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Marwari language

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Title: Marwari language  
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Subject: Languages of India, Deshwali, Dhatki language, Silawat, Chhipa
Publisher: World Heritage Encyclopedia

Marwari language

Native to India
Migrant communities in Pakistan and Nepal
Region Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Sindh
Native speakers
unknown (undated figure of 20 million)[1]
Census results conflate some speakers with Hindi.[2]
Devanagari script and Mahajani
Language codes
ISO 639-2 mwr
ISO 639-3 mwrinclusive code
Individual codes:
dhd – Dhundari
rwr – Marwari (India)
mve – Marwari (Pakistan)
wry – Merwari
mtr – Mewari
swv – Shekhawati
hoj – Harauti
gig – Goaria
ggg – Gurgula

Marwari (Mārwāṛī मारवाड़ी; also rendered Marvari, Marwadi, Marvadi) is a Rajasthani language spoken in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Marwari is also found in the neighboring state of Gujarat and Haryana and in Eastern Pakistan. With some 13.2 million speakers (in 1997, ca.), it is the largest language by number of speakers of the Marwari subgroup of the Rajasthani language. There are 13 million speakers in Rajasthan and rest 200,000 in Sindh province of Pakistan. There about 23 dialects of the Marwari language.

It is popularly written in Devanagari script, as is Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and Sanskrit; although it was historically written in Mahajani. Marwari currently has no official status as a language of education and government. There has been a push in the recent past for the national government to recognize this language and give it a scheduled status. The state of Rajasthan recognizes Rajasthani as a language.

In Pakistan, there are two varieties of Marwari. They may or may not be close enough to Indian Marwari to be considered the same language. Marwari speakers are concentrated in Sindh. In Pakistan, Marwari is generally written using a modified version of the Arabic Alphabet.

Marwari is still spoken widely in and around Bikaner. There are ongoing efforts to identify and classify this language cluster and the language differences.


It is said that Marwari and Gujarati evolved from Gujjar Bhakha or Maru-Gurjar, language of the Gurjars.[4] Formal grammar of Rajasthani was written by Jain monk and eminent scholar Hemachandra Suri.

Classification and related languages

Marwari sounds similar to Haryanvi and is similar to Gujrati, Punjabi, Hindi and Haryanvi. Closely related languages to Marwari in the Rajasthani cluster are: Gojri, Shekhawati, Hadoti, Dhundhari, Mewari, Brij, Bagri, Wagdi, Mewati.

Geographical distribution

Dark green indicates Marwari speaking home area in Rajasthan, light green indicates additional dialect areas where speakers identify their language as Marwari.
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 neighboring state of Gujarat and in Eastern Pakistan. Speakers are also found in Bhopal. With some 13.2 million speakers (in 1997, ca. 13 million in India and 200,000 in Pakistan) it is the largest of the Marwari subgroup of the Rajasthani cluster of western dialects of Hindi.


It shares a 50%-65% lexical similarity with Hindi (this is based on a Swadesh 210 word list comparison). Marwari 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). /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 language has grammar structure which is quite similar to the Hindi language. Its primary sentence structure is SOV (subject–object–verb). Most of the pronouns and interrogatives used in Marwari language are distinct from those used in Hindi. At least Marwari proper and Harauti have a clusivity distinction.


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

Writing system

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.[5]

See also


  • Lakhan Gusain (2004). Marwari. Munich: Lincom Europa (LW/M 427)
  1. ^ Marwari language at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ Die Klassifikation der indogermanischen SprachenErnst Kausen, 2006. (Microsoft Word, 133 KB)
  5. ^ Pandey, Anshuman. 2010. Proposal to Encode the Marwari Letter DDA for Devanagari

External links

  • Marwari Dictionary
  • Hanvant's Rajasthani Dictionary
  • Basic phrases in Marwari language

