Mewati

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A language of India

ISO 639-3
wtm
Alternate Names
Mewathi
Population

645,000 (2001 census). 8% monolinguals (2006).

Location

Rajasthan, Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur districts; Uttar Pradesh, Madhura district; Haryana, Gurgaon, Faridabad districts.

Language Maps
Language Status

5 (Developing).

Classification
Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Central zone, Unclassified
Dialects

45% intelligibility of Marwari [rwr]. Over 90% intelligibility of Alwar District dialect throughout Mewati area. Dialect in the Nuh area of Gurgaon is considered purest. Lexical similarity: 72%–77% with Hindi [hin], 63%–68% with Haryanvi [bgc], 57%–70% with Shekhawati [swv], 62%–67% with Dhundari [dhd], 52%–70% with Haroti [hoj], 68%–71% with Braj Bhasha [bra], 86%–99% between all varieties of Mewati.

Language Use

Vigorous. Home, village, market, religion. All ages. Positive attitudes. About 25% have good proficiency in Hindi [hin]; an Arabic language or Urdu [urd] also used.

Language Development
Literacy rate in L2: 25% (2006). Taught in primary schools.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Mewati
Other Comments

People are called Meo; many Urdu [urd] loanwords. Muslim, Hindu.