View source for Social:Marathi language

{{Short description|Indo-Aryan language}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2023}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Marathi
| nativename       = मराठी
| altname          = {{lang|mr|Marāṭhī}}
| imagecaption     = The word "Marathi" in Devanagari script
| image            = Marathi language.svg
| imageheader      = 
| pronunciation    = {{IPA-mr|məˈɾaːʈʰiː||MarathiLanguage_pronunciation.ogg}}
| ethnicity        = Marathis
| state            = {{wipe|India}}
| region           = Maharashtra
| speakers         = [[Social:First language|L1]]: {{sigfig|83.201270|2}} million
| date             = 2011 census
| ref              = e26
| speakers2        = L2: {{sigfig|16.015600|2}} million (2011 census)<ref name=e26/>
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Social:Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]]
| fam3             = [[Social:Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]]
| fam4             = Southern Indo-Aryan
| fam5             = Marathi-Konkani
| dia1             = Maharashtrian Konkani
| dia2             = [[Social:Varhadi dialect|Varhadi Marathi]]
| dia3             = Thanjavur Marathi
| dia4             = East Indian Marathi
| dia5             = Judeo-Marathi
| dia6             = Jhadi boli
| ancestor         = [[Social:Maharashtri Prakrit|Maharashtri Prakrit]]
| script           = *Devanagari (official) 
*Devanagari Braille
*Modi script (historical)<ref>{{cite web | url=https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/pune-know-your-city-modi-script-7758105/ | title=Know Your City: The Modi script, using which Maratha empire would conduct business | date=5 February 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/other-modi-wave-how-700-year-marathi-script-is-making-a-comeback/articleshow/70111334.cms | title='Other' Modi wave: How 700-year Marathi script is making a comeback &#124; Mumbai News - Times of India | website=The Times of India | date=7 July 2019 }}</ref>
| sign             = Indian Signing System
| nation           = {{IND}}
* Maharashtra
* Goa<ref name="ic">{{cite web |title=The Goa, Daman and Diu Official Language Act, 1987 |url=https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/6809/1/official_language_act.pdf |access-date=12 November 2022 |website=indiacode.nic.in }}</ref><ref name="goa"/> (additional)
| agency           = Ministry of Marathi Language and various other institutions
| iso1             = mr
| iso2             = mar
| lc1              = mar
| ld1              = Modern Marathi
| lc2              = omr
| ld2              = Old Marathi
| linglist         = omr
| lingname         = Old Marathi
| glotto           = mara1378
| glottoname       = Modern Marathi
| glottorefname    = Marathi
| glotto2          = oldm1244
| glottoname2      = Old Marathi
| lingua           = 59-AAF-o
| notice           = Indic
| notice2          = IPA
| map              = Marathi speaker map.svg
| mapcaption       = {{Legend|#2a7fff|regions where Marathi is the language of the majority or plurality}} {{Legend|#80b3ff|regions where Marathi is the language of a significant minority}}
| map2             = File:Geographic distribution of Marathi language.png|
| mapcaption2      = Map of Marathi language in India (district-wise). Darker shades imply a greater percentage of native speakers of Marathi in each district.
}}
'''Marathi''' ({{IPAc-en|m|ə|ˈ|r|ɑː|t|i}};<ref>Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh</ref> {{lang|mr|मराठी}}, {{IPA-mr|məˈɾaːʈʰiː|pron|MarathiLanguage_pronunciation.ogg}}) is an [[Social:Indo-Aryan languages|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. 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 [[Social:Bengali language|Bengali]].<ref name="auto1">{{cite web|url=http://censusindia.gov.in/2011Census/C-16_25062018_NEW.pdf|title=Abstract of Language Strength in India: 2011 Census |publisher=Censusindia.gov.in}}</ref> The language has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indian languages.<ref>"arts, South Asian". ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite.</ref> The major dialects of Marathi are Standard Marathi and the [[Social:Varhadi dialect|Varhadi dialect]].<ref name=kas>{{cite journal|title=Marathi|journal=London Oriental and African Language Library|volume=13 |first1=Rameśa|last1= Dhoṅgaḍe|first2=Kashi|last2=Wali|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|year=2009|isbn=9789027238139|pages=101, 139}}</ref>

Marathi distinguishes inclusive and exclusive forms of 'we' and possesses a three-way gender system, that features the neuter in addition to the masculine and the feminine. In its [[Social:Phonology|phonology]], it contrasts apico-alveolar with alveopalatal affricates and alveolar with retroflex laterals ({{IPA|[l]}} and {{IPA|[ɭ]}} (Marathi letters {{lang|mr|ल}} and {{lang|mr|ळ}} respectively).{{Sfn|Dhongde|Wali|2009|pp=11–15}}

== History ==
[[File:Foot bahubali2.jpg|right|thumb|981 A.D. Marathi inscription at the foot of [[Religion:Bahubali|Bahubali statue]] at Jain temple in Shravanabelagola is the earliest known Marathi inscription found. It was derived from Prakrit language]]
Indian languages, including Marathi, that belong to the [[Social:Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan language family]] are derived from early forms of [[Social:Prakrit|Prakrit]]. Marathi is one of several languages that further descend from [[Social:Maharashtri Prakrit|Maharashtri Prakrit]]. Further changes led to the formation of [[Social:Apabhraṃśa|Jain Apabhraṃśa]] followed by Old Marathi.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pandharipande |first=Rajeshwari |date=1997 |title=Marathi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FeNBEAAAQBAJ&q=jain&pg=PT24 |location= |publisher=Routledge |page=xxxvii |isbn=0-415-00319-9}}</ref>
However, this is challenged by Bloch (1970), who states that [[Social:Apabhraṃśa|Apabhraṃśa]] was formed after Marathi had already separated from the Middle Indian dialect.{{sfn|Bloch|1970|p=32}}

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 [[Social:Brahmi script|Brahmi script]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Singh |first=Upinder |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |publisher=Pearson Education India |year=2008 |isbn=978-81-317-1120-0 |page=384 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=D'Arms |first1=John H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MBuPx1rdGYIC |title=Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History |last2=Thurnau |first2=Arthur F. |last3=Alcock |first3=Susan E. |date=9 August 2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-77020-0 |page=168 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Chattopadhyaya |first=Sudhakar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=78I5lDHU2jQC |title=Some Early Dynasties of South India |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. |year=1974 |isbn=978-81-208-2941-1 |pages=35–37 |language=en}}</ref> 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 [[Social:Sanskrit|Sanskrit]] as a sister language.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/clamour-grows-for-marathi-to-be-given-classical-language-status/articleshow/63776578.cms|title=Clamour grows for Marathi to be given classical language status|author=Clara Lewis|website=The Times of India|date=16 April 2018|access-date=7 May 2018}}</ref> 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 [[Social:Sanskrit|Sanskrit]] or Kannada in these inscriptions.{{sfn|Christian Lee Novetzke|2016|p=53}} 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.{{sfn|Christian Lee Novetzke|2016|pp=53-54}} A 2-line 1118 CE Marathi inscription at Shravanabelagola records a grant by the Hoysalas. These inscriptions suggest that Marathi 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.{{sfn|Christian Lee Novetzke|2016|p=54}}

=== Yadava period ===
After 1187 CE, the use of Marathi grew substantially in the inscriptions of the [[History:Seuna (Yadava) dynasty|Yadava]] kings, who earlier used Kannada and Sanskrit in their inscriptions.{{sfn|Christian Lee Novetzke|2016|pp=53-54}} 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.{{sfn|Christian Lee Novetzke|2016|p=53}}<ref name="Talbot2001">{{cite book|author=Cynthia Talbot|title=Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pfAKljlCJq0C&pg=PR9|date=20 September 2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-803123-9|pages=211–213}}</ref>

Further growth and usage of the language was because of two religious sects – the Mahanubhava and Varkari ''[[Religion:Panthan|panthan]]''s – who adopted Marathi as the medium for preaching their doctrines of devotion. Marathi was used in court life by the time of the [[History:Seuna (Yadava) dynasty|Yadava]] kings. During the reign of the last three Yadava kings, a great deal of literature in verse and prose, on astrology, medicine, [[Religion:Puranas|Puranas]], [[Philosophy:Vedanta|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'' ({{lang|mr|विवेकसिंधु}}), was written by Mukundaraja, a Nath yogi and arch-poet of Marathi. Mukundaraja bases his exposition of the basic tenets of the [[Philosophy:Hindu philosophy|Hindu philosophy]] and the yoga marga on the utterances or teachings of [[Religion:Shankaracharya|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 "{{IAST|Līḷācarītra}}" ({{lang|mr|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 ''[[Religion:Bhagavad Gita|Bhagavad Gita]]'', poetical works narrating the stories of the life of [[Religion:Krishna|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 ''[[Religion:Dnyaneshwari|Dnyaneshwari]]'' and ''[[Religion:Amrutanubhav|Amrutanubhav]]a''.{{sfn|Mokashi|1987|p=39}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Doderet |first1=W. |title=The Passive Voice of the Jnanesvari |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London |date=1926 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=59–64 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/607401 |issn=1356-1898}}</ref>

