A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| Marathi | |
|---|---|
| Marāṭhī | |
| मराठी | |
| Pronunciation | [məˈɾaːʈʰiː] |
| Native to | India |
| Region | Maharashtra |
| Ethnicity | Marathis |
Native speakers | L1: 83 million (2011)[1] L2: 16 million (2011)[1] |
Early form | |
| Dialects | |
| |
| Indian Signing System | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | India
|
| Regulated by | Ministry of Marathi Language and various other institutions |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | mr |
| ISO 639-2 | mar |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:mar – Modern Marathiomr – Old Marathi |
omr Old Marathi | |
| Glottolog | mara1378 Modern Marathioldm1244 Old Marathi |
| Linguasphere | 59-AAF-o |
 regions where Marathi is the language of the majority or plurality regions where Marathi is the language of a significant minority | |
 Map of Marathi language in India (district-wise). Darker shades imply a greater percentage of native speakers of Marathi in each district. | |
Marathi (मराठी, pronounced [məˈɾaːʈʰiː] ) is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the official language of Maharashtra, and an additional official language in the state of Goa used to reply provided the request is received in Marathi. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India, with 83 million speakers as of 2011. Marathi ranks 13th in the list of languages with most native speakers in the world. Marathi has the third largest number of native speakers in India, after Hindi and Bengali.[6] The language has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indian languages.[7] The major dialects of Marathi are Standard Marathi and the Varhadi dialect.[8]
Marathi distinguishes inclusive and exclusive forms of 'we' and possesses three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Its phonology contrasts apico-alveolar with alveopalatal affricates and alveolar with retroflex laterals ( and (Marathi letters ल and ळ respectively).[9]
History
Indian languages, including Marathi, that belong to the Indo-Aryan language family are derived from early forms of Prakrit. Marathi is one of several languages that further descend from Maharashtri Prakrit. Further changes led to the formation of Apabhraṃśa followed by Old Marathi.[10] However, this is challenged by Bloch (1970), who states that Apabhraṃśa was formed after Marathi had already separated from the Middle Indian dialect.[11]
The earliest example of Maharashtri as a separate language dates to approximately 1st century BCE: a stone inscription found in a cave at Naneghat, Junnar in Pune district had been written in Maharashtri using Brahmi script.[12][13][14] A committee appointed by the Maharashtra State Government to get the Classical status for Marathi has claimed that Marathi existed at least 1,500 - 2,000 years ago alongside Sanskrit as a sister language.[15] Marathi, a derivative of Maharashtri Prakrit language, is probably first attested in a 739 CE copper-plate inscription found in Satara. Several inscriptions dated to the second half of the 11th century feature Marathi, which is usually appended to Sanskrit or Kannada in these inscriptions.[16] The earliest Marathi-only inscriptions are the ones issued during the Shilahara rule, including a c. 1012 CE stone inscription from Akshi taluka of Raigad district, and a 1060 or 1086 CE copper-plate inscription from Dive that records a land grant (agrahara) to a Brahmin.[17] A 2-line 1118 CE Prakrit inscription at Shravanabelagola records a grant by the Hoysalas. These inscriptions suggest that Prakrit was a standard written language by the 12th century. However, there is no record of any literature produced in Marathi until the late 13th century.[18]
Yadava period
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2024) |
After 1187 CE, the use of Marathi grew substantially in the inscriptions of the Yadava kings, who earlier used Kannada and Sanskrit in their inscriptions.[17] Marathi became the dominant language of epigraphy during the last half century of the dynasty's rule (14th century), and may have been a result of the Yadava attempts to connect with their Marathi-speaking subjects and to distinguish themselves from the Kannada-speaking Hoysalas.[16][19]
Further growth and usage of the language was because of two religious sects – the Mahanubhava and Varkari panthans – who adopted Marathi as the medium for preaching their doctrines of devotion. Marathi was used 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. Nalopakhyana, Rukminiswayamvara and Shripati's Jyotisharatnamala (1039) are a few examples.
