Malvi or Malwi or Ahiri (माळवी भाषा) is an Indo-Aryan language native to Ahirs, spoken in the Malwa region of India, in parts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Writing system

In India, Malvi is written in the Devanagari script, an abugida which is written from left to right. Earlier, the Mahajani script, or Modiya, was used to write Rajasthani. The script is also called as Maru Gurjari in a few records.

The dialects of Malvi are as follows:

Malvi

• Ujjani (Ujjain, Dhar, Indore, Dewas, Shajapur, Sehore, Agar Malwa districts)

Ujjani is an elite dialect of the Malvi language.

Some sample translations

• Rajawadi (Mandsaur, Neemuch, Ratlam districts)

Rajwadi dialect of Malvi is influenced by Mewari and Marwari

Some sample translations

• Umathwadi (Rajgarh district)

Umathwadi is Malvi with some features of Hadauti

• Sondhwadi (Jhalawar district, Ujjain, Agar Malwa)

• Bhoyari/Pawari (Betul, Chhindwara, Padhurna, Wardha Districts)

About 75% of the Malvi population can converse in Hindi, which is the official language of the Madhya Pradesh state. The literacy rate in Hindi is approximately 40% among Malvi speaker. Many unpublished Malvi literature works have been created over the years, with limited mainstream recognition.

See also

• Rangri dialect (Malvi), spoken by Rajputs of Malwa and it sounds similar to Rajwadi Dialect

References