Mukund Raj was a poet who lived in the 13th century and is said to be the first poet who composed in Marathi.{{sfn|Kher|1895|pp=446–454}} He is known for the ''Viveka-Siddhi'' and ''Parammruta'' which are metaphysical, pantheistic works connected with orthodox [[Philosophy:Advaita Vedanta|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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Keune|first1=Jon Milton|title=Eknāth Remembered and Reformed: Bhakti, Brahmans, and Untouchables in Marathi Historiography|date=2011|publisher=Columbia University press|location=New York, New York, US|page=32|url=http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:11409|access-date=9 March 2016}}</ref> Mukteshwar translated the ''[[Religion:Mahabharata|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.<ref name="Greenwood Press">{{cite book|editor-last1=Natarajan|editor-first1=Nalini|title=Handbook of twentieth century literatures of India|date=1996|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, Conn. [u.a.]|isbn=978-0313287787|page=209|edition=1. publ.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1lTnv6o-d_oC&q=dnyaneshwari+geeta+bhavarth+deepika&pg=PA207}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite journal|date=1992|title=Deccan (Maharashtra) Under the Muslim Rulers From Khaljis to Shivaji : a Study in Interaction, Professor S.M Katre Felicitation|jstor=42930434|journal=Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute|volume=51/52|pages=501–510|last1=Kulkarni|first1=G.T.}}</ref> 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)<ref name="iranicaonline.org">{{cite web|last1=Qasemi|first1=S. H.|title=Marathi Language, Persian Elements In|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/marathi-language|website=Encyclopedia Iranica|access-date=17 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pathan |first1=Y. M. |title=Farsi-Marathi Anubandh (फारसी मराठी अनुबंध) |date=2006 |publisher=महाराष्ट्र राज्य साहित्य आणि संस्कृती मंडळ |location=Mumbai |url=https://sahitya.marathi.gov.in/scans/Farsi-Marathi%20Anubandh.pdf |access-date=13 February 2022}}</ref> Marathi also became language of administration during the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gordon|first1=Stewart|title=Cambridge History of India: The Marathas 1600-1818|date=1993|publisher=Cambridge University press|location=Cambridge, UK|isbn=978-0-521-26883-7|page=16|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iHK-BhVXOU4C&q=marathi++nizamshahi+stewart+gordon&pg=PR9}}</ref> Adilshahi of Bijapur also used Marathi for administration and record keeping.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Kamat|first1=Jyotsna|title=The Adil Shahi Kingdom (1510 CE to 1686 CE)|url=http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/bijapur/adilshahis.htm|website=Kamat's Potpourri|access-date=4 December 2014}}</ref>

===Maratha Empire===
Marathi gained prominence with the rise of the [[Place:Maratha Empire|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 [[Social:Persianization|persianised]]. Whereas in 1630, 80% of the vocabulary was Persian, it dropped to 37% by 1677.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Eaton|first1=Richard M. |title=The new Cambridge history of India|date=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=0-521-25484-1|page=154|edition=1. publ.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cGd2huLXEVYC&q=Afanasy+Nikitin+bahamani&pg=PR12|access-date=25 March 2016}}</ref> His reign stimulated the deployment of Marathi as a tool of systematic description and understanding.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pollock|first=Sheldon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=740AqMUW8WQC&pg=PA50|title=Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern Asia: Explorations in the Intellectual History of India and Tibet, 1500–1800|date=14 March 2011|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-4904-4|pages=50|language=en}}</ref> Shivaji Maharaj commissioned one of his officials, Balaji Avaji Chitnis, to make a comprehensive lexicon to replace Persian and [[Social:Arabic|Arabic]] terms with their Sanskrit equivalents. This led to production of 'Rājavyavahārakośa', the thesaurus of state usage in 1677.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pollock|first=Sheldon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=740AqMUW8WQC&pg=PA50|title=Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern Asia: Explorations in the Intellectual History of India and Tibet, 1500–1800|date=14 March 2011|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-4904-4|pages=50, 60|language=en}}</ref> 

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. 
[[File:Ancient scriptures on the walls in Big Temple, Thanjavur - 2.JPG|right|thumb|Marathi inscription inside Brihadisvara temple complex, Thanjavur]]
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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Callewaert|first1=Winand M.|last2=Snell|first2=Rupert|last3=Tulpule|first3=S G|title=According to Tradition: Hagiographical Writing in India|date=1994|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|location=Wiesbaden, Germany|isbn=3-447-03524-2|page=166|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GrMwdEqHLzEC&q=mahipati+&pg=PA159|access-date=9 April 2015}}</ref><ref name="Greenwood Press"/>
Other well known literary scholars of the 17th century were Mukteshwar and Shridhar.<ref name="auto">{{cite book|editor-last1=Kosambi|editor-first1=Meera|last=Ranade|first=Ashok D.|title=Intersections : socio-cultural trends in Maharashtra|date=2000|publisher=Sangam|location=London|isbn=978-0863118241|pages=194–210|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XU8dmAiaZSgC&q=anant+phandi&pg=PA194}}</ref> Mukteshwar was the grandson of Eknath and is the most distinguished poet in the ''Ovi'' meter. He is most known for translating the [[Religion:Mahabharata|Mahabharata]] and the [[Biology:Ramayana|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.<ref name="auto"/>

===British colonial period===
The [[History:British Raj|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 [[Religion:Bible|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.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Ray|editor-first1=Mohit K.|last=Sawant|first=Sunil|title=Studies in translation|date=2008|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors|location=New Delhi|isbn=9788126909223|pages=134–135|edition=2nd rev. and enl.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Puy3WGwVWXoC&pg=PA133}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|first1=James|last1=Molesworth|first2=Thomas|last2=Candy|others=Narayan G Kalelkar (preface)|title=Molesworth's, Marathi-English dictionary|year=1857 |edition=2nd <!-- |year=1975 corrected reprint -->|publisher=J.C. Furla, Shubhada Saraswat Prakashan|location=Pune|isbn=81-86411-57-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=owHmI3qi_BIC&q=william+carey+printing++marathi+sharma+modi&pg=PP7}}</ref>
The colonial authorities also worked on standardising Marathi under the leadership of Molesworth and Candy. They used 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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Chavan|first1=Dilip|title=Language politics under colonialism : caste, class and language pedagogy in western India|date=2013|publisher=Cambridge Scholars|location=Newcastle upon Tyne|isbn=978-1443842501|page=174|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zuIxBwAAQBAJ&pg=PR7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Chavan|first1=Dilip|title=Language politics under colonialism : caste, class and language pedagogy in western India|date=2013|publisher=Cambridge Scholars|location=Newcastle upon Tyne|isbn=978-1443842501|pages=136–184|edition=first|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zuIxBwAAQBAJ&q=pune+standard+dialect&pg=PA148|access-date=13 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Natarajan|editor-first1=Nalini |last=Deo|first=Shripad D.|title=Handbook of twentieth century literatures of India|date=1996|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, Conn. [u.a.]|isbn=978-0313287787|page=212|edition=1. publ.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1lTnv6o-d_oC&q=pune+culture+theatre+movies&pg=PA207}}</ref><ref name="Rao1994">{{cite book|editor=Goparaju Sambasiva Rao|author=Rajyashree|title=Language Change: Lexical Diffusion and Literacy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Ben0lE61msC&pg=PA9|year=1994|publisher=Academic Foundation|isbn=978-81-7188-057-7|pages=45–58}}</ref>

