi, Pardeshi, Ladsikkiwani, Tavadi, Levapatidari, Gujari etc are social based dailects of Khandeshi spoken all over in Khandesh. Dr. Ramesh Suryawanshi and Dr. D.G.Borse had studied the Khandeshi and Ahirani and explained in their books in detail.

In Khandeshi Language there are six vowel sounds and 34 consonantal sounds. Out of 34 consonants 14 are voiced. There are three genders and eight cases. Verbs are of both type transitive and intranstive. they are formed according to tense, person, gender and number

Varhadi

Varhādi or Vaidarbhi is spoken in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

In Marathi, the retroflex lateral approximant ḷ (IPA: [ɭ]) is common, while in the Varhadii dialect, it corresponds to the palatal approximant y (IPA: [j]), making this dialect quite distinct. Such phonetic shifts are common in spoken Marathi, and as such, the spoken dialects vary from one region of Maharashtra to another.

Konkani

Konkani refers to the collection of dialects of Marathi language spoken in the Konkan region. It is often mistakenly extended to cover Goan Konkani which is an independent language. Grierson has referred to this dialect as the Konkan Standard of Marathi in order to differentiate it from Konkani language.^[15]. The sub-dialects of Konkani gradually merge from standard Marathi into Goan Konkani from north to south Konkan. The various sub dialects are: Parabhi, Koli, Kiristanv, Kunbi, Agari, Dhangari, Thakri, Karadhi, Sangameshwari, Bankoti and Maoli.^[16]

Wadvali

This dialect may not necessarily be named thus. It was primarily spoken by Wadvals, which essentially means agricultural plot owners, of the Naigaon, Vasai to Dahanu region. Somavamshi Kshatriyas speak this dialect. This language is preserved mostly by the Roman Catholics native to this region, since they are a closely knit community here and have very few relatives outside this region. It was also widely spoken among the Hindus native to this region, but due to external influences, ordinary Marathi is now more popular among the Hindus. There are many songs in this language. Recently a book was published by Nutan Patil containing around 70 songs. The songs are about marriage, pachvi etc. The dialect of the Kolis (fisherfolk) of Vasai and neighbouring Mumbai resembles this dialect closely, though they speak with a heavier accent.

Samavedi

Samavedi is spoken in the interiors of the Nala Sopara and Virar regions to the north of Mumbai in the Vasai Taluka, Thane District of Maharashtra. The name of this language correctly suggests that its origins lie with the Samavedi Brahmins native to this region. This language, too, finds more speakers among the Roman Catholic converts native to the region (who are known as East Indians), but nevertheless is popular among the Samavedi Brahmins. This dialect is very different from the other Marathi dialects spoken in other regions of Maharashtra, but resembles Wadvali very closely. Both Wadvali and Samavedi have relatively high proportions of words imported from Portuguese as compared to ordinary Marathi, because of direct influence of the Portuguese who colonized this region till 1739.

Are Marathi

Are Marathi, written in Devanagari script as अरे मराठी, is another dialect spoken mostly in Andhra Pradesh.^{[citation needed]}

Thanjavur Marathi and Namdev Marathi

Thanjavur Marathi, Namdev Marathi and Bhavsar Marathi are spoken by many Southern Indians. This dialect evolved from the time of occupation of the Marathas in Thanjavur in southern Tamil Nadu. It has speakers in parts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Others

• Thakri (Spoken in Raigad....Maharashtra)

The Thakri language spoken by one of the Adivasi community found in District- Raigad (Maharashtra). This language is just like Marathi with some deviations in pronunciations.

• Dangii (spoken near the Maharashtra-Gujarat border)
• Judæo-Marathi (spoken by the Bene Israel Jews)
• Kadodii (spoken near Vasai)

Other dialects of Marathi include Warli of Thane District, Dakshini (Marathwada), Deshi (Eastern Konkan Ghats), Deccan, Nagpuri, Ikrani and Gowlan.

Other languages having considerable Marathi influence

• Dakhini and Hyderabadi Urdu spoken in Hyderabad and some parts of Deccan are considerably influenced by Marathi. The grammar of Hyderabadi Urdu is adapted from Marathi. In fact, it is also called a creole between Marathi and Urdu with some Telugu words.

Sounds

The phoneme inventory of Marathi is similar to that of many other Indo-Aryan languages, especially that of the Konkani language. An IPA chart of all contrastive sounds in Marathi is provided below.

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveopalatal	Velar	Glottal
Voiceless stops	p pʰ	t̪ t̪ʰ		ʈ ʈʰ	cɕ cɕʰ	k kʰ
Voiced stops	b bʰ	d̪ d̪ʰ		ɖ ɖʰ	ɟʝ ɟʝʰ	ɡ ɡʰ
Voiceless fricatives			s		ɕ		h
Nasals	m mʰ	n̪ n̪ʰ		ɳ ɳʰ	ɲ	ŋ
Liquids	ʋ ʋʰ		l ɾ lʰ ɾʰ	ɭ ɽ	j

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a

Vowels

Like other abugidas, Devanagari writes out syllables by adding vowel diacritics to consonant bases. The table below includes all the vowel symbols used in Marathi, along with a transliteration of each sound into the Roman alphabet and IPA.

There are two more vowels in Marathi to denote the pronunciations of English words such as of a in act and a in all. These are written as अँ and आँ. The IPA signs for these are /æ/ and /ɔ/, respectively.

Consonants

The table below includes all the consonant bases onto which vowel diacritics are placed. The lack of a vowel diacritic can either indicate the lack of a vowel, or the existence of the default, or "inherent", vowel, which in the case of Marathi is the schwa.

Writing

Marathi Script ==

Marathi uses its own script called Marthi script.Its variants are Devanagri, Modi, etc. some people may undigest the truth that Marathi script is India's national script as well. For them Marathi script may be its variants like Devnagri, Modi, sanskrit, Prakrit, etc.

Devanagari script

Marathi is written in the Marathi script, an alphasyllabary or abugida consisting of 16 vowel letters and 36 consonant letters making a total of 52 letters. It is written from left to right.

Modi script

Marathi was written in Modi script — a cursive script designed for minimising the lifting of pen from paper while writing.^[17] Most writings of the Maratha empire are in Modi script. However, Persian-based scripts were also used for court documentation. With the advent of large-scale printing, Modi script fell into disuse, as it proved very difficult for type-setting. Currently, due to the availability of Modi fonts and the enthusiasm of the younger speakers, the script is far from disappearing. (See Reference Links).

Consonant clusters

In Marathi, the consonants by default come with a schwa. Therefore, तयाचे will be 'təyāce', not 'tyāce'. To form 'tyāce', you will have to add त् + याचे, giving त्याचे.

When two or more consecutive consonants are followed by a vowel then a jodakshar (consonant cluster) is formed. Some examples of consonant clusters are shown below:

• त्याचे - tyāce - "his"
• प्रस्ताव - prastāv-"proposal"
• विद्या - vidyā - "knowledge"
• म्यान - myān "Sword Cover"
• त्वरा - tvarā "immediate/Quick"
• महत्त्व - mahattva - "importance"
• फक्त - phakt - "only"
• बाहुल्या - bāhulyā - "dolls"

Marathi has a few consonant clusters that are rarely seen in the world's languages, including the so-called "nasal aspirates" (ṇh, nh, and mh) and liquid aspirates (rh, ṟh, lh, and vh). Some examples are given below.

• कण्हेरी - kaṇherī - "a shrub known for flowers"
• न्हाणे - nhāṇ - "bath"
• म्हणून - mhaṇūn - "because"
• तऱ्हा - taṟhā - "different way of behaving"
• कोल्हा - kolhā - "fox"
• केंव्हा - keṃvhā "when"

Grammar

Marathi grammar shares similarities with other modern Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, etc. The first modern book exclusively concerning Marathi Grammar was printed in 1805 by William Kerry.^[18] Sanskrit Grammar used to be referred more till late stages of Marathi Language.^{[citation needed]}

The contemporary grammatical rules described by Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad and endorsed by the Government of Maharashtra are supposed to take precedence in standard written Marathi. Traditions of Marathi Linguistics and the above mentioned rules give special status to 'Tatsam' (Without Change) words adapted from the Sanskrit language. This special status expects the rules for 'Tatsam' words to be followed as in Sanskrit grammar. While this supports Marathi Language with a larger treasure of Sanskrit words to cope with demands of new technical words whenever needed; maintains influence over Marathi.

An unusual feature of Marathi, as compared to other Indo-European languages, is that it displays the inclusive and exclusive we feature, common to the Dravidian languages, Rajasthani, and Gujarati.

Unlike its related languages, Marathi preserves all three grammatical genders (Linga) from Sanskrit, masculine, feminine and neuter. Marathi contains three grammatical voices (prayog) i.e. Kartari, Karmani and Bhave. Detailed analysis of grammatical aspects of Marathi language are covered in Marathi grammar.

Marathi organisations

Many government and semi-government organisations exist which work for the regulation, promotion and enrichment of the Marathi language. These are either initiated or funded by Government of Maharashtra. Few prominent Marathi organisations are given below:^[19]

• Rajya Marathi Vikas Sanstha
• Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal (Central confederation of all Marathi organisations)
• Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh
• Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad, Pune
• Marathi Vishwakosh (encyclopedia) project
• Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh, Nagpur
• Marathwada Sahitya Parishad, Aurangabad

Outside Maharashtra state

• Gomantak Marathi academy
• Madhya Pradesh Sahitya Parishad, Jabalpur
• Andhra Pradesh Sahitya Paraishad, Hyderabad
• Marathi Sahitya Parishad, Karnataka

Vocabulary

Sharing of linguistic resources with other languages

Over a period of many centuries the Marathi language and people came into contact with many other languages and dialects. The primary influence of Prakrit, Maharashtri, Apbhramsha and Sanskrit is understandable.

Day-to-day Marathi includes a higher number of Sanskrit-derived (tatsam) words than sister languages like Hindi. Some Sanskrit words that are common in day-to-day spoken Marathi include nantar (from nantaram or after), purṇa (purṇam or complete, full, or full measure of something), anna (annam or food), karaṇ (karaṇam or cause) kadāchit (kadāchit or perhaps) satat (satatam or always), abhyās (abhyāsam or study), vichitra (vichitram or strange), svatah (svatah or himself/herself), prayatna (prayatnam or effort), bhiti (from bhiti, or fear) and vishesh (vishesham or special), amongst others.

Marathi has also shared directions, vocabulary and grammar with languages such as Indian Dravidian languages, and a few foreign languages like Persian, Arabic, English and a little from Portuguese.

While recent genome studies suggest some amount of political and trade relations between the Indian subcontinent and East Africa, Middle East, Central Asia over a millennium, these studies are still not conclusive about the exact effect on linguistcs.

Influence of foreign languages

• Usage of punctuation marks was one of the major contributions to Indic script by foreign languages. Previously, due to Sanskritised poetry, textual punctuation requirements of many texts may have been less.^{[citation needed]}

Word formation and origin

Marathi has taken words from and given words to Sanskrit, Kannada, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, and Portuguese. At least 50% of the words in Marathi are either taken or derived from Sanskrit.

• Adakitta "nutcracker" directly borrowed from Kannada
• Khurchii "chair" is derived from Arabic kursi
• Jaahiraat "advertisement" is derived from Persian zaahiraat See Note 1
• Shiphaaras "recommendation" is derived from Persian sifarish
• Marjii "wish" is derived from Persian "marzi"
• Batataa "potato", is derived from Portuguese
• Ananas "pineapple", is derived from Portuguese See Note 2
• Niga "looking after" is derived from Persian nîgâh "sight-vision"
• Hajeri Attendance from Hajiri Urdu

A lot of English words are commonly used in conversation, and are considered to be totally assimilated into the Marathi vocabulary. These include "pen" (native Marathi lekhaṇii), "shirt" (sadaraa).

Forming complex words

Marathi uses many morphological processes to join words together, forming complex words. These processes are traditionally referred to as sandhi (from Sanskrit, "combination"). For example, ati + uttam gives the word atyuttam.

Another method of combining words is referred to as samaas (from Sanskrit, "margin"). There are no reliable rules to follow to make a samaas. When the second word starts with a consonant, a sandhi can not be formed, but a samaas can be formed. For example, miith-bhaakar ("salt-bread"), udyog-patii ("businessman"), ashṭa-bhujaa ("eight-hands", name of a Hindu goddess), and so on. There are different names given to each type of samaas.

Counting

Like many other languages, Marathi uses distinct names for the numbers 1 to 20 and each multiple of 10, and composite ones for those greater than 20.

As with other Indic languages, there are distinct names for the fractions ¹⁄₄, ¹⁄₂, and ³⁄₄. They are paava, ardhaa, and pauṇa, respectively. For most fractions greater than 1, the prefixes savvaa-, saaḍe-, paavaṇe- are used. There are special names for ³⁄₂ (diiḍ) and ⁵⁄₂ (aḍich).

The powers of ten are as follows:

• 100: shambhar (also constructed with number prefix and "-she" suffix)
• 1,000: hazaar (or sahasra, a word close to the Sanskrit version)
• 100,000: laakh (or laksha)
• 10,000,000: koti
• 1,000,000,000: abja
• 10,000,000,000: kharva
• 100,000,000,000: nikharva
• 100,000,000,000,000,000: parardha

A positive integer is read by breaking it up from the tens digit leftwards, into parts each containing two digits, the only exception being the hundreds place containing only one digit instead of two. For example, 1,234,567 is read as 12 laakh 34 hazaar 5 she 67. Every two-digit number after 18 (11 to 18 are predefined) is read backwards. For example, 21 is read एक-वीस (1-twenty). Also, a two digit number that ends with a 9 is considered to be the next tens place minus one. For example, 29 is एकुणतीस (Thirty minus one). Two digit numbers used before hazaar, etc. are written in the same way

Example short phrases

Words/phrases	Transliteration	Meaning
नमस्कार	Namaskār.	Hi/Hello.
तुम्ही कसे आहात?	Tumhī kase āhāt?	How do you do?
तू कसा आहेस?	Tū kasā āhes?	How are you? (to a male)
तू कशी आहेस?	Tū kaśī āhes?	How are you? (to a female)
आपण कसे आहात?	Āpaṇ kase āhāt?	How are you? (formal)
तुम्हाला भेटून आनंद झाला	Tumhālā bheṭūn ānand jhālā.	Pleased to meet you.
पुन्हा भेटू	Punhā bheṭū.	Goodbye. (Lit.: "We will meet again.")
धन्यवाद	Dhanyavād.	Thank you.
हो	Ho.	Yes.
नाही	Nāhī.	No.
नको	Nako.	No, thank you.
किती?	Kitī?	How much?/How many?
कुठे?	Kuthe?	Where?
कसे?	Kase?	How?
केव्हा?	Kevha?	When?
कोण?	Kon?	Who?
काय?	Kaay?	What?
शुभ रात्री	Śhubh Ratri.	Good night.

Marathi on computers and the Internet

Historically Marathi has suffered from weak support by computer operating systems and Internet services, as have other Indian languages. But recently, with the introduction of language localisation projects and new technologies, various software and Internet applications have been introduced. Shrilipi, Shivaji and Kiran fonts were used prior to the introduction of Unicode standard for Devanagari script. Various Marathi typing software is widely used and display interface packages are now available on both Windows and Linux. Many Marathi websites, including prominent Marathi newspapers, have become popular especially with Maharashtrians outside India. Online projects such as the Marathi language Wikipedia, the Marathi blogroll and Marathi blogs have gained immense popularity.^[20][21]

Voyager Golden Record

The Voyager Golden Record carries greetings from earth to the Universe in 55 different languages including Marathi. The message in Marathi is "Namaskar! Hya prithvitil lok tumhala tyanche shubhavichar pathavitat, ani tyanchi iccha ahe ki tumhi hya janmi dhanya vha"^[22]

See also

v • d • e Topics related to the Marathi language Grammar • Phonology • Devanagari script • Modi script • Literature • Poetry • Samyukta Maharashtra Movement • Maharashtra State • Marathi Wikipedia

• Devanagari
• Languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers

• List of national languages of India
• Maharashtra
• Marathi literature
• Marathi people
• Modi script
• Marathi Newspapers

References

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Marathi

Dictionaries

• Molesworth, J. T. (James Thomas). A dictionary, Marathi and English. 2d ed., rev. and enl. Bombay: Printed for government at the Bombay Education Society's press, 1857.
• Vaze, Shridhar Ganesh. The Aryabhusan school dictionary, Marathi-English. Poona: Arya-Bhushan Press, 1911.
• Shabdabandha an online Marathi-Marathi dictionary

Newspapers

• Sakal
• Maharashtra Times
• Loksatta
• Lokmat

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