Marathi grammar

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Rajya Marathi Vikas Sanstha was established by Government of Maharashtra
Rajya Marathi Vikas Sanstha was established by Government of Maharashtra

The grammar of the Marathi language shares similarities with other modern Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, etc. The first modern book exclusively on Marathi Grammar was printed in 1805 by 'William Kerry'.[1]

The principal word order in Marathi is SOV. Nouns inflect for gender (masculine, feminine, neuter), number (singular, plural), and case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, locative, instrumental, oblique). Notably, Marathi is the only Indo-Aryan language of Sanskrit origin to preserve the Sanskrit locative case. Additionally, Marathi preserves the neuter gender found in Sanskrit, a feature further distinguishing it from many Indo-Aryan languages. Typically, Marathi adjectives do not inflect unless they end in long a, in which case they inflect for gender and number. Marathi verbs inflect for tense (past, present, future). Verbs can agree with their subjects, yielding an active voice construction, or with their objects, yielding a passive voice construction. A third type of voice, not found in English for example, is produced when the verb agrees with neither subject nor object. Affixation is largely suffixal in the language and postpositions are attested. [2]

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[edit] Contemporary grammar

The contemporary grammatical rules described by Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad and endorsed by the Government of Maharashtra are supposed to take precedence in standard written Marathi. These rules are described in Marathi Grammar, written by M.R Walimbe. The book is widely referred to in schools and colleges.

[edit] Sanskrit influence

Traditions of Marathi Linguistics and above mentioned rules give special status to 'Tatsam' (Without Change) words adapted from the Sanskrit language. This special status expects the rules for 'Tatsam' words be followed as of Sanskrit grammar. While this supports Marathi Language with a larger treasure of Sanskrit words to cope up with demands of new technical words whenever needed; maintains influence over Marathi.

An unusual feature of Marathi, as compared to other Indo-European languages, is that it displays the inclusive and exclusive we feature, that is common to the Dravidian languages, Rajasthani, and Gujarati.

[edit] Gender

Unlike its related languages, Marathi preserves all three grammatical genders (Linga) from Sanskrit.

  • masculine — पुल्लिंग (pulliṃga)
  • feminine — स्त्रीलिंग (strīliṃga)
  • neuter — नपुंसकलिंग (naṃpusakliṃga)

Masculine proper nouns usually end in the short vowels a or u while feminine proper nouns tend to end with the long vowels ā, ī or ū.

[edit] Voices

There are three grammatical voices (Prayog) in Marathi.

  • Kartarii prayog refers to a sentence construction in which the verb changes according to the subject, which is comparable to the active voice in English.
Raam mhanato "Raam says", Raam aambaa khaato "Raam eats a mango"
  • Karmanii prayog refers to a sentence construction in which the verb changes according to the object, which is like the passive voice in English.
Raamaane aambaa khallaa "The mango was eaten by Raam", Raamaane saangitale "It was told by Ram"
  • Bhaave prayog refers to a sentence construction in which the verb does not change according to either the subject or the object. This is used for imperatives.
Maajha nirop tyaala jaaun saang "Give my message to him"

[edit] Pronouns

There are three grammatical persons (Purushh) in Marathi.

  • Pratham purushh (First person)
    • mi "I"
    • aamhi "we" excluding the listener (exclusive "we")
    • aapan "we" including the listener (inclusive "we")
  • Dwitiya purushh (Second person)
    • tuu "you"
    • tumhi "you" (plural or formal)
    • aapan (extremely formal)
  • Trutiya purushh (Third person)
    • to "he"
    • tii "she"
    • te "it"
    • te "they" (masculine) or "he" (formal)
    • tyaa "they" (feminine)
    • tii "they" (neuter)

[edit] Parts of speech

Marathi words can be classified in any of the following parts:

  1. naama (noun)
  2. sarvanaam (pronoun)
  3. visheshaNa (adjective)
  4. kriyapada (verb)
  5. kriyaavisheshaNa (adverb)
  6. ubhayanvayi avyaya
  7. shabdayogi avyaya
  8. kevalaprayogi avyaya

[edit] Sentence structure

The 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 purposes without a loss in meaning (unlike English).

[edit] Nominal inflection

Marathi is a highly inflected language, like the other ancient Indo-Europeanlanguages such as its own mother Sanskrit. While English uses prepositions, in Marathi, such functions are indicated through the use of case-suffixes. These are referred to as vibhaktii pratyay. There are eight such vibhaktii in Marathi. The form of the original word changes when such a suffix is to be attached to the word, and the new, modified root is referred to as saamaanya ruup of the original word. For example, the word ghoṛaa ("horse") gets transformed into ghauṛyaa- when the suffix -var ("on") is attached to it to form ghauṛyaavar ("on the horse").

[edit] See also

Marathi language

[edit] References