The first Marathi translation of the [[Religion:New Testament|New Testament]] was published in 1811 by the Serampore press of William Carey.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=George|title=Life of William Carey: Shoemaker and Missionary|date=2016|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform|isbn=978-1536976120|page=258|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZLa787pY5gMC&pg=PR1}}</ref> The first Marathi newspaper called Durpan was started by Balshastri Jambhekar in 1832.<ref>Tucker, R., 1976. Hindu Traditionalism and Nationalist Ideologies in Nineteenth-Century Maharashtra. Modern Asian Studies, 10(3), pp.321-348.</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Govind|first=Ranjani|url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/musical-drama-brings-epic-to-life/article27287694.ece|title=Musical drama brings epic to life|date=29 May 2019|work=The Hindu|access-date=15 March 2020|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> 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.<ref name="O'Hanlon2002">{{cite book|author=Rosalind O'Hanlon|title=Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth-Century Western India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5kMrsTj1NeYC|date=22 August 2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52308-0|page=288}}</ref> Later under the editorship of Lokmanya Tilak, the newspaper was instrumental in spreading Tilak's nationalist and social views.<ref name="rao2008">{{cite journal | last1 = Rao | first1 = P.V. | s2cid = 143961063 | year = 2008 | title = Women's Education and the Nationalist Response in Western India: Part II–Higher Education | journal = Indian Journal of Gender Studies | volume = 15 | issue = 1| pages = 141–148 | doi=10.1177/097152150701500108}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Rao | first1 = P.V. | s2cid = 197651677 | year = 2007 | title = Women's Education and the Nationalist Response in Western India: Part I-Basic Education | journal = Indian Journal of Gender Studies | volume = 14 | issue = 2| page = 307 | doi=10.1177/097152150701400206}}</ref><ref name="jstor.org">{{cite journal|author=Gail Omvedt|title=Non-Brahmans and Nationalists in Poona|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|date=1974|volume=9|issue=6/8|pages=201–219|jstor=4363419}}</ref> Tilak was also opposed to intercaste marriage, particularly the match where an upper caste woman married a lower caste man.<ref name="jstor.org"/> Phule and Deshmukh also started their periodicals, ''Deenbandhu'' and ''Prabhakar'', that criticised the prevailing Hindu culture of the day.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Natarajan|editor-first1=Nalini |last=Deo|first=Shripad D.|title=Handbook of twentieth century literatures of India|date=1996|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, Conn. [u.a.]|isbn=978-0313287787|pages=213–214|edition=1. publ.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1lTnv6o-d_oC&q=pune+culture+theatre+movies&pg=PA207}}</ref> 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<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pardeshi |first1=Prashant |title=The Passive and Related Constructions in Marathi |series=Kobe papers in linguistics |issue=2 |date=2000 |location=Kobe, Japan |publisher=Kobe University |pages=123–146 |url=http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/repository/81001549.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315070603/http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/repository/81001549.pdf |archive-date=15 March 2018}}</ref>

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===
[[File:marathinewspapers.jpg|thumb| The popular Marathi language newspapers at a newsstand in Mumbai, 2006]]
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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Deshpande|first1=G. P.|title=Marathi Literature since Independence: Some Pleasures and Displeasures|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|date=1997|volume=32|issue=44/45|pages=2885–2892|jstor=4406042}}</ref><ref>"अवलिया लोकसाहित्यीक", "Sakal, a leading Marathi Daily", Pune, 21 November 2021.</ref>

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 {{wipe|Mumbai}}, a movement inspired by 19th century social reformer, Jyotiba Phule and eminent dalit leader, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.<ref>{{cite book |title=Handbook of twentieth-century literatures of India |last=Natarajan |first=Nalini |author2=Emmanuel Sampath Nelson|chapter= Chap 13: Dalit Literature in Marathi by Veena Deo|year=1996 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=0-313-28778-3|page=363 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1lTnv6o-d_oC&q=Dalit+literature&pg=PA363 }}</ref> Baburao Bagul (1930–2008) was a pioneer of Dalit writings in Marathi.<ref name=han>[https://books.google.com/books?id=1lTnv6o-d_oC&dq=Baburao+Bagul&pg=PA368 Issues of Language and Representation: Babu Rao Bagul] ''Handbook of twentieth-century literatures of India'', Editors: Nalini Natarajan, Emmanuel Sampath Nelson. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996. {{ISBN|0-313-28778-3}}. '' Page 368''.</ref> His first collection of stories, ''Jevha Mi Jat Chorali'' ({{lang|mr|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.<ref name=sa>[https://books.google.com/books?id=kLn11KD4ea0C&pg=PA409 Mother 1970] ''Indian short stories, 1900–2000'', by E.V. Ramakrishnan, I. V. Ramakrishnana. Sahitya Akademi. ''Page 217'', ''Page 409'' (Biography).</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zB4n3MVozbUC&dq=Baburao+Bagul&pg=PA1823 Jevha Mi Jat Chorali Hoti (1963)] ''Encyclopaedia of Indian literature vol. 2''. Editors	Amaresh Datta. Sahitya Akademi, 1988. {{ISBN|81-260-1194-7}}. ''Page 1823''.</ref> Gradually with other writers like Namdeo Dhasal (who founded Dalit Panther), these Dalit writings paved way for the strengthening of Dalit movement.<ref>{{cite news |title=Of art, identity, and politics |url= http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/01/23/stories/2003012300470200.htm|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20030702073745/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/01/23/stories/2003012300470200.htm|url-status= dead|archive-date= 2 July 2003|newspaper=The Hindu |date=23 January 2003 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mathur |first1=Barkha |title=City hails Pantawane as 'father of Dalit literature' |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/city-hails-pantawane-as-father-of-dalit-literature-mourn-his-passing-away/articleshow/63494065.cms |access-date=22 February 2019 |work=The Times of India |date=28 March 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Deo |first1=Veena |title=Dalit Literaturetwenty-Five Years of Protest? Of Progress? |last2=Zelliot |first2=Eleanor |journal=Journal of South Asian Literature |date=1994 |volume= 29 |issue=2 |pages=41–67 |jstor=25797513}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Feldhaus |first1=Anne |title=Images of Women in Maharashtrian Literature and Religion |date=1996 |publisher=SUNY Press |page=78 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooV3Rz9zQvQC&q=Jyoti+Lanjewar+news&pg=PA78 |access-date=22 February 2019|isbn=9780791428375 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/gender/how-three-generations-of-dalit-women-writers-saw-their-identities-and-struggle-4984202/ |title=How three generations of Dalit women writers saw their identities and struggle? |website=The Indian Express |author=Maya Pandit |date=27 December 2017 |access-date=22 February 2019}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Assayag|first1=Jackie|last2=Fuller|first2=Christopher John|title=Globalizing India: Perspectives from Below|date=2005|publisher=Anthem Press|location=London, UK|isbn=1-84331-194-1|page=80|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLd5yo3JIgkC&q=marathi+maharashtra+school+english+medium&pg=PA141}}</ref>

== Geographic distribution ==
Marathi is primarily spoken in Maharashtra<ref name="eth" /> and parts of neighbouring states of Gujarat (majorly in Vadodara, and amongst small amount 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.<ref name="dadra">[http://dnh.nic.in/deptdoc/vguide.pdf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107091953/http://dnh.nic.in/deptdoc/vguide.pdf|date=7 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=C-16 Population By Mother Tongue |url=https://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-16.html |website=censusindia.gov.in |access-date=3 April 2021}}</ref> The former Maratha ruled cities of Baroda, Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Tanjore have had sizeable Marathi-speaking populations for centuries.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} Marathi is also spoken by Maharashtrian migrants to other parts of India and overseas.<ref name="eth">{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=mar|title=Marathi|website=ethnologue.com}}</ref> For instance, the people from western India who emigrated to Mauritius in the early 19th century also speak Marathi.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mmcct.mu/userfiles/file/pdf/MARATHI%20REPORT%20AS%20AT%20090112final.pdf|title=Marathi Culture, History and Heritage in Mauritius|access-date=22 January 2020}}</ref>

[[File:Marathi Speaker Comparison Plain File.jpg|alt=Number of Marathi speakers is more than combined population of Germany and Netherlands. |thumb|Poster showcasing comparison of Marathi language speakers with Germany and Netherlands. |290x290px]]

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.<ref name="auto1"/>

=== 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 [[Organization:SIL International|SIL International]], which is based in the {{wipe|United States}}.<ref name=":02">{{cite web|title=Summary by language size|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size|access-date=12 March 2019|website=Ethnologue|date=3 October 2018|language=en}} For items below #26, see individual ''Ethnologue'' entry for each language.</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+International geographic distribution
as per ''Ethnologue.''<ref>{{cite web|title=Marathi|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mar|access-date=14 June 2021|website=Ethnologue|language=en}}</ref>
!Country
!Speaker population
!Notes
|-
|{{AUS}}
|13,100
|2016 census
|-
|{{CAN}}
|8,300
|2016 census
|-
|{{ISR}}
|11,000
|Leclerc 2018a
|-
|{{flag|Mauritius}}
|17,000
|Leclerc 2018c
|-
|{{NZ}}
|2,900
|2013 census
|-
|{{flag|UK}}
|6,410
|2011 census
|-
|{{flag|USA}}
|73,600
|2015 census
|}