The oldest book in prose form in Marathi, Vivēkasindhu (विवेकसिंधु), was written by Mukundaraja, a Nath yogi and arch-poet of Marathi. Mukundaraja bases his exposition of the basic tenets of the Hindu philosophy and the yoga marga on the utterances or teachings of Shankaracharya. Mukundaraja's other work, Paramamrta, is considered the first systematic attempt to explain the Vedanta in the Marathi language
Notable examples of Marathi prose are "Līḷācarītra" (लीळाचरित्र), events and anecdotes from the miracle-filled the life of Chakradhar Swami of the Mahanubhava sect compiled by his close disciple, Mahimbhatta, in 1238. The Līḷācarītra is thought to be the first biography written in the Marathi language. Mahimbhatta's second important literary work is the Shri Govindaprabhucharitra or Ruddhipurcharitra, a biography of Shri Chakradhar Swami's guru, Shri Govind Prabhu. This was probably written in 1288. The Mahanubhava sect made Marathi a vehicle for the propagation of religion and culture. Mahanubhava literature generally comprises works that describe the incarnations of gods, the history of the sect, commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, poetical works narrating the stories of the life of Krishna and grammatical and etymological works that are deemed useful to explain the philosophy of sect.
Medieval and Deccan Sultanate period
The 13th century Varkari saint Dnyaneshwar (1275–1296) wrote a treatise in Marathi on Bhagawat Gita popularly called Dnyaneshwari and Amrutanubhava.[20][21]
Mukund Raj was a poet who lived in the 13th century and is said to be the first poet who composed in Marathi.[22] He is known for the Viveka-Siddhi and Parammruta which are metaphysical, pantheistic works connected with orthodox Vedantism.
The 16th century saint-poet Eknath (1528–1599) is well known for composing the Eknāthī Bhāgavat, a commentary on Bhagavat Purana and the devotional songs called Bharud.[23] Mukteshwar translated the Mahabharata into Marathi; Tukaram (1608–49) transformed Marathi into a rich literary language. His poetry contained his inspirations. Tukaram wrote over 3000 abhangs or devotional songs.[24]
Marathi was widely used during the Sultanate period. Although the rulers were Muslims, the local feudal landlords and the revenue collectors were Hindus and so was the majority of the population. To simplify administration and revenue collection, the sultans promoted use of Marathi in official documents. However, the Marathi language from the era is heavily Persianised in its vocabulary.[25] The Persian influence continues to this day with many Persian derived words used in everyday speech such as bāg (Garden), kārkhānā (factory), shahar (city), bāzār (market), dukān (shop), hushār (clever), kāḡaḏ (paper), khurchi (chair), jamin (land), jāhirāt (advertisement), and hazār (thousand)[26][27] Marathi also became language of administration during the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.[28] Adilshahi of Bijapur also used Marathi for administration and record keeping.[29]
Maratha Empire
Marathi gained prominence with the rise of the Maratha Empire beginning with the reign of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. In his court, Shivaji Maharaj replaced Persian, the common courtly language in the region, with Marathi.The Marathi language used in administrative documents also became less persianised. Whereas in 1630, 80% of the vocabulary was Persian, it dropped to 37% by 1677.[30] His reign stimulated the deployment of Marathi as a tool of systematic description and understanding.[31] Shivaji Maharaj commissioned one of his officials, Balaji Avaji Chitnis, to make a comprehensive lexicon to replace Persian and Arabic terms with their Sanskrit equivalents. This led to production of 'Rājavyavahārakośa', the thesaurus of state usage in 1677.[32]
Subsequent Maratha rulers extended the empire northwards to Peshawar, eastwards to Odisha, 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 the life of common people. There are a number of Bakhars (journals or narratives of historical events) written in Marathi and Modi script from this period.
