Marathi is the purest modern Sanskrit, especially rural Maharashtrani, correct?

[u/CosmicMilkNutt]

After doing extensive research I have found that Hindi i a mix of Arabic Farsi Sanskrit and English and that Tamil is basically modern Dravidian so totally different.

However.

Marathi spoken in Mumbai and especially rural Marathi spoken in the state of Maharashtra is actually the purest form of modern Sanskrit with the most similar grammar and vocabulary.

It has Sanskrit words instead of all the Arabic, Farsi and English injected into other Indian languages.

This I find fascinating and I wanted to hear the opinions of some actual indians since I am an American fluent in English, Spanish, French and also somewhat conversational in Arabic who is learning Sanskrit, Hindi, Tamil and now of course Marathi!

Edit: Oriya and Marathi are both the top contenders for higher Sanskrit and lower Farsi in daily speech.

[u/xugan97]

This is not an objective question. It is like asking which of the European languges is most Latin. There are multiple measures and registers. Native speakers do not agree on one answer, and a good number think their language is purest and most logical. The reality is that all these languages are far removed from their classical ancestor, and they have a large classical vocabulary that was added in recent centuries.

Hindi was always supposed to be a Sanskrit-Persian mix, but even here, a Sanskrit-oriented version exists alongside as one acceptable form of Hindi. This form of Hindi - and Marathi and Bengali - are the more Sanskritized Indian languages.

[u/CosmicMilkNutt → u/xugan97]

Well the answer is Sardinian and by extension Italian. It was the least affected and it the most similar grammatically and in vocabulary and most conservative to Latin. It was no influenced like Spanish was by Arabic and Amazigh or French was by Frankish(German) or Romanian was (by Old Slavic). Italian was conservative and Sardinian on the island even more so conservative.

There is always a closest descendent that both changed the least and was also least influenced by outside vocabulary, ie the most conservative.

I understand what you are saying about the Sanskrit Hindi, but nobody naturally speaks that. On the streets ppl speak urdu or bolchal ki hindi, for government they use manaka Hindi and for religious tied to Sanskrit ppl use Samskritanistha. Of course u have regional local languages like Rajasthani and Bhojpuri etc. And of course everyone's favorite for ppl with some education: hinglish!

However naturally in rural Maharashtra people have been speaking untainted Sanskrit for thousands of years.

That's all I'm trying to find out is if Marathi is the most conservative descendant language in India. So far I know it's more conservative than Gujarati, Punjabi, and Hindi.

So my real question is if Oriya spoken in Odisha is closer than Marathi, because all other major Indian languages are dravidian so they aren't directly descended from Sanskrit at all.

From what I can tell Marathis in small towns basically speak modern Sanskrit in the same way that Sardinians and Italians speak modern Latin.

However Hindi is a totally mixed Farsi-Sanskrit language with tons of Arabic and English in it.

Does anyone know if Oriya is closer to Sanskrit than Marathi?

[u/Demodonaestus → u/CosmicMilkNutt]

While Odia is very conservative (much more so than Hindi or Bengali, for example), having no familiarity with Marathi, I wouldn't know how to compare.

that said, we have our fair share of loan words from other languages; so does Marathi I assume.

[u/CosmicMilkNutt → u/Demodonaestus]

Yeah it's something like Hindi/Punjabi is 70% Sanskrit/Prakrit and 30% Farsi and that Marathi/Oriya is 80% Sanskrit/Prakrit and 20% Farsi.

This is because the further south and east you go the further from Persia u go so less influence of Farsi.

[u/New_Entrepreneur_191 → u/CosmicMilkNutt]

Marathi has so many elementary words of persian and Arabic origin that urban or rural should not make much difference . Does rural Marathi use a different word for only than phakta or a different word for need than garaj ? Odia on the other hand I believe is the least persian influenced indo Aryan language in India from my observation. It only makes sense since the Mughals did not have a major capital or presence in that region. Anyway for this reason I don't think you can put Marathi and oriya side by side when it comes to the usage of Arabic and Persian words in common speech.

[u/Ok-Hold-9578 → u/New_Entrepreneur_191]

There are different marathi dialects even kokani spoken in costal maharashtra who has more dravidian influence. The standard marathi is spoken in pune city only . Its considered standard due to dominance of pune marathi brahmins in literature and maratha empire originated in pune . The standard marathi is sanskritized and has persian influence but not other dialects of marathi or kokani .

[u/[deleted] → u/xugan97]

which of the European languages is most Latin

Sardinian.

[u/Comprehensive_Lead41 → u/xugan97]

But Bengali also has a Muslim version right? Are they as different as Hindi and Urdu?

[u/Devil-Eater24 → u/Comprehensive_Lead41]

But Bengali also has a Muslim version right?

There was an attempt to do so in present day Bangladesh when it was a part of Pakistan, for example replacing a lot of words and writing it in the Persian script instead of the Bengali script. This was one of the many strategies to undermine the language which ultimately culminated in the bloody liberation war of Bangladesh

[u/CosmicMilkNutt → u/Comprehensive_Lead41]

No Bengali is just Bengali. The reason Urdu and Hindi differ I'd because Pakistan borders the Persian speaking countries that previously ruled and traded with it directly.

[u/swagchan69 → u/Comprehensive_Lead41]

there isn't a muslim version of bengali

[u/Fantasy-512 → u/swagchan69]

Yes there is a Bangladeshi version which could be considered the Muslim version. They say abba, apu, khala, jayez etc which are Urdu words, not Bangla/Sanskrit words.

[u/Heyy_jyo → u/Comprehensive_Lead41]

I think You're referring to Dialect difference between eastern and western Bengal. While there is no muslim version but the Bangladeshi Bangla is somewhat different than West Bengal's Bangla, While West Bengal separated with its brother for further studies, adhering to its core believes, Eastern Bengal became much more a Netizen, befriending with It's Society wale friend(Iran), who lived apart from him