Malvani is a dialect of Konkani with significant

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

influences and loanwords. Although Malvani does not have a unique script, the

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...

script is used by most speakers. Malvani is sometimes used for sarcastic newspaper articles and local folk stage dramas known as ''Dashavatar''.

Difference from standard Marathi

All pronouns have a change from ''la'' to ''ka''. Words in Marathi for "yes", "this", "that", "where", "here", "there", have different Malvani counterparts. Other grammatical nuances differ from standard Marathi.

Geographical distribution

Malvani is spoken only in the

Sindhudurg Sindhudurg Fort (Marathi pronunciation: in̪d̪ʱud̪uɾɡ is a historical fort that occupies an island in the Arabian Sea, just off the coast of Maharashtra in Western India. The fort was built by Shivaji Maharaj.The fortress lies on the sh ...

district of

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

. The language is also spoken in north Goa, especially

Pernem Pernem or Pedne (pronounced ) is a town and a municipal council in North Goa district in the Indian state of Goa. It is the capital of the Pernem Sub-District Geography Pernem is one of the twelve sub-districts of Goa. Pernem sub-district c ...

taluka. The Census Board of India counts Malvani as a Konkani dialect (which is official language of State of

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

), and according to them, there are around 46851 Malvani speakers throughout the country, with 24 lakh (2.4 million) Konkani living speakers. According to unofficial reports, around 8,68,825 (868,825) Malvani speakers live throughout the Sindhudurg district. It is a very famous dialect of Konkani in the southern part of Konkan in Maharashtra.

Malvani in popular culture

The first ever Drama (Natak) was Vastraharan, which got huge popularity starring

Macchindra Kambli Macchindra Kambli (4 April 1947 – 30 September 2007) was a veteran Marathi people, Marathi theatre actor, director, and producer. Known for his humorous style, he brought Malvani Konkani, Malvani dialect to the mainstream of Marathi theatre. He ...

. The

Zee Marathi Zee Marathi is an Indian general entertainment channel which carries programming in Marathi. It is owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. The channel was launched on 15 August 1999 and was known as Alpha TV Marathi until 28 March 2005, then ...

channel's February 2016 serial

Ratris Khel Chale ''Ratris Khel Chale'' () is a Marathi supernatural thriller drama serial which aired on Zee Marathi from 22 February 2016. The serial revolves around the Naik family talking in Malvani and living in Sawantwadi, who experience strange and unex ...

was a horror TV serial on the life of the Naik family from Malvan, and used Malvani as the main dialect. In January 2019,

Ratris Khel Chale 2 ''Ratris Khel Chale 2'' () is a Marathi supernatural thriller drama serial which aired on Zee Marathi from 14 January 2019 serving as a prequel to the series Ratris Khel Chale. Series Plot The second season is the prequel to the first ...

was streamed in Malvani, as well as Gav Gata Gajali which became popular for its focus on Malvani Culture & Lifestyle. In March 2021,

Ratris Khel Chale 3 ''Ratris Khel Chale 3'' () is an Indian Marathi supernatural television series which aired on Zee Marathi. It premiered from 22 March 2021 and is a sequel to Ratris Khel Chale. Series Plot 15 years after Neelima's usurpation of the Naik ...

started streaming. In 2019, movie named

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

was released on Amazon prime which was based on the story of struggling artist of dashavtar (malvani art form). Other noted Marathi movies based on Malvani culture are

Narbachi Wadi ''Narbachi Wadi'' is a 2013 Indian Marathi language movie directed by Aditya Sarpotdar. It is an adaption of the Bengali language, Bengali play ''Shajjano Bagan'' by Manoj Mitra. Plot Set in 1946 in a village in Konkan, the movie starts off wit ...

(2013), Murder Mestry (2015), and Redu (2017).

References

External links

*http://konkanionline.blogspot.com/ {{Ethnic and social groups of Goa and the Konkan

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

Konkan Konkani