Indo-European · ISO 639-3 mar · mr
Marathi Language मराठी
Marathi is an Indo-European language spoken by about 93 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Devanagari, Latin and Modi scripts.
Where Marathi is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Marathi
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Indo-Iranian
- Indo-Aryan
- Middle-Modern Indo-Aryan
- Continental Indo-Aryan
- Indo-Aryan Southern zone
- Marathic
- Marathi-Konkani
- Old-Modern Marathi
- Modern Marathi
- Marathi
Writing system
Devanagari, Latin and Modi scripts
Related languages
About the Marathi language
Marathi (मराठी) is spoken by about 93 million people, which makes it the 16th most spoken language in the world — just behind Telugu (95 million) and ahead of German (92 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Modern Marathi group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Marathi spoken?
Marathi is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in India (99 million).
Marathi is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in India.
Writing system and status
Marathi is written in the Devanagari, Latin and Modi scripts. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Varhadi-Nagpuri, Konkani, Goan Konkani, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 mr, ISO 639-3 mar.
Frequently asked questions about Marathi
How many people speak Marathi?
Where is Marathi spoken?
What language family does Marathi belong to?
What is Marathi called in Marathi?
Is Marathi an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.