In the 18th century during Peshwa rule, 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 Moropant were produced. Krishnadayarnava and Sridhar were 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. The most important hagiographies of Varkari Bhakti saints were written by Mahipati in the 18th century.[33][24] Other well known literary scholars of the 17th century were Mukteshwar and Shridhar.[34] Mukteshwar was the grandson of Eknath and is the most distinguished poet in the Ovi meter. He is most known for translating the Mahabharata and the Ramayana in Marathi but only a part of the Mahabharata translation is available and the entire Ramayana translation is lost. Shridhar Kulkarni came from the Pandharpur area and his works are said to have superseded the Sanskrit epics to a certain extent. This period also saw the development of Powada (ballads sung in honour of warriors), and Lavani (romantic songs presented with dance and instruments like tabla). Major poet composers of Powada and Lavani songs of the 17th and the 18th century were Anant Phandi, Ram Joshi and Honaji Bala.[34]
British colonial period
The British colonial period starting in early 1800s saw standardisation of Marathi grammar through the efforts of the Christian missionary William Carey. Carey's dictionary had fewer entries and Marathi words were in Devanagari. Translations of the Bible were the first books to be printed in Marathi. These translations by William Carey, the American Marathi mission and the Scottish missionaries led to the development of a peculiar pidginised Marathi called "Missionary Marathi" in the early 1800s.[35] The most comprehensive Marathi-English dictionary was compiled by Captain James Thomas Molesworth and Major Thomas Candy in 1831. The book is still in print nearly two centuries after its publication.[36] The colonial authorities also worked on standardising Marathi under the leadership of Molesworth and Candy. They consulted Brahmins of Pune for this task and adopted the Sanskrit dominated dialect spoken by the elite in the city as the standard dialect for Marathi.[37][38][39][40]
The first Marathi translation of the New Testament was published in 1811 by the Serampore press of William Carey.[41] The first Marathi newspaper called Durpan was started by Balshastri Jambhekar in 1832.[42] Newspapers provided a platform for sharing literary views, and many books on social reforms were written. The First Marathi periodical Dirghadarshan was started in 1840. The Marathi language flourished, as Marathi drama gained popularity. Musicals known as Sangeet Natak also evolved.[43] Keshavasut, the father of modern Marathi poetry published his first poem in 1885. The late-19th century in Maharashtra saw the rise of essayist Vishnushastri Chiplunkar with his periodical, Nibandhmala that had essays that criticised social reformers like Phule and Gopal Hari Deshmukh. He also founded the popular Marathi periodical of that era called Kesari in 1881.[44] Later under the editorship of Lokmanya Tilak, the newspaper was instrumental in spreading Tilak's nationalist and social views.[45][46][47] Phule and Deshmukh also started their periodicals, Deenbandhu and Prabhakar, that criticised the prevailing Hindu culture of the day.[48] The 19th century and early 20th century saw several books published on Marathi grammar. Notable grammarians of this period were Tarkhadkar, A.K.Kher, Moro Keshav Damle, and R.Joshi[49]
The first half of the 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: for example, N.C.Kelkar's biographical writings, novels of Hari Narayan Apte, Narayan Sitaram Phadke and V. S. Khandekar, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's nationalist literature and plays of Mama Varerkar and Kirloskar. In folk arts, Patthe Bapurao wrote many lavani songs during the late colonial period.
Marathi since Indian independence
After Indian independence, Marathi was accorded the status of a scheduled language on the national level. In 1956, the then Bombay state was reorganised, which brought most Marathi and Gujarati speaking areas under one state. Further re-organization of the Bombay state on 1 May 1960, created the Marathi speaking Maharashtra and Gujarati speaking Gujarat state respectively. 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 Convention) is also held annually. Both events are very popular among Marathi speakers.
Notable works in Marathi in the latter half of the 20th century include Khandekar's Yayati, which won him the Jnanpith Award. Also Vijay Tendulkar's plays in Marathi have earned him a reputation beyond Maharashtra. P.L. Deshpande (popularly known as PuLa), Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar, P.K. Atre, Prabodhankar Thackeray and Vishwas Patil are known for their writings in Marathi in the fields of drama, comedy and social commentary. Bashir Momin Kavathekar wrote Lavani's and folk songs for Tamasha artists.[50][51]
In 1958 the term "Dalit literature" was used for the first time, when the first conference of Maharashtra Dalit Sahitya Sangha (Maharashtra Dalit Literature Society) was held at Mumbai, a movement inspired by 19th century social reformer, Jyotiba Phule and eminent dalit leader, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.[52] Baburao Bagul (1930–2008) was a pioneer of Dalit writings in Marathi.[53] His first collection of stories, Jevha Mi Jat Chorali (जेव्हा मी जात चोरली, "When I Stole My Caste"), published in 1963, created a stir in Marathi literature with its passionate depiction of a cruel society and thus brought in new momentum to Dalit literature in Marathi.[54][55] Gradually with other writers like Namdeo Dhasal (who founded Dalit Panther), these Dalit writings paved way for the strengthening of Dalit movement.[56] Notable Dalit authors writing in Marathi include Arun Kamble, Shantabai Kamble, Raja Dhale, Namdev Dhasal, Daya Pawar, Annabhau Sathe, Laxman Mane, Laxman Gaikwad, Sharankumar Limbale, Bhau Panchbhai, Kishor Shantabai Kale, Narendra Jadhav, Keshav Meshram, Urmila Pawar, Vinay Dharwadkar, Gangadhar Pantawane, Kumud Pawde and Jyoti Lanjewar.[57][58][59][60]
