Marathi

Marathi मराठी Marāṭhī
Marathi written in Devanāgarī and Modi:
Spoken in:	India, Mauritius and Israel
Region:	Maharashtra, Goa, parts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Dadra-Nagar-Haveli and Daman-Diu
Total speakers:	70 million native speakers 20 million second language speakers
Ranking:	13–17 (native); in a near tie with Korean, Vietnamese, Telugu and Tamil
Language family:	Indo-European  Indo-Iranian   Indo-Aryan    Central zone     Marathi
Writing system:	Devanagari script, Modi script (traditional)
Official status
Official language of:	Maharashtra & Goa State, India
Regulated by:	Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	mr
ISO 639-2:	mar
ISO 639-3:	mar
Marathi is spoken in India, Mauritius and Israel. Marathi is also spoken by emmigrant Maharashtrians worldwide, especially in USA and Europe.
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Marathi (मराठी Marāṭhī) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western India (Maharshtrians). It serves as the official language of the state of Maharashtra, with roughly ninety million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi ranks 4th in India with respect to the number of people who claim it as their primary language. Along with Bengali, Marathi is the oldest of the regional literatures in Indo-Aryan languages, dating from about AD 1000.

Marathi is at least fifteen hundred years old, and derives its grammar and syntax from Pali and Prakrit. The Marathi language was earlier known as Maharashtri, Maharathi, Malhatee or Marthi in ancient times.

Some of the peculiar features of Marathi linguistic culture include Marathi drama, with its unique flavour of 'Sangeet Natak' (musical dramas), scholarly discourses called 'Vasant Vyakhyanmala' (Lectures in Spring), Marathi folk dance called 'Lavani', and special editions of magazines for Diwali called 'Diwali anka'.