== Status ==
Marathi is the official language of Maharashtra and additional official language in the state of Goa.<ref name="ic"/> In Goa, [[Social:Konkani language|Konkani]] is the sole official language; however, Marathi may also be used for all official purposes in any case.<ref name="goa">The Goa, Daman, and Diu Official Language Act, 1987 makes Konkani the official language but provides that Marathi may also be used "for all or any of the official purposes". The Government also has a policy of replying in Marathi to correspondence received in Marathi. Commissioner Linguistic Minorities, [http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/35.htm], pp. para 11.3 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090919055657/http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/35.htm|date=19 September 2009}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.constitution.org/cons/india/shed08.htm|title=Schedule |website=constitution.org}}</ref> The Government of Maharashtra has applied to the Ministry of Culture to grant ''classical language'' status to Marathi.<ref>{{cite news|title=Marathi may become the sixth classical language|url=http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/marathi-may-become-the-sixth-classical-language/1137485/0|access-date=25 June 2017|newspaper=Indian Express}}</ref>

The contemporary grammatical rules described by [[Organization:Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad|Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad]] and endorsed by the Government of Maharashtra are supposed to take precedence in standard written Marathi.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} Traditions of Marathi Linguistics and the above-mentioned rules give special status to [[Social:Tatsama|tatsama]]s, words adapted from [[Social:Sanskrit|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,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.msubaroda.ac.in/departmentinfo.php?ffac_code=1&fdept_code=11 |title=Dept. of Marathi, M.S. University of Baroda |publisher=Msubaroda.ac.in |access-date=9 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104231031/http://www.msubaroda.ac.in/departmentinfo.php?ffac_code=1&fdept_code=11 |archive-date=4 November 2012 }}</ref> Osmania University in [[Place:Hyderabad|Hyderabad]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.osmania.ac.in/ArtsCollege/marathi.htm|title=University College of Arts and Social Sciences|work=osmania.ac.in}}</ref> Karnataka University in Dharwad,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kudacademics.org/departments|title=Departments and Faculty|author=kudadmin|work=kudacademics.org|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627153519/http://kudacademics.org/departments|archive-date=27 June 2014}}</ref> Gulbarga University in Kalaburagi,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gulbargauniversity.kar.nic.in/FacArt/Marathi.html|title=Department of P.G. Studies and Research in Marathi|work=kar.nic.in}}</ref> Devi Ahilya University in Indore<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dauniv.ac.in/|title=Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore|website=www.dauniv.ac.in|access-date=7 December 2019}}</ref> and Goa University in Goa<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unigoa.ac.in/department.php?adepid=8 |title=Dept.of Marathi, Goa University |publisher=Unigoa.ac.in |date=27 April 2012 |access-date=9 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130517213912/http://www.unigoa.ac.in/department.php?adepid=8 |archive-date=17 May 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> have special departments for higher studies in Marathi linguistics. Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) has announced plans to establish a special department for Marathi.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unitedstatesofindia.com/index.php/inspiration/today-in-history/item/888-01-may-1960|title=01 May 1960...|website=www.unitedstatesofindia.com}}</ref>

Marathi Day is celebrated on 27 February, the birthday of the poet Kusumagraj (Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marathimati.com/marathi-bhasha-diwas|title=मराठी भाषा दिवस - २७ फेब्रुवारी|website=www.marathimati.com}}</ref>

== 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 analysis|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.<ref name="UCLA">Khodade, 2004</ref>

=== Varhadi ===
{{main|Social:Varhadi dialect}}
''Varhadi'' (Varhādi) (वऱ्हाडि) or ''Vaidarbhi'' (वैदर्भि) is spoken in the Western Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.
In Marathi, the retroflex lateral approximant ''ḷ'' {{IPAblink|ɭ}} is common, while sometimes 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.

=== Zadi Boli ===
Zaadi Boli or Zhaadiboli<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.misalpav.com/node/30533|title=झाडी बोली (मराठी भाषेतील सौंदर्यस्थळे) {{!}} मिसळपाव|website=www.misalpav.com|access-date=15 March 2020}}</ref> ({{Lang|mr|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.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Klein|first1=Jared|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QgA3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT695|title=Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics|last2=Joseph|first2=Brian|last3=Fritz|first3=Matthias|date=25 September 2017|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|isbn=978-3-11-039324-8|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=देसाई|first=बापूराव|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LXELAQAAMAAJ|title=महाराष्ट्रातील समग्र बोलींचे: लोकसाहित्यशास्त्रीय अध्ययन : महाराष्ट्रातूनच नव्हे तर भारतातून प्रथमतः एकाच ग्रंथात सर्व बोलींचे लोकसाहित्यशास्त्र संस्कृतीदर्शन|date=2006|publisher=अनघा प्रकाशन|page=79|language=mr}}</ref>

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<ref>{{cite web|url=https://salc.uchicago.edu/language-study/marathi|title=Marathi {{!}} South Asian Languages and Civilizations|website=salc.uchicago.edu|access-date=15 March 2020}}</ref> after the migration. These dialects have speakers in various parts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.<ref>{{cite book |title=Indian Linguistics |date=2008 |publisher=Linguistic Society of India. |page=161 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fCmz4B8I62QC |language=en}}</ref>

=== 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 ==
[[File:Dnyaneshwari_Verse_In_Modi_Script.png|thumb|Modi script was used to write Marathi]]
[[File:Marathi Modi script stamp.png|thumb|An effort to conserve the "Modi Script" under India Post's My Stamp scheme. Here, the word 'Marathi' is printed in the "Modi Script".]]

The [[Social:Kadamba alphabet|Kadamba script]] and its variants have been historically used to write Marathi in the form of inscriptions on stones and copper plates.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sohoni|first1=Pushkar|title=Marathi of a single type: the demise of the Modi script|journal=Modern Asian Studies|date=May 2017|volume=51|issue=3|pages=662–685|doi=10.1017/S0026749X15000542|s2cid=148081127}}</ref> 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 [[Social:Schwa deletion in Indo-Aryan languages|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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rao|first1=Goparaju Sambasiva|title=Language Change: Lexical Diffusion and Literacy|date=1994|publisher=Academic Foundation|location=Delhi|isbn=81-7188-057-6|page=49|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Ben0lE61msC&q=marathi+print+carey+script&pg=PA27}}</ref>

=== Devanagari ===
Marathi is usually written in the ''Balbodh''<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Indian Languages|last = Masica|first = Colin P.|publisher = Cambridge University Press|year = 1993|isbn = 9780521299442|page = 437|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Itp2twGR6tsC|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141207082658/https://books.google.com/books?id=Itp2twGR6tsC|archive-date = 7 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Language Change: Lexical Diffusion and Literacy|last = Rao|first = Goparaju Sambasiva|publisher = Academic Foundation|year = 1994|isbn = 9788171880577|pages = 48 and 49|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141207082805/https://books.google.com/books?id=8Ben0lE61msC|archive-date = 7 December 2014|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8Ben0lE61msC}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://research.ijcaonline.org/ncipet/number10/ncipet1078.pdf|title = A Comparative Study of Handwritten Marathi Character Recognition|last1 = Ajmire|first1 = P.E.|date = 22 March 2013|journal = International Journal of Computer Applications|first2 = RV|last2 = Dharaskar|first3 = V M|last3 = Thakare|at = Introduction|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141207081847/http://research.ijcaonline.org/ncipet/number10/ncipet1078.pdf|archive-date = 7 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.typoday.in/2014/spk_papers14/rajendrathakre-typo14.pdf|title = Reviving the Modi Script|date = 28 February 2014|website = Typoday|last = Bhimraoji|first = Rajendra|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141207082007/http://www.typoday.in/2014/spk_papers14/rajendrathakre-typo14.pdf|archive-date = 7 December 2014}}</ref> 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 [[Social:Digraphia|duality]] existed in script usage between Devanagari for religious texts, and Modi for commerce and administration. {{blockquote|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.<ref>Carey, William. "Memoir Relative to the Translations" 1807: Serampore Mission Press.</ref>}}

Vowels

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
! Devanagari
| अ || आ || इ || ई || उ || ऊ || ऋ || ए || ऐ || ओ || औ || अं || अः || ॲ || ऑ
|-
! Transliterated
| a || ā || i || ī || u || ū || r̥ || e || ai || o || au || aṁ || aḥ || ê || ô
|-
! [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
| {{IPAblink|ə}} || {{IPAblink|a}} || {{IPAblink|i}} || [iː] || {{IPAblink|u}} || [uː] || [ru] ||{{IPAblink|e}} || {{IPA|[əi]}} || {{IPAblink|o}} || {{IPA|[əu]}} || {{IPA|[əm]}} || {{IPA|[əɦa]}} || {{IPAblink|æ}} || {{IPAblink|ɒ}}
|}

