MARATHI LANGUAGE

Indo-Aryan language of western and central India. Its range extends from north of Bombay down the western coast past Goa and eastward across the Deccan; in 1966 it became the official language of the state of Maharashtra. The standard form of speech is that of the city of Pune (Poona). Descended from the Maharastri Prakrit, Marathi has a significant literature. Books are printed in Devanagari script, which is also used for handwriting, although for handwriting there is also an alternate cursive form of Devan agari called Modi. Eastern Hindi is the Indo-Aryan language most closely related to Marathi. Like Hindi, Marathi has lost most of its inflectional system to indicate case, using instead postpositions (like prepositions, only following the word) with an oblique case to serve the function originally filled by inflection.