Hinduism: Details about 'Marathi'
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Home
|
Marathi (मराठी Marāṭhī) is one of the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by the Maharashtrian people of Western India. It serves as the official language of the state of Maharashtra, with roughly ninety million native speakers in this state. Marathi is atleast one thousand years old, and derives its grammar and syntax from the older Sanskrit. Marathi can also be spelt as Maharashtri, Maharathi, Malhatee or Marthi.
HistoryThere is no unanimity amongst scholars about the origin and antiquity of this language. The first written form is in Vijayaditya's copper plate, dated 739 A.D., found in Satara. In 983 A.D., the stone inscription at the feet of Shravanabelgola Gomateshwar - whose first line reads as "Chavundarajen Karaviyalen" (meaning - Built by Chavandaraja, the king), is considered to be the oldest. An interesting couplet in the Jain monk Udyotan Suri's 'Kuvalayamala' in the 8th century, refers to a bazaar where the Marhattes speak Dinnale (Dile - given), Gahille (Ghetale - taken). Scholars believe that Marathi descended from the Prakrit dialect Maharashtri and was the official language of the Satavahana empire during its early periods. With the patronage of the Satavahana empire based at Pratishthana (now Paithan), Maharashtri became the most widespread Prakrit dialect of its time, and also pre-dominated amongst the three "Dramatic" Prakrits (Maharashtri, Sauraseni and Magadhi). The Marathi spoken under the Yadavas (1180 – 1320) had many words borrowed from Telugu and Kannada. A version of Maharashtri, Jaina Maharashtri, served to write part of the Jain canon. The most famous literature in Maharashtri is the Gathasaptashathi, an anthology of poems collected by the Satavahana Emperor Hala. Maharashtri slowly evolved into Marathi during the 15th and 16th centuries CE. Marathi came into prominence during the reign of Chhatrapati Shivaji (1630 – 1680) who led the Marathas in an independence struggle against the Muslim sultans of Bijapur and later the Mughal empire. The Marathas later established a loose-knit empire which extended north to Delhi, east to Orissa, and south to Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu excluding the kingdom of Mysore that successfully kept Maratha advances at bay. At present, Marathi is spoken extensively in the state of Maharashtra, as well as in the neighboring states. There are active film and music industries in Marathi, as well as an active set of Marathi writers and poets. The Maharashtrian diaspora has spread the language around the world. DialectsThe two key dialects, historically, have been Ahirani and Manadeshi.The other dialects in Marathi are :
Although it is debatable whether Konkani is a separate language or a dialect of Marathi, it is very similar to Marathi. In Marathi, the alphabet 'L' is abundantly used in many verbs and nouns. In the Varhadii dialect, it is replaced by the letter'y' which makes it quite distinct. As such the spoken language changes from Mumbai (Bombay) - Konkan - Western Maharashtra (Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli, Solapur) - to Pune to Marathawada to Khandesh to Vidarbha, as one travels from one region of Maharashtra to another. Geographic distributionMarathi is mainly spoken in Maharashtra and to a good extent in the neighboring states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The Ethnologue states that Marathi is also spoken in Israel and Mauritius. Official statusMarathi serves as an official language of Maharashtra. State of Goa recognizes Marathi as an official language alongwith Konkani. The Constitution of India recognizes it as one of the twenty-two official languages of the country. SoundsMarathi uses the Devanagari script for writing. Marathi script consists of 16 vowels and 36 consonants making a total of 52 letters. Vowels
Consonants
The combination of the vowels with the k series
Word FormationVowels are combined with consonants using special diactric marks to form syllables which are strung together to form a word . Each vowel has a characteristic mark, such as kaana for 'aa', velaantee for 'i' and 'ii', ukar for 'u' and 'uu', single or double matra to indicate 'e, ai, o and au', anuswAr for 'am' and visarga for 'ah'. Syllables which involve 'i' and 'u' are called rhasva(short) which require a short pronunciation whereas syllables involving 'ii' and 'uu' are called deergha(long) forms which require stretched or long pronunciation. There are two separate marks to indicate rhasva' and 'deergha. These are helpful in knowing where the stress lays while pronouncing the word. Marathi has a complex system to make jodakshare (consonant clusters). When two or more consecutive consonants are followed by a vowel then a jodakshar (cluster) is formed. The pronunciation of such clusters is similiar to the English words like stop, scandle, sweet, empty etc.