Vowel ligatures with Consonant क/ka

{| class="wikitable"
|- class="Unicode"
||<big>क</big>||<big>का</big>||<big>कि</big>||<big>की</big>||<big>कु</big>||<big>कू</big>||<big>कृ</big>||<big>के</big>||<big>कै</big>||<big>को</big>||<big>कौ</big>||<big>कं</big>||<big>कः</big>||<big>कॅ</big>||<big>कॉ</big>
|- class="Unicode"
||ka||kā||ki||kī||ku||kū||kr̥||ke||kai||ko||kau||kaṁ||kaḥ||kê||kô
|}

Consonants

{| class="wikitable"
|- 
||क्||<big>ख्</big>||<big>ग्</big>||<big>घ्</big>||<big>ङ्</big>
|- 
||k||kh||g||gh||ṅ
|-
||<big>च्</big>||<big>छ्</big>||<big>ज्</big>||<big>झ्</big>||<big>ञ्</big>
|-
||c||ch||j||jh||ñ
|-
||<big>ट्</big>||<big>ठ्</big>||<big>ड्</big>||<big>ढ्</big>||<big>ण्</big>
|-
||ṭ||ṭh||ḍ||ḍh||ṇ
|-
||<big>त्</big>||<big>थ्</big>||<big>द्</big>||<big>ध्</big>||<big>न्</big>
|-
||t||th||d||dh||n
|-
||<big>प्</big>||<big>फ्</big>||<big>ब्</big>||<big>भ्</big>||<big>म्</big>
|-
||p||ph||b||bh||m
|-
||<big>य्</big>||<big>र्</big>||<big>{{Lang|mr|ल}}</big>||<big>व्</big>
|-
||y||r||l||v
|-
||<big>श</big>||<big>ष्</big>||<big>स्</big>||<big>ह्</big>||<big>ळ्</big>
|-
||ś||ṣ||s||h||ḷ
|-
||<big>क्ष्</big>||<big>ज्ञ्</big>
|
|-
||kṣ||jñ
|
|
|
|}

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.

=== The Modi alphabet ===
From the thirteenth century until 1950, Marathi, especially for business use, was written in the Modi alphabet, a cursive script designed for minimising the lifting of pen from paper while writing.<ref>[http://marathimodi.tripod.com/home.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516210222/http://marathimodi.tripod.com/home.html|date=16 May 2008}}</ref>

=== Consonant clusters in Devanagari ===
In Devanagari, consonant letters by default come with an inherent schwa. Therefore, {{lang|mr|तयाचे}} will be <nowiki>'təyāche'</nowiki>, not <nowiki>'tyāche'</nowiki>. To form <nowiki>'tyāche'</nowiki>, you will have to write it as {{lang|mr|त्}} + {{lang|mr|याचे}}, giving {{lang|mr|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:

* {{lang|mr|'''त्या'''चे}} – ''tyāche'' – "his"
* {{lang|mr|'''प्रस्ता'''व}} – ''prastāva'' – "proposal"
* {{lang|mr|वि'''द्या'''}} – ''vidyā'' – "knowledge"
* {{lang|mr|'''म्या'''न}} – ''myān'' – "Sheath/scabbard"
* {{lang|mr|'''त्व'''रा}} – ''tvarā'' – "immediate/Quick"
* {{lang|mr|मह'''त्त्व'''}} – ''mahattva'' – "importance"
* {{lang|mr|फ'''क्त'''}} – ''phakta'' – "only"
* {{lang|mr|बाहु'''ल्या'''}} – ''bāhulyā'' – "dolls"
* क'''ण्हे'''री – ''kaṇherī'' – "[[Biology:Nerium|oleander]]" (known for its flowers)
* '''न्हा'''णे – ''nhāṇe'' – "bathing"
* '''म्ह'''णून – ''mhaṇūna'' – "therefore"
* त'''ऱ्हा''' – ''taṟhā'' – "different way of behaving"
* को'''ल्हा''' – ''kolhā'' – "fox"
* के'''व्हा''' – ''kevhā'' – "when"
In writing, Marathi has a few digraphs that are rarely seen in the world's languages, including those denoting the so-called "nasal aspirates" (ṇh (ण्ह), nh (न्ह) and mh (म्ह)) and liquid aspirates (rh, ṟh, lh ({{Lang|mr|ल्ह}}), and vh व्ह). Some examples are given above.

=== Eyelash reph/raphar ===
{{See also|Zero-width joiner|Virama}}The eyelash reph/raphar (रेफ/ रफार) (र्‍) exists in Marathi as well as Nepali. The eyelash reph/raphar (र्‍) is produced in Unicode by the sequence <big>[</big><big>ra</big> र <big>] </big>+ <big>[</big><big>virāma ्</big>] + <big>[ZWJ]</big> and <big>[</big><big>rra</big> ऱ <big>]</big>+ <big>[</big><big>virāma ्</big>] + <big>[ZWJ]</big>.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://unicode.org/~emuller/iwg/p8/utcdoc.html|title = Devanagari Eyelash Ra|date = 7 November 2004|website = The Unicode Consortium|last = Indic Working Group|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140527105648/http://unicode.org/~emuller/iwg/p8/utcdoc.html|archive-date = 27 May 2014}}</ref> In Marathi, when 'र' is the first consonant of a consonant cluster and occurs at the beginning of a syllable, it is written as an eyelash reph/raphar.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Learning Marathi|last1 = Kalyan|first1 = Kale|publisher = Shri Vishakha Prakashan|year = 1986|location = Pune|page = 26|last2 = Soman|first2 = Anjali}}</ref> 
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Examples
|-
|तर्‍हा
|-
|वाऱ्याचा
|-
|ऱ्हास
|-
|ऱ्हस्व
|-
|सुऱ्या
|-
|दोऱ्या
|}

==== Minimal pairs<ref>{{Cite book|title = Typography of Devanagari-1|last = Naik|first = B.S.|publisher = Directorate of Languages|year = 1971|location = Bombay}}</ref> ====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Using the (Simple) Reph/Raphar
!Using the Eyelash Reph/Raphar
|-
|आचार्यास (to the teacher)
|आचार्‍यास (to the cook)
|-
|दर्या (ocean)
|दर्‍या (valleys)
|}

=== Braille ===
In February 2008, Swagat Thorat published India's first Braille newspaper, the Marathi ''Sparshdnyan'', a news, politics and current affairs fort nightly magazine.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Menon |first1=Sudha |title=Marathi magazine to be launched in Feb is first Braille fortnightly |url=https://www.livemint.com/Politics/4vVRvrvpIu68VzrnvfDvwL/Marathi-magazine-to-be-launched-in-Feb-is-first-Braille-fort.html |access-date=18 November 2020 |work=mint |date=15 January 2008 |language=en}}</ref>

== Grammar ==
Marathi grammar shares similarities with other modern [[Social:Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan languages]]. [[Philosophy:Jainism|Jain]] Acharya [[Hemachandra]] is the grammarian of [[Social:Maharashtri Prakrit|Maharashtri Prakrit]]. The first modern book exclusively concerning Marathi grammar was printed in 1805 by William Carey.

Marathi employs agglutinative, inflectional and analytical forms.<ref name="Bhosale et al"/> Unlike most other Indo-Aryan languages, Marathi has kept three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. The primary word order of Marathi is [[Social:Subject–object–verb|subject–object–verb]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_mhi |title=Wals.info |publisher=Wals.info |access-date=9 May 2013}}</ref> Marathi follows a split-ergative pattern of verb agreement and case marking: it is ergative in constructions with either perfective transitive verbs or with the obligative ("should", "have to") and it is nominative elsewhere.{{sfn|Dhongde|Wali|2009|pp=179–80}} An unusual feature of Marathi, as compared to other [[Social:Indo-European languages|Indo-European languages]], is that it displays inclusive and exclusive we, common to the [[Social:Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] and [[Social:Dravidian languages|Dravidian languages]]. Other similarities to Dravidian include the extensive use of participial constructions<ref name="Bhosale et al">{{Citation
| last1  = Bhosale
| first1 = G.
| last2  = Kembhavi
| first2 = S.
| last3  = Amberkar
| first3 = A.
| last4  = Mhatre
| first4 = M.
| last5  = Popale
| first5 = L.
| last6  = Bhattacharyya
| first6 = P.
| contribution = Processing of Kridanta (Participle) in Marathi 
| year = 2011
| title = Proceedings of ICON-2011: 9th International Conference on Natural Language Processing
| publisher = Macmillan Publishers, India
| contribution-url = http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~pb/papers/icon11-marathi-kridant.pdf
}}</ref> and also to a certain extent the use of the two anaphoric pronouns {{transliteration|mr|swətah}} and {{transliteration|mr|apəṇ}}.{{sfn|Dhongde|Wali|2009|p=263}} Numerous scholars have noted the existence of [[Social:Dravidian languages|Dravidian]] linguistic patterns in the Marathi language.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Polomé|first1=Edgar C.|title=Reconstructing Languages and Cultures|publisher=Walter De Gruyter|page=521|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DIj-nZWsX_0C&q=dravidian+marathi&pg=PA521|isbn=9783110867923|date=1 January 1992}}</ref>

== Sharing of linguistic resources with other languages ==

[[File:Marathi sign board.JPG|thumb|Marathi neon signboard at Maharashtra Police headquarters in Mumbai.]]

