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Sunday, May 03, 2009

Linguistic Adventures: Marathi, The Evolved Language

I am currently trying to pick up a little Marathi, with the singular motivation of being able to dominate my housemaid in petty arguments that keep erupting between us from time to time.
In the process I have come to have the feeling that Marathi is a very evolved language as compared to some of the other languages that I am familiar with, like English, Hindi and Gujarati.
What makes me say this is that I have found Marathi has words for very specific notions that would need a combination of words to express in other languages and these words make verbal expression far more tight and concise.
Consider the word in Marathi to denote a condition of having time to spare and being at leisure - Nimant (Matthus correct me if I am wrong.). So If I have to express the following English sentence in Marathi -
"I'll come to meet you when I have free time", the expression in Marathi will go thus
"Mee nimant yeto tula bhetayla".
The crispness with which this idea is expressed in Marathi is indeed remarkable.
There are other words for very specific notions in Marathi and one sometimes feels the need for such words in languages like Hindi and English as well.
I am really opposed to the notion that expression should be stripped of so called high-fi vocabulary. I have heard people say quite often that expression should be kept simple because simple expression achieves the same ends without the added burden of having to learn new words. But what is often overlooked by proponents of such arguments is that verbal communication is a very weak mode of communication, often leaving a big gap in what is being expressed and what is understood from that expression. So called 'heavy' words help the process of tighter communication and I am of the opinion that instead of stripping down one's vocabulary one should encourage higher learning of languages.
I am finding it difficult to explain exactly what I mean, (hence once again reinforcing the belief that verbal communication is a weak mode of communication) , so I would leave this point at that and let you experience if you can what my basic point is.

Parting Shot :
The bai had the last laugh when this happened:
Bai To Me: Vartaman Patra ....Te kay asta?...Paper sanga ki....

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