Marwari language

Marwari
मारवाड़ी
Spoken in	India, Pakistan, Nepal, USA, UK
Region	Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Sindh
Native speakers	13.2 million  (2002–2007)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Central Indo-Aryan Rajasthani Marwari
Writing system	Devanagari script and Mahajani
Language codes
ISO 639-2	mwr
ISO 639-3	mwr – Macrolanguage individual codes: dhd – Dhundari rwr – Marwari (India) mve – Marwari (Pakistan) wry – Merwari mtr – Mewari smv – Shekhawati

The Marwari language (Mārwāṛī;मारवाड़ी) , also variously Marvari, Marwadi, Marvadi), is spoken in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Marwari is also found in the neighboring state of Gujarat and Haryana and in Eastern Pakistan. With some 13.2 million speakers (as of 1997, ca.) , it is the largest language by number of speakers of the Marwari subgroup of the "Rajasthani language". There are 13 million speakers in Rajasthan and rest 200,000 in Eastern Pakistan. There about 23 dialects of the Marwari Language.

It is popularly written in Devanagari script, as is Hindi, Sanskrit and Nepali. Marwari currently has no official status as a language of education and government. There has been a push in the recent past for the national government to recognize this language and give it a scheduled status. The state of Rajasthan recognizes Rajasthani as a language.

In Pakistan, there are two varieties of Marwari. They may or may not be close enough to Indian Marwari to be considered the same language.

The Marwari language was used in the recent Indian movie, Paheli, where it was mixed with Hindi so it is understandable to the main stream (Hindi speakers) audience. Marwari is still spoken widely in and around Jodhpur. There are ongoing efforts to identify and classify this language cluster and the language differences.

History

It is said that Marwari and Gujarati evolved from Gujjar Bhakha or Maru-Gurjar, language of the Gurjars.^[1] Formal grammar of Rajasthani was written by Jain monk and eminent scholar Hemachandra Suri

HATHAL SIROHI Here is one of very few Temple of Shri Brahma built and opening ceremony is going on between 15th May to 19th May 2010 From Amit Bhawarlal Shukl Hathal Sirohi

Classification and related languages

Marwari sounds simillar to Haryanvi and is simillar to Gujrati, Punjabi, Hindi and Haryanvi. Closely related languages to Marwari in the Rajasthani cluster are: Gojri, Shekhawati, Hadoti, Dhundhari, Mewari, Brij, Bagri, Wagdi, Mewati,

Geographical distribution

Dark green indicates Marwari speaking home area in Rajasthan, light green indicates additional dialect areas where speakers identify their language as Marwari.

Marwari is primarily spoken in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Marwari speakers have dispersed widely throughout India and other countries but are found most notably in the neighboring state of Gujarat and in Eastern Pakistan. Speakers are also found in Bhopal. With some 13.2 million speakers (as of 1997, ca. 13 million in India and 200,000 in Pakistan) it is the largest of the Marwari subgroup of the "Rajasthani cluster" of western dialects of Hindi.

Phonology

It shares a 50%-65% lexical similarity with Hindi (this is based on a Swadesh 210 word list comparison). Marwari has many cognate words with Hindi. Notable phonetic correspondences include /s/ in Hindi with /h/ in Marwari. For example /sona/ 'gold' (Hindi) and /hono/ 'gold' (Marwari). /h/ sometimes elides. There are also a variety of vowel changes. Most of the pronouns and interrogatives are, however, distinct from those of Hindi.

Grammar

Marwari language has grammar structure which is quite similar to the Hindi language. Its primary sentence structure is SOV (subject–object–verb). Most of the pronouns and interrogatives used in Marwari language are distinct from those used in Hindi.

Vocabulary

Writing system

Marwari is generally written in the Devanagari script, although the Mahajani script is traditionally associated with the language. Traditionally it was written in Mahajani script (which does not have vowels, only consonants). In Pakistan it is written in the Perso-Arabic script with modifications. Historical Marwari orthography for Devanagari uses other characters in place of standard Devanagari letters.^[2]

See also

• Marwaris
• Rajasthani people
• Rajasthan
• Haryana
• Rajasthani language
• Marwar
• Shekhawati
• Languages with official status in India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers
• Languages of India

References

• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/.
• Lakhan Gusain (2004). Marwari. Munich: Lincom Europa (LW/M 427)

1. ^ Ajay Mitra Shastri; R. K. Sharma, Devendra Handa (2005). Revealing India's past: recent trends in art and archaeology. Aryan Books International. p. 227. ISBN 8173052875, ISBN 9788173052873. "It is an established fact that during 10th-11th century.....Interestingly the language was known as the Gujjar Bhakha.." 
2. ^ Pandey, Anshuman. 2010. Proposal to Encode the Marwari Letter DDA for Devanagari

External links

• Hanvant's Rajasthani Dictionary
• Hanvant's Language Family Trees
• Ethnologue Language Family Trees
• Basic phrases in Marwari language
• Ethnologue report for Marwari
• Ethnologue report for Shekhawati