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THE PEOPLE
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LANGUAGE
According to the 1951 Census returns, of the total population of the district, 846.996 (m. 414,805; f. 432,191) or 93.07 per cent, spoke Marathi. Of the remaining, 45,142 (m. 20,646; f. 24,496) or 4.7 per cent, spoke Urdu; 7,231 (m. 4,496;f. 2,735) spoke Gujarati; 1,848 spoke Hindi; 1,795 spoke Konkani; 1,748 spoke Rajasthani; 1,372 spoke Telugu; 1,059 spoke Kannada; 489 spoke Kacchi; 422 spoke Portuguese; 289 spoke Tamil; 251 spoke Sindhi; 92 spoke Malayalam; 92 spoke Panjabi; 89 spoke Hebrew; and 67 spoke English. Persons speaking Persian, Arabic, Naipali, Burmese Bengali, Pasto, Russian and Tulu were found in insignificant number. In respect of bilingualism, it is interesting to note that of the Marathi-speaking persons, 2,699 knew Urdu; of the Urdu speaking, 29,942 knew Marathi, and of the Konkani speaking, 1,143 knew Marathi.
Of the Marathi-speaking people the home speech of backward communities, such as Agris and Son-Kolis, and the tribals such as Katkaris and Thakurs, is their communal dialect which differs in some respects from true or Deccan Marathi. Agricultural classes like the Marathas, Kunbis and others and so also the Konkani Muslims and Daldis have their own dialects which could be dis-tinguished from pure Marathi. These differences arise chiefly from incorrect pronunciation, variations in inflexional forms and the use of peculiar words, e.g., among Son-Kolls Agris and other agricultural communities is found the invariable substitutions of an r sound in the place of cerebrals d, dh and i is substituted for vi, and n for
n [Ghora (ghoda). horse; larka (ladka),
beloved; avra (evdha), kevra, (kevdha),
tevra (tevdha), all adjectives expressive of quality;
imal (vimal) pure; sahal (sakal) morning; manas
(manas), person and ugarne (ughadne) to open.]; the promiscuous use of aspirates instead of un-aspirates and vice versa; [Atha (atd), now; tho (to) he; vhot (oth), lip; hay (ahe), is; hyad (yad), memory; and sabud (shabda), word.] the addition of an n sound; [Punja (puja). worship; manje (majhe), mine.] and the separation of conjunct consonants. [Sukurwar (Shukrawar), Friday; Karpa (kripa), favour; login (lagna), marriage; paramesar (parameshwar), God.] Inflexional terminations differ slightly from those in Deccan Marathi, the crude form of the word being subject to less change. Of the words not in use in the Deccan some are found in south Konkan. The nasal sound, the distinguishing peculiarity of the south Konkan dialect is replaced by a lengthened intonation.
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