Marathi is primarily influenced by [[Social:Prakrit|Prakrit]], Maharashtri, and [[Social:Apabhraṃśa|Apabhraṃśa]]. Formal Marathi draws literary and technical vocabulary from [[Social:Sanskrit|Sanskrit]].<ref name="Bloch1970">{{cite book|author=J. Bloch|title=Formation of the Marathi Language|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1noaklDiSOEC&pg=PP17|year=1970|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-2322-8|pages=33,180}}</ref>
Marathi has also shared directions, vocabulary, and grammar with languages such as Indian [[Social:Dravidian languages|Dravidian languages]].<ref name="Bloch1970"/> Over a period of many centuries, the Marathi language and people have also come into contact with foreign languages such as [[Social:Persian language|Persian]],<ref name="iranicaonline.org"/> [[Social:Arabic|Arabic]], [[Social:English language|English]], and European romance languages such as [[Social:French language|French]], [[Social:Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Social:Portuguese language|Portuguese]] and other European languages.<ref name="Bloch1970"/>

=== Morphology and etymology ===
Spoken Marathi contains a high number of Sanskrit-derived (''[[Social:Tatsama|tatsama]]'') words. {{citation needed|date=May 2016}} Such words are for example ''nantar'' (from ''nantara'' or after), ''{{IAST|pūrṇa}}'' (''{{IAST|pūrṇa}}'' or complete, full, or full measure of something), ''ola'' (''ola'' or damp), ''{{IAST|kāraṇ}}'' (''{{IAST|kāraṇa}}'' or cause), ''puṣkaḷ'' (''puṣkala'' or much, many), ''satat'' (''satata'' or always), ''vichitra'' (''vichitra'' or strange), ''svatah'' (''svatah'' or himself/herself), ''prayatna'' (''prayatna'' or effort, attempt), ''bhītī'' (from ''bhīti'', or fear) and ''bhāṇḍe'' (''bhāṇḍa'' or vessel for cooking or storing food). Other words ("[[Social:Tadbhava|tadbhava]]s") have undergone phonological changes from their Sanskrit roots, for example ''dār'' (''dwāra'' or door), ''ghar'' (''gṛha'' or house), ''vāgh'' (''vyāghra'' or tiger), ''paḷaṇe'' (''palāyate'' or to run away), ''kiti'' (''kati'' or how many) have undergone more modification.
Examples of words borrowed from other Indian and foreign languages include:
* ''Hawā'': "air" directly borrowed from [[Social:Arabic language|Arabic]] ''hawa''
* ''Jamin'': "land" borrowed from [[Social:Persian language|Persian]] ''zamin''
* ''Kaydā'': "law" borrowed from [[Social:Arabic language|Arabic]] ''qaeda'' 
* ''Jāhirāt'': "advertisement" is derived from Arabic ''zaahiraat''
* ''Marjī'': "wish" is derived from Persian ''marzi''
* ''Shiphāras'': "recommendation" is derived from Persian ''sefaresh''
* ''Hajērī'': "attendance" from Urdu ''haziri'' 
* ''Aṇṇā'': "father", "grandfather" or "elder brother" borrowed from [[Social:Dravidian languages|Dravidian languages]]
* ''Undir'': "rat" borrowed from [[Social:Austroasiatic languages|Munda languages]]

A lot of English words are commonly used in conversation and are considered to be assimilated into the Marathi vocabulary. These include words like "pen" (पेन, ''pen'') and "shirt" (शर्ट, ''sharṭa'') whose native Marathi counterparts are ''lekhaṇī'' (लेखणी) and ''sadarā'' (सदरा) respectively.

===Compounds===
Marathi uses many [[Social:Morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] processes to join words together, forming compounds. For example, ''ati'' + ''uttam'' gives the word ''atyuttam'', ''miith-bhaakar'' ("salt-bread"), ''udyog-patii'' ("businessman"), ''ashṭa-bhujaa'' ("eight-hands", name of a Hindu goddess).

=== 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 {{frac|1|4}}, {{frac|1|2}}, and {{frac|3|4}}. They are ''pāva'', ''ardhā'', and ''pāuṇa'', respectively. For most fractions greater than 1, the prefixes ''savvā-'', ''sāḍē-'', ''pāvaṇe-'' are used. There are special names for {{frac|3|2}} (''dīḍ''), {{frac|5|2}} (''aḍīch''), and {{frac|7|2}} (''aut'').

Powers of ten are denoted by separate specific words as depicted in the table below.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Number power to 10 !! Marathi Number name<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oocities.org/bhagvatjee/vraamaayan/notesa/41numbering.htm |title=Indian Numbering System |publisher=Oocities.org |access-date=18 September 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Sushma Gupta |url=http://sushmajee.com/v-raamaayan/notes/notes-general/41-numbering.htm |title=Indian Numbering System |publisher=Sushmajee.com |access-date=18 September 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430051359/http://www.sushmajee.com/v-raamaayan/notes/notes-general/41-numbering.htm |archive-date=30 April 2012 }}</ref>!!In Devanagari
|-
| 10<sup>0</sup>  || Eka, Ekaka || एक/एकक
|-
| 10<sup>1</sup>  || Daha, Dashaka || दहा/दशक
|-
| 10<sup>2</sup>  || Shambhara, Shataka || शंभर/शतक
|-
| 10<sup>3</sup>  || Hajara, Sahasra, || हजार/सहस्र
|-
| 10<sup>4</sup>  || Dasha Hajara, Dasha Sahasra || दशहजार/दशसहस्र
|-
| 10<sup>5</sup>  || Lakha, Laksha || लाख/लक्ष
|-
| 10<sup>6</sup>  || Daha Lakha, Dasha Laksha || दहा लाख (दशलक्ष)
|-
| 10<sup>7</sup>  || Koti || कोटी
|-
| 10<sup>8</sup>  || Dasha Koti || दशकोटी
|-
| 10<sup>9</sup>  || Abja, Arbuda || अब्ज/अर्बुद
|-
| 10<sup>10</sup> || Dasha-Abja || दशाब्ज
|-
| 10<sup>11</sup> || Vrunda || वृंद
|-
| 10<sup>12</sup> || Kharva (Kharab) || खर्व
|-
| 10<sup>13</sup> ||  Nikharva || निखर्व
|-
| 10<sup>14</sup> || Sashastra || सशस्त्र
|-
| 10<sup>15</sup> || Mahapadma, Padma || महापद्म/पद्म
|-
| 10<sup>16</sup> || Kamala || कमळ
|-
| 10<sup>17</sup> || Shanku, Shankha || शंकू/शंक
|-
| 10<sup>17</sup> || Skanda || स्कंद
|-
| 10<sup>18</sup> || Suvachya || सुवाच्य
|-
| 10<sup>19</sup> || Jaladhi, Samudra || जलधी/समुद्र
|-
| 10<sup>20</sup> || Krutya || कृत्य
|-
| 10<sup>21</sup> || Antya || अंत्य
|-
| 10<sup>22</sup> || Ajanma || आजन्म
|-
| 10<sup>23</sup> || Madhya || मध्य
|-
| 10<sup>24</sup> || Lakshmi || लक्ष्मी
|-
| 10<sup>25</sup> || Parardha || परार्ध
|}

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 written as 12,34,567 and read as ''12 lakh 34 Hazara 5 she 67'' (१२ लाख ३४ हजार ५ शे ६७).

Every two-digit number after 18 (11 to 18 are predefined) is read backward. 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 एकोणतीस (एक-उणे-तीस) (thirty minus one). Two digit numbers used before ''Hazara'' are written in the same way.

==Marathi on computers and the Internet==
Shrilipee, Shivaji, kothare 2,4,6, [[Kiran fonts]] KF-Kiran<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kiranfont.com/ |title=Welcome to www.kiranfont.com |publisher=Kiranfont.com |access-date=18 September 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141031154146/http://www.kiranfont.com/ |archive-date=31 October 2014 }}</ref> and many more (about 48) are clip fonts that were used prior to the introduction of [[Unicode]] standard for Devanagari script. Clip fonts are in vogue on PCs even today since most computers use English keyboards. Even today a large number of printed publications such as books, newspapers and magazines are prepared using these ASCII based fonts. However, clip fonts cannot be used on [[Internet|internet]] since those did not have [[Unicode]] compatibility.

