The grammar of the Marathi language shares similarities with other modern Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi, Gujarati or Punjabi. The first modern book exclusively on Marathi Grammar was printed in 1805 by Shubham Bhatt.
Contents
- Sanskrit influence
- Parts of speech
- Gender
- Case
- Traditional grammar
- Pronouns
- Voice
- Sentence structure
- References
The principal word order in Marathi is SOV (subject–object–verb). Nouns inflect for gender (masculine, feminine, neuter), number (singular, plural), and case. Marathi is the only Indo-Aryan language of Sanskrit origin to preserve a 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. 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.
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 students in schools and colleges.
Sanskrit influence
Traditions of Marathi Linguistics and above mentioned rules give special status to ‘tatsama’ (तत्सम) words borrowed from the Sanskrit language. This special status expects the rules for ‘tatsama’ 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.
Parts of speech
Marathi words can be classified in any of the following parts of speech:
Gender
There are three genders in Marathi: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Some other, modern Indo-European languages have lost these genders, completely or in part, with either common gender (merging masculine and feminine), as in some Northern Germanic languages, and neuter or masculine (absorbing neuter) and feminine, as in almost all Romance language, with the notable exception of Romanian. The three-gender system of German is seen as one reason for the popularity of studying German amongst Marathi native speakers.
Case
There are differences of opinion regarding grammatical cases in Marathi. According to one view, there are two cases: direct, which is unmarked (e.g. Ram 'Ram') and oblique, which is used before postpositions (e.g. ram-a-pasun 'from Ram', ram-a-la 'to Ram', -a being the case marker and -la the dative postposition). According to the alternative analysis, there is a distinction between two classes of "postpositions". Some of them, like -pasun 'from' have a wide range of meanings and can be separated form the noun by clitics like -cya (e.g. ram-a-cya-pasun), while others (like -la) are only used to mark arguments and cannot be separated from the noun by clitics (*ram-a-cya-la is ungrammatical). The latter are then considered to be the case markers. In this view, the cases are: nominative (unmarked), accusative/dative (singualr -la, plural -na), ergative, which is traditionally called 'instrumental' (sg. -ne, pl. -ni) and genitive/possessive (-tsa, -tse, -tʃa, -tʃi). The class of true postpositions will then include -hatun 'through', -hu(n) 'from'/ablative, -t locative, -gaji 'in place of' and many more. The genitive markers inflect to agree with the governing noun. The form of the oblique suffix depends on the gender and the final vowel of the word it is suffixed to.
Traditional grammar
In traditional analyses which follow the pattern of Sanskrit grammatical tradition, case suffixes are referred to as vibhaktī pratyaya (विभक्ति प्रत्यय). There are eight such vibhaktī (विभक्ति) 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 ghodā (घोडा “horse”) gets transformed into ghodyā- (घोड्या-) when the suffix -var (वर- “on”) is attached to it to form ghodyāvar (घोड्यावर “on the horse”). The nominal suffixes are tabulated below.
Pronouns
There are three grammatical persons (पुरुष purushh) in Marathi. There is gender distinction in the first- and second-persons when the pronouns act as agreement markers on verbs; as independent pronouns this distinction in lost.
Voice
Traditional grammar distinguishes three grammatical voices (प्रयोग prayog) in Marathi.
Sentence structure
A Marathi sentence generally has three parts: subject (कर्ता kartā), object (कर्म karma), and verb (क्रियापद kriyāpad). In a Marathi sentence, the subject comes first, then the object, and finally the verb. However, in some sentences there is no object.