Marathi

Marathi (also known as Maharashtri) is a member of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is closely related to Hindi and Punjabi.

It is spoken as a first language in India, primarily in the state of Maharashtra, by 68 million people and by another 3 million people as a second language, primarily in the state of Maharashtra. Marathi is the fourth largest language of India. Outside of India it is spoken in Israel and Mauritius (Ethnologue).

Marathi is derived from Sanskrit through a Prakrit dialect called Maharashtri, the official language of the Satavahana Kingdom in the 1st-2nd centuries AD. It was the most widespread Prakrit dialect of its time. Maharashtri gradually evolved into Marathi in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Marathi is one of the 22 official languages and 14 regional languages of India. The State of Goa also recognises Marathi as an official language along with Konkani. It is the medium of everyday communication in Maharashtra and is also used in education, government, business and the media.

Dialects
The dialect picture throughout the Marathi-speaking area is complex. Varieties that border other language areas tend to share feature with those languages, for instance, Tamil, Kannada, and Konkani. Despite differences among the dialects in pronunciation and vocabulary, they are, for the most part, mutually intelligible. Among the major varieties are the following:

•   Cochin
•   Dangli
•   Gawdi
•   Kasargod
•   Kosti
•   Kudali
•   Nagpuri Malwani
•   Varhadii

Standard Marathi is based on the speech of educated speakers of Pune, the second largest city of Maharashtra after Mumbai. Literary Marathi, based on older varieties of the language, differs significantly from spoken Marathi.

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