Earlier Marathi 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. Marathi typing software is widely used and display interface packages are now available on [[Software:Microsoft Windows|Windows]], [[Software:Linux|Linux]] and [[Software:MacOS|macOS]]. Many Marathi websites, including Marathi newspapers, have become popular especially with Maharashtrians outside India. Online projects such as the Marathi language Wikipedia, with 76,000+ articles, the Marathi blogroll, and Marathi blogs have gained immense popularity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20070219/technology01.shtml |title=Inside the Indian Blogosphere |access-date=10 October 2008 |last=Askari |first=Faiz |publisher=Express Computer |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081004182304/http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20070219/technology01.shtml |archive-date=4 October 2008 }}</ref>

==Natural language processing for Marathi==

More recent attention has focused on developing [[Natural language processing|natural language processing]] tools for Marathi. Some studies proposed a couple of text corpora for Marathi. L3CubeMahaSent<ref>{{cite conference |first1=Atharva |last1=Kulkarni |first2=Meet|last2=Mandhane|first3=Manali|last3=Likhitkar|first4=Gayatri|last4=Kshirsagar|first5=Raviraj|last5=Joshi|title=L3CubeMahaSent: A Marathi Tweet-based Sentiment Analysis Dataset |conference=Proceedings of the Eleventh Workshop on Computational Approaches to Subjectivity, Sentiment and Social Media Analysis |pages=213–220 |date=2021 |location=Online |url=https://aclanthology.org/2021.wassa-1.23.pdf}}</ref> is the first major publicly available Marathi dataset for [[Sentiment analysis|sentiment analysis]]. It contains about 16,000 distinct tweets classified into three broad classes, such as positive, negative, and neutral. L3Cube-MahaNER
<ref>{{cite arXiv | last1       =Patil | first1      =Parth | last2       =Ranade | first2      =Aparna | last3       =Sabane | first3      =Maithili | last4       =Litake | first4      =Onkar| last5       =Joshi | first5      =Raviraj | eprint     =2204.06029 | title      =L3Cube-MahaNER: A Marathi Named Entity Recognition Dataset and BERT models | class      =cs.CL | date       =12 April 2022 }}</ref> is a dataset for [[Named-entity recognition|named-entity recognition]] consisting of 25,000 manually tagged sentences categorised according to the eight entity classes. There are at least two public available datasets for [[Social:Hate speech|hate speech]] detection in Marathi: L3Cube-MahaHate 
<ref>{{cite arXiv | last1       =Velankar | first1      =Abhishek | last2       =Patil | first2      =Hrushikes | last3       =Gore | first3      =Amol | last4       =Salunke | first4      =Shubham| last5       =Joshi | first5      =Raviraj | eprint     =2203.13778 | title      =L3Cube-MahaHate: A Tweet-based Marathi Hate Speech Detection Dataset and BERT models | class      =cs.CL | date       =22 May 2022 }}</ref> and HASOC2021.<ref>{{cite conference |first1=Sandip |last1=Modha |first2=Thomas|last2=Mandl|first3=Gautam Kishore|last3=Shahi|first4=Hiren|last4=Madhu|first5=Shrey|last5=Satapara|first6=Tharindu |last6=Ranasinghe|first7=Marcos|last7=Zampieri|title=Overview of the HASOC subtrack at FIRE 2021: Hate speech and offensive content identification in English and Indo-Aryan languages and conversational hate speech |conference=Forum for Information Retrieval Evaluation |pages=1–3 |date=2021 |location=Online |doi=10.1145/3503162.3503176 |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3503162.3503176|hdl=2436/624705|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

The HASOC2021 dataset was proposed for conducting a [[Machine learning|machine learning]] competition on hate, offensive, and profane content identification in Marathi collocated with Forum for Information Retrieval Evaluation (FIRE 2021). The participants of the competition presented 25 solutions based on [[Supervised learning|supervised learning]]. The winning teams<ref>{{cite conference |first1=Mayuresh |last1=Nene|first2=Kai|last2=North|first3=Tharindu|last3=Ranasinghe|first4=Marcos|last4=Zampieri| title=Transformer Models for Offensive Language Identification in Marathi |conference=Forum for Information Retrieval Evaluation (Working Notes) (FIRE) |pages=272–281 |date=2021 |location=Online}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |first1=Anna |last1=Glazkova |first2=Michael|last2=Kadantsev|first3=Maksim|last3=Glazkov| title=Fine-tuning of Pre-trained Transformers for Hate, Offensive, and Profane Content Detection in English and Marathi |conference=Forum for Information Retrieval Evaluation (Working Notes) (FIRE) |pages=52–62 |date=2021 |location=Online |arxiv=2110.12687 }}</ref> used pre-trained language models (XLM-RoBERTa, Language Agnostic [[BERT (language model)|BERT]] Sentence Embeddings (LaBSE)) fine-tuned on the HASOC2021 dataset proposed by the organisers. The participants also experimented with the joint use of multilingual data for fine-tuning.

==Corpus Development in Marathi==

Text [[Text corpus|Corpus]] and [[Social:Corpus linguistics|Corpus Linguistics]] show how texts, sentences, or words from written or spoken language have changed over time or how they have been used in an organised way. The [https://archive.org/details/LSIV0-V11/LSI-V7/ Volume VII: 'Indo-Aryan Languages (Southern Group)] of the '[[Social:Linguistic Survey of India|Linguistic Survey of India]]' by George Abraham Grierson describes first systematic and structured attempt to create documentation of Marathi language data.

'''Corpora in Marathi'''

Attempts have been made to create Corpus of Marathi. One of the first efforts to make a corpus with Indian text was the Kolhapur Corpus of Indian English<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shastri |first=S.V. |date=1986 |title=The Kolhapur Corpus of Indian English |url=http://korpus.uib.no/icame/manuals/KOLHAPUR/INDEX.HTM#materia.}}</ref> (Shastri, 1986). The corpus was developed at the University in Maharastra, but Indian English was studied. The IIT Bombay WordNet<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bhattacharyya |first=Pushpak |title=IndoWordNet. (in Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation LREC'10) |publisher=European Language Resources Association (ELRA). |year=2010 |isbn=978-2-9517408-6-0 |location=Valletta, Malta |pages=3785–3792 |language=English}}</ref> (IndoWordNet; Bhattacharya, 2010) project in Indian languages includes Marathi. WordNet do not give word counts for further useful data analysis. The raw text based corpus in Marathi<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Gold Standard Marathi Raw Text Corpus |url=https://data.ldcil.org/a-gold-standard-marathi-raw-text-corpus |access-date=9 September 2023 |website=data.ldcil.org}}</ref> (Ramamoorthy et al., 2019a) is based on sampled pages from different select books. This work is carried out at Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore. A corpus-based linguistic study of English loan-words in contemporary Marathi reported lone English words in Marathi.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Doibale |first=Kirti |date=2022 |title=A Corpus-Based Linguistic Study ofEnglish Loan-Words in Contemporary Marathi |hdl=10603/487393 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/10603/487393 |access-date=9 September 2023}}</ref>

The work at University of Mumbai by Belhekar and Bhargava (2023)<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Belhekar |first1=Vivek |last2=Bhargava |first2=Radhika |date=December 2023 |title=Development of word count data corpus for Hindi and Marathi literature |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2666799123000308 |journal=Applied Corpus Linguistics |language=en |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=100070 |doi=10.1016/j.acorp.2023.100070|s2cid=261150616 }}</ref> provided the first Marathi word count collection (Marathi WordCorp). The [[Bag-of-words model|bag-of-words]] (BoW) model was used to make 1-gram (single-word) Marathi WordCorp. They used more than 700 complete works of literature.