In recent decades there has been a trend among Marathi speaking parents of all social classes in major urban areas of sending their children to English medium schools. There is some concern that this may lead to the marginalisation of the language.[61]
Geographic distribution
Marathi is primarily spoken in Maharashtra[62] and parts of neighbouring states of Gujarat (majorly in Vadodara, and amongst a small number of population in Surat), Madhya Pradesh (in the districts of Burhanpur, Betul, Chhindwara and Balaghat), Goa, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu (in Thanjavur) and Karnataka (in the districts of Belagavi, Karwar, Bagalkote, Vijayapura, Kalaburagi and Bidar), Telangana, union-territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.[63][64] The former Maratha ruled cities of Baroda, Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Tanjore have had sizeable Marathi-speaking populations for centuries.[citation needed] Marathi is also spoken by Maharashtrian migrants to other parts of India and overseas.[62] For instance, the people from western India who emigrated to Mauritius in the early 19th century also speak Marathi.[65]
There were 83 million native Marathi speakers in India, according to the 2011 census, making it the third most spoken native language after Hindi and Bengali. Native Marathi speakers form 6.86% of India's population. Native speakers of Marathi formed 70.34% of the population in Maharashtra, 10.89% in Goa, 7.01% in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, 4.53% in Daman and Diu, 3.38% in Karnataka, 1.7% in Madhya Pradesh, and 1.52% in Gujarat.[6]
International
The following table is a list of the geographic distribution of Marathi speakers as it appears in the 2019 edition of Ethnologue, a language reference published by SIL International, which is based in the United States.[66]
| Country | Speaker population | Notes |
|---|---|---|
 Australia
|
13,100 | 2016 census |
 Canada
|
8,300 | 2016 census |
 Israel
|
23,000 | Leclerc 2018a |
 Mauritius
|
17,000 | Leclerc 2018c |
 New Zealand
|
2,900 | 2013 census |
 UK
|
6,410 | 2011 census |
 USA
|
73,600 | 2015 census |
Status
Marathi is the official language of Maharashtra and additional official language in the state of Goa.[4] In Goa, Konkani is the sole official language; however, Marathi may also be used for any or all official purposes in case any request is received in Marathi. [5] Marathi is included among the languages that are part of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, thus granting it the status of a "scheduled language".[68] The Government of Maharashtra has applied to the Ministry of Culture to grant classical language status to Marathi.[69]
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.[citation needed] Traditions of Marathi Linguistics and the above-mentioned rules give special status to tatsamas, words adapted from Sanskrit. This special status expects the rules for tatsamas to be followed as in Sanskrit. This practice provides Marathi with a large corpus of Sanskrit words to cope with the demands of new technical words whenever needed.
In addition to all universities in Maharashtra, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Vadodara,[70] Osmania University in Hyderabad,[71] Karnataka University in Dharwad,[72] Gulbarga University in Kalaburagi,[73] Devi Ahilya University in Indore[74] and Goa University in Goa[75] have special departments for higher studies in Marathi linguistics. Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) has announced plans to establish a special department for Marathi.[76]
Marathi Day is celebrated on 27 February, the birthday of the poet Kusumagraj (Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar).[77]
Dialects
Standard Marathi is based on dialects used by academics and the print media.
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.[78]
Varhadi
Varhadi (Varhādi) (वऱ्हाडि) or Vaidarbhi (वैदर्भि) is spoken in the Western Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. In Marathi, the retroflex lateral approximant ḷ [ɭ] is common, while sometimes in the Varhadii dialect, it corresponds to the palatal approximant y (IPA: ), 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.
Zadi Boli
Zaadi Boli or Zhaadiboli[79] (झाडिबोलि) is spoken in Zaadipranta (a forest rich region) of far eastern Maharashtra or eastern Vidarbha or western-central Gondwana comprising Gondia, Bhandara, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and some parts of Nagpur of Maharashtra.[80][81]
Zaadi Boli Sahitya Mandal and many literary figures are working for the conservation of this dialect of Marathi.
Southern Indian Marathi
Thanjavur Marathi तञ्जावूर् मराठि, Namadeva Shimpi Marathi, Arey Marathi (Telangana), Kasaragod (north Kerala) and Bhavsar Marathi are some of the dialects of Marathi spoken by many descendants of Maharashtrians who migrated to Southern India. These dialects retain the 17th-century basic form of Marathi and have been considerably influenced by the Dravidian languages[82] after the migration. These dialects have speakers in various parts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.[83]
Other
- Thanjavur Marathi, spoken in Tanjore, Tamil Nadu
- Judæo-Marathi, spoken by the Bene Israel Jews
- East Indian Marathi, spoken by the Indian Christian East Indian ethno-religious group
Other Marathi–Konkani languages and dialects spoken in Maharashtra include Maharashtrian Konkani, Malvani, Sangameshwari, Agri, Andh, Warli, Vadvali and Samavedi.
