Native speakers 645,291 (2001) Glottolog mewa1250 | ISO 639-3 wtm | |
Native to India (Mewat District of Haryana, Rajasthan) . Language family Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Indo-Aryan
Western
Rajasthani–Marwari
Marwari
Mewati | ||
Mewati is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about five million speakers in the Alwar, Bharatpur and Dholpur districts of Rajasthan, Mewat districts of Haryana. It is popularly called the language of Mewat, the country of Meos. Mewati dialect distinctly characterize the Meo culture. It contributed profoundly to Rajasthani literature in medieval periods.The word Mewati also means a resident of the land of Mewat.This name is derived from Sanskrit word 'Mina vati',i.e.,a land of abounding in fish.
There are 9 vowels, 31 consonants, and two diphthongs. Suprasegmentals are not so prominent as they are in the other dialects of Rajasthani. There are two numbers—singular and plural, two genders—masculine and feminine; and three cases—direct, oblique, and vocative. The nouns decline according to their final segments. Case marking is postpositional. Pronouns are traditional in nature and are inflected for number and case. Gender is not distinguished in pronouns. There are two types of adjectives. There are three tenses: past, present, and future. Participles function as adjectives.
Phonology
There are twenty plosives at five places of articulation, each being tenuis, aspirated, voiced, and murmured: /p t ʈ tʃ k, pʰ tʰ ʈʰ tʃʰ kʰ, b d ɖ dʒ ɡ, bʱ dʱ ɖʱ dʒʱ ɡʱ/. Nasals and laterals may also be murmured, and there is a voiceless /h/ and a murmured /ɦ/.