The [https://books.google.com/ngrams/ Google Books Ngram Viewer] (Michel et al., 2011)<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Michel |first1=Jean-Baptiste |last2=Shen |first2=Yuan Kui |last3=Aiden |first3=Aviva Presser |last4=Veres |first4=Adrian |last5=Gray |first5=Matthew K. |last6=((The Google Books Team)) |last7=Pickett |first7=Joseph P. |last8=Hoiberg |first8=Dale |last9=Clancy |first9=Dan |last10=Norvig |first10=Peter |last11=Orwant |first11=Jon |last12=Pinker |first12=Steven |last13=Nowak |first13=Martin A. |last14=Aiden |first14=Erez Lieberman |date=14 January 2011 |title=Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books |journal=Science |language=en |volume=331 |issue=6014 |pages=176–182 |doi=10.1126/science.1199644 |pmid=21163965 |pmc=3279742 |bibcode=2011Sci...331..176M |issn=0036-8075}}</ref> is a relatively new and advanced method that shows how the frequency of n-grams has changed over a specific period. There is no database of Indian languages in the Google Books Ngram viewer. The Indian Languages Word Corpus<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://indianlangwordcorp.shinyapps.io/ILWC/ |title=Indian Languages Word Corpus |access-date=28 September 2023 |website=indianlangwordcorp.shinyapps.io}}</ref> ([https://indianlangwordcorp.shinyapps.io/ILWC/ ILWC]) WebApp, which was made by Belhekar and Bhargava,<ref name=":0" /> shows how often words are used by decade from before 1920 to 2020. The limitation with the method is that it only gives researchers the raw OCR data to "combine and collapse frequencies of correctly and incorrectly recognised words" (p.&nbsp;2).<ref name=":0" />

'''Statistical Models for Marathi Corpora'''

Attempts to evaluate statistical models for Marathi language Corpuses and text-collections have been carried out. For the Marathi corpus (Marathi WordCorp), the y-intercept of Zipf's law is reported as 12.49, and the coefficient is 0.89 and these numbers show that Zipf's law is applicable for Marathi language.<ref name=":0" /> The coefficients show that the number of words and texts used in the corpus metadata is enough. Heaps' law intercept for the Marathi word corpora is 2.48, and the coefficient is 0.73.<ref name=":0" /> The coefficient values show that there are more unique words in Marathi writings than would be expected. The higher number of unique words could be due to the number of alphabets (36 consonant letters and 16 initial-vowel letters, with each consonant taking 14 forms with vowel pairs), the orthographic features of the Devanagari script (for example, the same word can be written in different ways), the use of consonant clusters (jodakshar), the number of suffixes a word can have, etc.

==Marathi Language Day==

Marathi Language Day (मराठी दिन/मराठी दिवस {{translation|Marathi Din/Marathi Diwas}} is celebrated on 27 February every year across the Indian states of Maharashtra and Goa. This day is regulated by the Ministry of Marathi Language. It is celebrated on the Birthday of eminent Marathi Poet V.V. Shirwadkar, popularly known as Kusumagraj.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.marathimati.com/p/marathi-bhasha-diwas.html |title=मराठी भाषा दिवस - २७ फेब्रुवारी |work=MarathiMati.com |access-date=27 February 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://divyamarathi.bhaskar.com/news/BOL-jagatik-marathi-bhasha-din-celebration-2914740.html |title=jagatik Marathi bhasha din celebration - divyamarathi.bhaskar.com |work=divyabhaskar |access-date=27 February 2016 |date=27 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301045736/http://divyamarathi.bhaskar.com/news/BOL-jagatik-marathi-bhasha-din-celebration-2914740.html |archive-date=1 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Essay competitions and seminars are arranged in schools and colleges, and government officials are asked to conduct various events.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.loksatta.com/viva-news/celebration-of-marathi-bhasha-din-on-27-february-and-use-of-marathi-language-66025/ |title=आम्ही मराठीचे शिलेदार! |date=22 February 2013 |work= Loksatta |access-date= 27 February 2016}}</ref>

==Marathi words coined by Vinayak Savarkar==
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, an independence activist, noted Hindutva ideologue, writer, and poet, contributed to the Marathi language by coining new Marathi equivalents for words from other languages, mostly English.<ref name="Thube">{{cite web|last=Thube|first=Surajkumar|date=31 August 2020|title=VD Savarkar's language purification project was a precursor to creating a 'Hindu language'|url=https://scroll.in/article/971696/vd-savarkars-language-purification-project-was-a-precursor-to-creating-a-hindu-language|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200831080032/https://amp.scroll.in/article/971696/vd-savarkars-language-purification-project-was-a-precursor-to-creating-a-hindu-language|archive-date=31 August 2020|access-date=31 August 2020|website=Scroll.in|language=en-US}}</ref> Prior to these Marathi equivalents, words of Persian, Turkic origin were widely used, which was unacceptable to Savarkar.<ref name="Thube" /> He opined that foreign words polluted the Marathi language and also made original Marathi words with the same meanings obsolete.<ref name="Thube" /> According to Deshpande, unlike Hindi, Savarkar's campaign of Bhasha Shuddhi to remove Arabic, Persian and Turkic words from Marathi was a failure.<ref>Reddy, N. Manohar. "Vernacular Discourse as Politics of Liberation: An Interview with Professor G.P. Deshpande." Social Scientist 42, no. 9/10 (2014): 85-98. Accessed 9 April 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24372978</ref>

The following are some of the words coined by Savarkar:<ref name="Thube" />{{Better source needed|reason=For asubject like introducing a new vocabulary,an academic source is needed rather than a website news article |date=November 2022}}

* lecturer: प्रवचक
* principal: प्राचार्य
* reader: प्रपथक
* washing centre: धवल केंद्र, निर्मल केंद्र, परित गृह 
* hair-cutting saloon: केशकर्तनालय
* buffer state: किलकराष्ट्र 
* number: क्रमांक
* date: दिनांक 
* up-to-date: अद्ययावत
* martyr: हुतात्मा 
*plebiscite: सर्वमत 
* ultimatum: अंतीमोतर
* truce: उपसंधी
* telephone: दूरध्वनी
* loudspeaker: ध्वनिक्षेपक 
* teleprinter: दुर्मुद्रक
* mayor: महापौर

== See also ==
* [[Social:Konkani language|Konkani language]]
* Navi Peth

==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book|last=Bloch|first=J|title=Formation of the Marathi Language|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1noaklDiSOEC&pg=PP17|year=1970|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-2322-8}}
*{{cite book|last2=Wali|first2=Kashi|last1=Dhongde|first1=Ramesh Vaman|title=Marathi|year=2009|publisher=John Benjamins Pub. Co.|location=Amsterdam|isbn=978-90-272-38139|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zVVOvi5C8uIC}}
* A Survey of Marathi Dialects. VIII. Gāwḍi, A. M. Ghatage & P. P. Karapurkar. The State Board for Literature and Culture, Bombay. 1972.
* Marathi: The Language and its Linguistic Traditions - Prabhakar Machwe, Indian and Foreign Review, 15 March 1985.
* 'Atyavashyak Marathi Vyakaran' (''Essential Marathi Grammar'') - Dr. V. L. Vardhe
* 'Marathi Vyakaran' (''Marathi Grammar'') - Moreshvar Sakharam More.
* 'Marathi Vishwakosh, Khand 12 (''Marathi World Encyclopedia, Volume 12''), Maharashtra Rajya Vishwakosh Nirmiti Mandal, Mumbai
* 'Marathyancha Itihaas' by Dr. Kolarkar, Shrimangesh Publishers, Nagpur
* 'History of Medieval Hindu India from 600 CE to 1200 CE, by C. V. Vaidya
* Marathi Sahitya (Review of the Marathi Literature up to I960) by Kusumavati Deshpande, Maharashtra Information Centre, New Delhi
* {{cite book |author=Christian Lee Novetzke |title=The Quotidian Revolution: Vernacularization, Religion, and the Premodern Public Sphere in India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z9kbDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA53|year=2016 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-54241-8 }}
* {{Citation |first=Appaji Kashinath |last=Kher |year=1895 |title=A higher Anglo-Marathi grammar |pages=446–454 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xO0EHQAACAAJ}}
{{refend}}
* {{citation|last=Mokashi|first=Digambar Balkrishna|title=Palkhi: An Indian Pilgrimage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vgLZGFH1ZTIC&pg=PA38|year=1987|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-88706-461-6}}

== External links ==
* {{Curlie|Science/Social_Sciences/Linguistics/Languages/Natural/Indo-European/Indo-Iranian/Indo-Aryan/Marathi/}}

; Dictionaries
* Molesworth, J. T. (James Thomas). [https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/molesworth/ A dictionary, Marathi, and English]. 2d ed., rev. and all. Bombay: Printed for government at the Bombay Education Society's press, 1857.
* Vaze, Shridhar Ganesh. [https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/vaze/ The Aryabhusan school dictionary, Marathi-English]. Poona: Arya-Bhushan Press, 1911.
* Tulpule, Shankar Gopal and Anne Feldhaus. [https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/tulpule/ A dictionary of old Marathi]. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan, 1999.



{{DEFAULTSORT:Marathi Language}}
[[Category:Subject–object–verb languages]]
[[Category:Indo-Aryan languages]]

{{Sourceattribution|Marathi language}}