Marathi, the official language of Maharashtra in western India, belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family. Over centuries, it has evolved through contact with neighboring tongues, shared cultural histories, and common grammatical roots. According to the eLinguistics.net analysis using specific software modules to assess linguistic relationships, the five languages most similar to Marathi are Konkani, Dogri, Assamese, Bengali, and Bhojpuri.
- Konkani (91.3)
Konkani is primarily spoken in Goa, coastal Karnataka, and parts of Maharashtra. Both languages were influenced by the courts of the Deccan Sultanates and the Maratha Empire. They also have extensive overlap in core words. For example, Marathi (pāṇī, “water”) vs. Konkani (pāṇi) and Marathi (ghar, “house”) vs. Konkani (ghor). - Dogri (79.5)
Spoken in the Jammu region, Dogri is another Indo-Aryan language on this list. Both languages preserve certain archaic Sanskrit inflections—reflecting a shared retention of older Indo-Aryan patterns. Words like Marathi (dūdh, “milk”) equals Dogri (dūdh), as well as Marathi (bol, “speak”) equals Dogri (bol). - Assamese (78.5)
Across the country, Assamese is primarily spoken in the state of Assam. At first glance, it seems far removed from the Deccan. However, their verb systems mirror one another, too, especially in how compound verbs fold a participle and an auxiliary together to convey perfective aspect. - Bengali (78.4)
West Bengal in India and Bangladesh both have many speakers of Bengali. 19th-century reformers in Bengal and Maharashtra shared many literary and social reform ideas, mirrored in language standardization efforts. In fact, both languages share borrowings from Sanskrit. - Bhojpuri (76.9)
Eastern Uttar Pradesh, western Bihar, and diaspora communities worldwide speak Bhojpuri. Ballads and folk songs across Maharashtra and Bhojpuri-speaking regions feature similar melodic and thematic elements, pointing to deep-rooted linguistic exchanges. For example, Marathi has (karaṇe, “to do”) and Bhojpuri has (karâ, “to do”).
(to be considered for the list, the language must be spoken by at least one million people)