Marathi distinguishes inclusive and exclusive forms of 'we' and possesses a three-way gender system, that features the neuter in addition to the masculine and the feminine.
The major dialects of Marathi are Standard Marathi and the Varhadi dialect. The language has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indian languages. Marathi has the third largest number of native speakers in India, after Hindi and Bengali. Marathi ranks 13th in the list of languages with most native speakers in the world. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India, with 83 million speakers as of 2011. It is the official language of Maharashtra, and an additional official language in the state of Goa. Marathi ( English: / m ə ˈ r ɑː t i/ Devanagari: मराठी, Marathi: ⓘ) is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
