Marwari language

Marwari (मारवाड़ी, مارواڑی, Mārwāṛī) is a language spoken by many people in the state of Rajasthan in India. It is part of a group of languages called Western Indo-Aryan, which belong to the larger Indo-European language family. Marwari has close relatives, such as Dhundhari, Shekhawati, and Mewari. Together, they are known as the Rajasthani language family.

People also speak Marwari in nearby states like Gujarat and Haryana, as well as in some parts of Pakistan and among communities in Nepal. There are many different ways people speak Marwari, each with small differences.

Mostly, Marwari is written using the Devanagari script, just like Hindi and Marathi. But in some places in Pakistan, people write it using a different kind of script. Even though Marwari isn’t used in schools or official work in India, it is still widely spoken in cities such as Jodhpur, Pali, and Jaisalmer. It is also one of the common languages spoken by Indians in Kenya.

History

Marwari and the language Gujarati are thought to have come from older languages called Old Western Rajasthani or Dingal. A famous writer named Hemachandra Suri, who was a Jain monk, wrote the first rules for one of these old languages.

Geographical distribution

Marwari is mostly spoken in the Indian state of Rajasthan. People who speak Marwari also live in nearby Gujarat and parts of Pakistan. You can also find Marwari speakers in Bhopal.

Some dialects of Marwari include:

Lexis

Marwari spoken in India shares many words with Hindi. Some words in Marwari sound similar to Hindi, but a few sounds are different. For example, the word for "gold" in Hindi is "sona," but in Marwari it is "hono."

In Pakistan, Marwari dialects share many words, but they are becoming harder to understand with Indian Marwari. This is because many people in Pakistan now mainly speak Urdu. Marwari in Pakistan is still strong, even though some people also know Hindi.

Phonology

Marwari has special sounds where vowels can change their tone to help tell words apart. It also uses special combinations of vowel sounds called diphthongs.

Some sounds in Marwari, called implosives, mostly appear at the start of words because of influences from nearby languages. One sound, /w/, changes its shape depending on the vowel that follows it. A language expert named Younis Kashali talked about special sounds.

Morphology

Marwari languages have a structure similar to Hindustani, which includes Hindi or Urdu. Words in sentences usually follow the pattern of subject, then object, and finally verb. Many words for pronouns and questions in Marwari are different from those in Hindi. For example, Marwari and Harauti have special ways to show "we" that include or exclude the person being spoken to.

Vocabulary

Marwari has words that look similar to other Western Indo-Aryan languages, like Rajasthani and Gujarati. But there are enough differences in grammar and basic words that speakers of these languages might have trouble understanding each other.

Word List

Here is a list of 100 common words in Marwari, shown with their translations and sounds, to help compare and study the language.

Writing system

Marwari is usually written with the Devanagari script. It also has a special script called Mahajani used for business records. In Pakistan, people write Marwari using a changed version of the Perso-Arabic script.

Mahajani Script

Main article: Mahajani script

The Mahajani script is mostly used for keeping financial records. It is written from left to right and has fewer signs for vowels than other scripts in North India. Readers often work out the vowel sounds from the words around them.

Perso-Arabic Script

Sample Texts

Here is an example of the Marwari language written in the Devanagari script. You can also see it written with Latin letters, following a special rule called ISO 15919.