The letter 'r' is most complex when combined with other consonants and there are four different marks in the script depending on the usage. The consonant clusters which are difficult to pronounce are the aspirated forms of N, n and m (mhaNUn, nhAN, kaNheri etc.) and of r,l and v (tarhA, kolhA, kevhA). Before the use of the printing press, writers in Marathi used a different script called the Modi script -- a cursive script designed for minimising the lifting of pen from paper while writing. However, with the advent of large-scale printing, Modi script fell into disuse, as it proved very difficult for type-setting. (See External Links). The courts in the olden days also used Persian-type scripts under the influence of Muslim and Maratha rulers. GrammarMarathi grammar is like Hindi or Sanskrit with certain variation. The most conservative form of Marathi is found in old texts like Chakradhar's Lilacharitra or Dyaneshwar's Dyaneshwari. GenderMarathi preserves the neuter gender found in Sanskrit. The three genders in Marathi are:
The masculine proper nouns ends with 'a' or 'u' whereas the feminine proper nouns end with 'aa', 'ii' or 'uu'. VoicesThere are three types of voices in Marathi which is referred to as 'Prayog':
PronounsPronouns in Marathi are similar to the ones in English. There are three purushh (or persons).
Like Sanskrit (well, almost)Marathi, alone among the Indo-Aryan languages based on Sanskrit partly preserves the Sanskrit locative case E.g.:
Parts of speechMarathi words can be classified in any of the following parts:
Sentence structureThe usual word order in a sentence is Subject Object Verb (SOV); however, because of the extensive declension and conjugation patterns, order can be changed for stess, etc. PrepositionsPrepositions in Marathi are indicated through the extensive use of suffixes. These are referred to as vibhaktI pratyay andthere are eight such vibhaktI in Marathi. The form of the original word changes when such asuffix is attached to the word and the new, modified form is referred to as sAmAnya rUp ofthe original word. For example, the word ghoDA (a horse) gets transformed into ghODyAvar (onthe horse) when the suffix var (on/above) is attached to it. VocabularyMarathi uses a large number of modified Urdu, Persian and Arabic words, because of the extensive influence of Muslim and Maratha rulers. Word originsMarathi has borrowed words from Sanskrit, Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, and Portuguese.
A lot of English words are commonly used in conversation and are practically a part of the Marathi vocabulary and they include - pen, pant(meaning trousers), shirt, table, fan, glass (for drinking). Forming Complex WordsThere are also rules(like Sanskrit and German) to join words together to form a complex word.This is referred to as a sandhi (combination). For example, ati+uttam gives theword atyuttam. The other method of combining words is referred to as samAs (margin) and there are no fixed rules formaking a samAs. When the second word starts with a consonant,a sandhi can not be formed, but a samAs can be formed. For example, mIth-bhaakar (salt &bread), udyogpatI (businessman), ashtabhujA (a Hindu goddess with eight hands) etc. There aredifferent names given to each type of samAs. Counting systemPositive integers: Distinct names for numbers 1-20 and composite/derived ones for those greater than 20. Fractions: Distinct names for 1/4, 1/2, 3/4: 'paava', 'ardhaa', 'pauuNa'. 3 suffixes for (some, not all) fractions greater than 1: 'savvaa', 'saaDe', 'paavaNe'. Sepcial names for 3/2 and 5/2: 'diiDa' and 'aDicha'. Names for powers of 10: shambhara/she, hajaara/sahastra, laksha/laakha, koti, abja, kharva, nikharva, parardha. A positive integer is read by breaking it up from right to left (R->L), into parts each containing 2 digits, the only exception being the second part containing only 1 digit instead of 2. For example, 12,34,567 is read as '12 laksha 34 hajaara 5 she 67. Some short phrases
See also
Marathi Marata lingvo Idioma maratí Marâthî मराठी Bahasa Marathi マラーティー語 მარათჰი (ენა)kn:ಮರಾಠಿmr:मराठी Bahasa Marathi Marathi Marathi Język marathi Marata Маратхиsa:मराठी Marathita:மராத்தி ภาษามราฐี 马拉地语 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||