Phonology
Writing
The Kadamba script and its variants have been historically used to write Marathi in the form of inscriptions on stones and copper plates.[84] The Marathi version of Devanagari, called Balbodh, is similar to the Hindi Devanagari alphabet except for its use for certain words. Some words in Marathi preserve the schwa, which has been omitted in other languages which use Devanagari. For example, the word 'रंग' (colour) is pronounced as 'ranga' in Marathi & 'rang' in other languages using Devanagari, and 'खरं' (true), despite the anuswara, is pronounced as 'khara'. The anuswara in this case is used to avoid schwa deletion in pronunciation; most other languages using Devanagari show schwa deletion in pronunciation despite the presence of schwa in the written spelling. From the 13th century until the beginning of British rule in the 19th century, Marathi was written in the Modi script for administrative purposes but in Devanagari for literature. Since 1950 it has been written in the Balbodh style of Devanagari. Except for Father Thomas Stephens' Krista Purana in the Latin script in the 1600s, Marathi has mainly been printed in Devanagari because William Carey, the pioneer of printing in Indian languages, was only able to print in Devanagari. He later tried printing in Modi but by that time, Balbodh Devanagari had been accepted for printing.[85]
Devanagari
Marathi is usually written in the Balbodh[86][87][88][89] version of Devanagari script, an abugida consisting of 36 consonant letters and 16 initial-vowel letters. It is written from left to right. The Devanagari alphabet used to write Marathi is slightly different from the Devanagari alphabets of Hindi and other languages: there are additional letters in the Marathi alphabet and Western punctuation is used.
William Carey in 1807 Observed that as with other parts of India, a traditional duality existed in script usage between Devanagari for religious texts, and Modi for commerce and administration.
Although in the Mahratta country the Devanagari character is well known to men of education, yet a character is current among the men of business which is much smaller, and varies considerably in form from the Nagari, though the number and power of the letters nearly correspond.[90]
Vowelsedit
| Devanagari | Transliterated | IPA | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| अ | a | /ə/ | |
| आ | ā | /a(ː)/ | |
| इ | i | /i/ | |
| ई | ī | /i(ː)/ | |
| उ | u | /u/ | |
| ऊ | ū | /u(ː)/ | |
| ऋ | ṛ | /ru/ | |
| ए | e | /e/ | |
| ऐ | ai | /əi/ | |
| ओ | o | /o/ | |
| औ | au | /əu/ | |
| अं | aṃ | /əm/ | |
| अः | aḥ | /əɦə/ |
Consonantsedit
| क | ख | ग | घ | ङ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ka /kə/ |
kha /kʰə/ |
ga /ɡə/ |
gha /ɡʱə/ |
ṅa (/ŋə/) |
|
| च | छ | ज | झ | ञ | |
| ca, ċa /t͡ɕə/ or /t͡sə/ |
cha /t͡ɕʰə/ |
ja, j̈a /d͡ʑə/ or /d͡zə/ |
jha, j̈ha /d͡ʑʱə/ or /d͡zʱə/ |
ña (/ɲə/) |
|
| ट | ठ | ड | ढ | ण | |
| ṭa /ʈə/ |
ṭha /ʈʰə/ |
ḍa /ɖə/ |
ḍha /ɖʱə/ |
ṇa /ɳə/ |
|
| त | थ | द | ध | न | |
| ta /tə/ |
tha /tʰə/ |
da /də/ |
dha /dʱə/ |
na /nə/ |
|
| प | फ | ब | भ | म | |
| pa /pə/ |
pha /pʰə/ or /fə/ |
ba /bə/ |
bha /bʱə/ |
ma /mə/ |
|
| य | र | ल | व | श | |
| ya /jə/ |
ra /ɾə/ |
la /lə/ |
va /ʋə/ |
śa /ʃə/ |
|
| ष | स | ह | ळ | क्ष | ज्ञ |
| ṣa /ʂə/ |
sa /sə/ |
ha /ɦə/ |
ḷa /ɭə/ |
kṣa /kɕə/ |
jña /dɲə/ |
It is written from left to right. Devanagari used to write Marathi is slightly different from that of Hindi or other languages. It uses additional vowels and consonants that are not found in other languages that also use Devanagari.
Example of consonant–vowel combinationedit
Combination of the vowels with K: