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Marathi

Indo-European family · Indic branch · Eurasia

Marathi is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause, 42 of 50 other Indo-European languages coded have the value “Initial subordinator word”; Marathi has “Suffixal adverbial subordinators”.

On Number of Cases, WALS codes Marathi as “5 case categories”, a value held by 12 of the 261 languages coded, Latvian and Armenian (Eastern) among them.

On Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases, WALS codes Marathi as “Tripartite”, a value held by 4 of the 190 languages coded, Hindi and Nez Perce among them.

Marathi: order of head and dependent in 9 constructions← beforeafter →verbsubject80%13%Order of Subject and Verb: Subject precedes verb (SV). Of 1,496 languages coded, 1,192 put the subject before the verb and 194 after it.verbobject47%46%Order of Object and Verb: Object precedes verb (OV). Of 1,518 languages coded, 712 put the object before the verb and 705 after it.adpositionnoun phrase49%43%Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase: Postpositions. Of 1,184 languages coded, 577 put the noun phrase before the adposition and 511 after it.noungenitive55%37%Order of Genitive and Noun: Genitive-noun (GenN). Of 1,249 languages coded, 685 put the genitive before the noun and 468 after it.nounadjective27%64%Order of Adjective and Noun: Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN). Of 1,367 languages coded, 373 put the adjective before the noun and 879 after it.noundemonstrative45%48%Order of Demonstrative and Noun: Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN). Of 1,225 languages coded, 551 put the demonstrative before the noun and 590 after it.nounnumeral42%53%Order of Numeral and Noun: Numeral precedes noun (NumN). Of 1,154 languages coded, 479 put the numeral before the noun and 608 after it.nounrelative clause17%70%Order of Relative Clause and Noun: Relative clause precedes noun (RelN). Of 824 languages coded, 141 put the relative clause before the noun and 579 after it.adjectivedegree word47%40%Order of Degree Word and Adjective: Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj). Of 481 languages coded, 227 put the degree word before the adjective and 192 after it.
The order Marathi uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Marathi with Hindi or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Marathi, rarest first.

Inside the Indo-European family

Marathi matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 38 of the 57 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (67%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks 26th from the top.

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Marathi; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Marathi for 57 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 52 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Marathi shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Word structure 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyPredominantly suffixing406 of 969

Nouns and pronouns 16

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Number of GendersThree26 of 257
Systems of Gender AssignmentSemantic and formal assignment59 of 257
Third Person Pronouns and DemonstrativesRelated for all demonstratives52 of 225
Comitatives and InstrumentalsIdentity76 of 322
Asymmetrical Case-MarkingSymmetrical case-marking79 of 261
Definite ArticlesNeither definite nor indefinite article198 of 620
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender SystemsSex-based gender system84 of 257
Distributive NumeralsMarked by reduplication85 of 251
Conjunctions and Universal QuantifiersFormally similar, involving interrogative expression43 of 116
Indefinite ArticlesNeither indefinite nor definite198 of 534
Position of Case AffixesCase suffixes452 of 1,031
Distance Contrasts in DemonstrativesTwo-way contrast126 of 234
Intensifiers and Reflexive PronounsIntensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical94 of 168
Indefinite PronounsInterrogative-based indefinites194 of 326
Numeral ClassifiersNumeral classifiers are absent260 of 400
Pronominal and Adnominal DemonstrativesSame forms143 of 201

Noun phrases 2

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Nominal and Verbal ConjunctionNominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical161 of 301
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative ClausesHighly differentiated77 of 138

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 7

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
The Morphological ImperativeSecond person number-neutral89 of 548
Epistemic PossibilityVerbal constructions65 of 240
The ProhibitiveSpecial imperative + special negative146 of 496
Imperative-Hortative SystemsThe language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one133 of 375
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal MarkingNo overlap105 of 207
Position of Tense-Aspect AffixesTense-aspect suffixes667 of 1,131
Situational PossibilityVerbal constructions158 of 234

Word order 11

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Order of Relative Clause and NounRelative clause precedes noun (RelN)141 of 824
Order of Adjective and NounModifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN)373 of 1,367
Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle at end of sentence314 of 884
Order of Numeral and NounNumeral precedes noun (NumN)479 of 1,154
Order of Demonstrative and NounDemonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)542 of 1,225
Order of Object and VerbObject precedes verb (OV)712 of 1,518
Order of Degree Word and AdjectiveDegree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)227 of 481
Order of Adposition and Noun PhrasePostpositions577 of 1,184
Order of Genitive and NounGenitive-noun (GenN)685 of 1,249
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content QuestionsInterrogative phrases not obligatorily initial615 of 902
Order of Subject and VerbSubject precedes verb (SV)1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 7

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Alignment of Case Marking of PronounsNominative - accusative (standard)61 of 172
Comparative ConstructionsLocational Comparative78 of 167
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'Indirect-object construction189 of 378
Periphrastic Causative ConstructionsPurposive type but no sequential type68 of 118
Polar QuestionsQuestion particle585 of 955
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsMorphological type but no compound type254 of 310
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate NegationNegative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation170 of 206

Complex sentences 5

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Reason ClausesBalanced/deranked37 of 169
'When' ClausesBalanced/deranked39 of 174
'Want' Complement SubjectsThe complement subject is left implicit144 of 283
Purpose ClausesDeranked102 of 170
Utterance Complement ClausesBalanced114 of 143

Vocabulary 3

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Hand and ArmIdentity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm'228 of 617
TeaWords derived from Sinitic cha110 of 230
Finger and HandDifferent521 of 593