Marathi

 Marathi  

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by more than 80 million peoples in India mainly in Maharashtra and Goa. It is one of the 22  scheduled languages of India. It is the official language of  Maharashtra and the co-official language of Dadra and Nagar Haveli,  Daman and Diu, Goa. It is the third-largest language in India and the 10th largest language in the world in terms of the total no. of speakers.  Marathi is included among the languages which stand a part of the  Eighth Schedule of the constitution of India, thus granting it the status of a scheduled language.  

Marathi is one of many languages that are further derived from  Prakrit that belongs to the Indo- Aryan language family. These changes further advanced and led to the language Apabhramsa which is similar to the old Marathi. The earliest example of Maharashtri as a  separate language is found in approximately 300 BC where a stone is found in a cave at Naneghat, Junnar in Pune district in which something is written in Maharashtra using Brahmi script. Marathi is the derivative of this Maharashtri language and it is first attested in  739 CE when a copper plate inscription is found in Satara.  

After 1187 CE, the use of Marathi grew rapidly in the inscription of  Yadav kings who were earlier using Kannada and Sanskrit for the same. This language became dominant during the last half-century of the Dynasty's rule. This language gets standardized during the British  colonial period through the efforts of the Christian missionary 

William Carey. A committee has been set up by the government of  Maharashtra to give Marathi the status of classical language as they state that this language is also as old as Sanskrit and others.  

The Bible became the first English book to be translated in Marathi.  The Marathi version of Devanagari is also called Balbodh, which is similar to the Hindi Devanagari alphabet except for its use as words in Marathi (schwa) making it written differently from Marathi words.  The grammatical rules that are used in the Standard Marathi language are described by Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad and are endorsed by the Government of Maharashtra.  

Earlier Marathi had very weak support from the internet and computer operating system. But nowadays, the introduction of newer technologies and standardization of this language led to the introduction of various software and network applications that use the Marathi language. Various Marathi typing software and apps are now available on almost every operating system. Marathi newspapers also have large readers. Many books, articles, blogs, etc are being published in this language daily and it attracts huge customers.  

Marathi language day is celebrated every year on 27 February across various Indian states. This is celebrated on the birthday of eminent  Marathi poet Shirwadkar also popularly known as Kusumagraj.  

  

Article by:- Abhas Raj