Marwari language

Marwari is a descendant of Sanskrit. In the northwestern part of what is today India, Sanskrit developed into the Śaurasenī Prakrit, which in turn developed into the Gurjar Apabhraṃśa. This Apabhraṃśa was described in a formal grammar by the Śvetāmbara Jain monk and eminent Chaulukyan scholar Hemachandra Suri. Following this, the language developed into Old Gujarati, occasionally known as Old Western Rajasthani. In the late 1400s, Old Gujarati began to diverge into Middle Gujarati and into what is infrequently known as Old Marwari. By the close of the 18th century, Old Marwari developed into the modern language as known today.

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 neighbouring state of Gujarat and in Eastern Pakistan. Speakers are also found in Bhopal. With around 7.9 million speakers in India according to the 2001 census.[5] There are several dialects: Thaḷī (spoken in eastern Jaisalmer district and northwestern Jodhpur district), Bāgṛī (near Haryana), Bhitrauti, Sirohī, Godwārī.[6]

Indian Marwari [rwr] in Rajasthan shares a 50%–65% lexical similarity with Hindi (this is based on a Swadesh 210 word list comparison). It 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).

Pakistani Marwari [mve] shares 87% lexical similarity between its Southern subdialects in Sindh (Utradi, Jaxorati, and Larecha) and Northern subdialects in Punjab (Uganyo, Bhattipo, and Khadali), 79%–83% with Dhakti [mki], and 78% with Meghwar and Bhat Marwari dialects. Mutual intelligibility of Pakistani Marwari [mve] with Indian Marwari [rwr] is decreasing due to the rapid shift of active Pakistanese speakers to Urdu, their use of the Arabic script and different sources of support medias, and their separation from Indian Marwaris, even if there are some educational efforts to keep it active (but absence of official recognition by Pakistani or provincial government level). Many words have been borrowed from other Pakistani languages.[4]

Merwari [wry] shares 82%–97% intelligibility of Pakistani Marwari [mve], with 60%–73% lexical similarity between Merwari varieties in Ajmer and Nagaur districts, but only 58%–80% with Shekhawati [swv], 49%–74% with Indian Marwari [rwr], 44%–70% with Godwari [gdx], 54%–72% with Mewari [mtr], 62%–70% with Dhundari [dhd], 57%–67% with Haroti [hoj]. Unlike Pakistani Marwari [mve], the use of Merwari remains vigorous, even if its most educated speakers also proficiently speak Hindi [hin].[7]

/h/ sometimes elides. There are also a variety of vowel changes. Most of the pronouns and interrogatives are, however, distinct from those of Hindi.

Marwari languages have a structure that is quite similar to Hindustani (Hindi or Urdu). Their primary word order is subject–object–verb[8][9][10][11][12] Most of the pronouns and interrogatives used in Marwari are distinct from those used in Hindi; at least Marwari proper and Harauti have a clusivity distinction in their plural pronouns.

Marwari vocabulary is somewhat similar to other Western Indo-Aryan languages, especially Rajasthani and Gujarati, however, elements of grammar and basic terminology differ enough to significantly impede mutual intelligibility. In addition, Marwari uses many words found in Sanskrit (the ancestor of most North Indian languages) which are not found in Hindi.

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.[13]

• Lambadi
• List of Indian languages by total speakers
• Marwari Muslims
• Marwari people
• Shekhawati

• Lakhan Gusain (2004). Marwari. Munich: Lincom Europa (LW/M 427)

Marwari language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Hanvant's Rajasthani Dictionary