Marathi - मराठी Language
Marathi is one of the Indo-Aryan languages. Marathi is spoken by about 80 million people (2002), living mainly in India and Mauritius. It is one of the 22 official languages of India and ranks among the 20 most widely used languages of the world.
Marathi has a long literary tradition. It is the main language of the state of Maharashtra. After splitting from other languages of his group, presumably about 1000 years ago, Marathi became an independent language. The oldest evidence of the written Marathi is located on a giant millennial statue in the city of Shravana-Belangola in southern India. The inscription tells of King Gangaraya, who paid for the construction of the statue, as well as his commander Chamundaraya, who was in charge of the construction. The main literary figure of Marathi is considered the medieval writer Dnyeshvar, who is highly revered in India.
Marathi is common in the Indian state of Maharashtra and in the adjacent areas of the neighboring states of Gujarat, MP, Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and the Daman and Diu territories and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Significant Marathi-speaking communities exist in cities such as Vadodara, Surat, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Belgaum, Indore, and Gwalior. In addition, the language is used by immigrants around the world, mainly in the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Great Britain, Australia, Singapore, and others.
Marathi has official status in Maharashtra, as well as official status along with other languages in Daman and Diu and in Dadra and Nagar Haveli. In Goa, despite the official status of Konkani, Marathi can be used for all official purposes. In addition, according to the constitution of India, Marathi is one of the official languages of the country.
Scientists distinguish about 42 dialects of the language, the main differences between them are lexical and phonological. However, most of these dialects are quite similar to each other and mutually understood with each other. The main dialectal groups include: ahirani, khadeshi, zadi-pain, vadvali, samavedi and are-marathi.
The written Marathi appeared around the XI century in the form of inscriptions on stones and copper plates. From the thirteenth to the middle of the twentieth century, the letter Mod. Since 1950, the Devanagari alphabet has been used, as in Hindi and some other Indian languages. At certain historical stages in the documentation, written on the basis of Arabic was used.
About 50% of the Marathi vocabulary in one way or another goes back to Sanskrit, which is more than in other North Indian languages. Such vocabulary has undergone varying degrees of change. Examples include such words as: nantar (from nantaram - "after"), puṣkaḷ (from puṣkalam - "many"), satat (from satatam - "always"), prayatna (from prayatnam - "attempt"), ghar (from gṛham - "house"), vāgh (from vyāghram - "tiger").
"Marathi - मराठी" is at the 19th Position in this list.
