Marathi

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by around 83.1 million Marathi people of Maharashtra, India. It is the official language and co-official language in the Maharashtra and Goa states of Western India, respectively, and is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India.

History

Marathi has the third largest number of native speakers in India, after Hindi and Bengali. The language has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indian languages, dating from around 1000 AD.

Dialects

Marathi is primarily spoken in Maharashtra and parts of neighbouring 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, Bangalore, Belgaum, Indore, Gwalior, Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad also have sizable Marathi-speaking communities.

Writing system

Marathi is usually written in the Balbodh style of Devanagari script. But it can also be written in the Modi script, which is less commonly used now.

Phonology

Marathi has a number of dialect-specific and non-standard sounds. It is known for its complex vowel harmony and consonant clusters.

Grammar

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

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.

See also

• Marathi literature
• Marathi cinema
• Marathi theatre
• Marathi music

External links

• Marathi language, alphabet and pronunciation at Omniglot
• Marathi: A language of India at BBC Languages

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