दक्षिणी मराठी खजाना

Foreword

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This is the first ever attempt to compile a grammar of Dakshini Marathi as spoken in the 21st Century.

 

All Dakshini Maharashtrians are aware that, compared to Standard Marathi, Dakshini Marathi (DM) has a very different syntax and phonetic inflection. He is aware that the syntax and phonetic inflections of his dialect are influenced largely by Tamil. But when it comes to DM grammar he is confused. He is not sure if DM has a grammar at all ! When he listens to SM speakers and tries to compare it with DM, he is bound to get confused by the gender, number, case and declensions of words used in SM.

 

Though in the past DM was being written in Modi script (and also in Devanagari script), over a period of time the DM community have given up writing the dialect using these scripts. Even the practice of writing DM using Tamil script is almost non-existent now. It may not be incorrect to say that as of now DM has no script. Likewise, the extent of the vocabulary of this dialect is rather limited. Beset with the lack of a script, as also with a limited vocabulary, it is no surprise, this dialect did not evolve adequately for us to say with confidence that it has a well-defined grammar. But the fact of the matter is that every language or dialect has its own grammar. The issue to be examined is how evolved it is. One of the unstated aims of the present attempt is to examine these aspects.

 

Further refinements in this work will come about with involvement of interested Dakshini Marathi speakers. The present effort is intended to serve as a platform for that. As of now all possible chapters have not been covered. This will happen as the written form of DM evolves.

 

Meanwhile a beginning is attempted briefly in the following topics.

 

• Noun, Gender and Number (नाम, लिंग अणी वचन॑) - Declensions of Nouns (नामाच विकार॑)

• Pronouns (सर्वनाम॑) - Categories of Pronouns and Declensions of Personal Pronouns (व्यक्तीरूप॑ सर्वनामांच विकार)

• Adjectives (विशेषण॑) - Types of Adjectives, Declensions of Adjectives (विशेषणांच विकार॑)

• Verb (क्रीयापद) - Transitive and Intransitive Verbs  (सकर्मक अणी अकर्मक क्रियापद), Compound Verbs and Helping Verbs (संयुक्त क्रियापद अणी सहायक क्रियापद)

• Subject, Object and Predicate (कर्ता, कर्म अणी कार्य)

• Tense (काळ) ­­- Perfect and Imperfect Tenses (पूर्ण अणी अपूर्ण काळ)

• Declensions of Transitive and Intransitive Verbs (सकर्मक अणी अकर्मक क्रीयापदाच विकार)  

 

Ananda Rao Vasishta