Symbols
83Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Vowels
Each vowel as a full letter (start of a word) and as the matra attached to a consonant; अ has no matra because every consonant already carries it. ॲ ॅ and ऑ ॉ are the Marathi way of writing the English vowels of bat and ball in loanwords (बॅट, बॉल).
Signs
The anusvara ं for nasal sounds, the visarga ः of Sanskrit words, and the virama ् that removes the built-in vowel and builds conjuncts such as क्ष and ज्ञ.
Consonants
In Devanagari order, five to a row by where the sound is made; ळ comes after ह, as in the Marathi alphabet. क्ष and ज्ञ are typed as conjuncts (क + ् + ष, ज + ् + ञ), not single characters.
Punctuation
The danda । is the traditional full stop and ॥ closes a verse or song stanza; everyday Marathi-style writing, Khandeshi included, mostly uses the English full stop and the same commas, question and quotation marks as English.
Numbers
Devanagari digits, as taught in Marathi schools; 0–9 is just as common.
Currency
The Indian rupee: ₹१०० or ₹100.
Where it's spoken
Khandeshi is spoken in India, in the Khandesh region of north-western Maharashtra and the neighbouring edges of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
Symbols
Folded hands for राम राम, the diya of Kanbai and Diwali, the ox of Pola, Jalgaon bananas, the eggplant of bharit, bhakri flatbread and the heat of Khandeshi masala.
On the map
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The Khandeshi language and its alphabet
Khandeshi (खानदेशी) is the language of Khandesh, the Tapi river valley in the north-west of Maharashtra, around Jalgaon, Dhule and Nandurbar. Its best-known and largest variety is Ahirani (अहिराणी), and the two names are often used for the same speech; Dangi, spoken in the Dangs district of Gujarat, is usually counted as another variety. Linguists place Khandeshi among the Indo-Aryan languages, between Marathi to the south and Gujarati to the west, and it has its own ISO language code, khn.
Khandeshi has no script of its own. It is written in Devanagari, and because its speakers go to school in Marathi, they spell it the Marathi way: with the Marathi letter ळ, with ॲ and ऑ for English vowels, and without the dotted Hindi letters ड़ ढ़ ज़. There is no single fixed Khandeshi spelling; writers put words down as they are said. Marathi is the language of school, offices and newspapers in Khandesh, while Khandeshi is the language of home and the village, of folk songs, of Ahirani song videos and comedy clips online, and of messages between friends. Everything needed to write it is on this page.
How the Devanagari letters work in Khandeshi
Devanagari is an abugida: every consonant letter carries a built-in short a, so क alone is ka. Other vowels after a consonant are written with a vowel sign, a matra: का कि की कु कू के कै को कौ. The full vowel letters अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ए ऐ ओ औ appear at the start of a word or after another vowel, as in आखाजी, the Khandesh name for the spring festival of Akshaya Tritiya. The line on top, the headstroke, joins the letters of a word.
The virama ् removes the built-in vowel, and consonants written together merge into a conjunct: क ् ष gives क्ष, ज ् ञ gives ज्ञ, and the ् in खान्देश is what joins न and द. Conjuncts have no code points of their own; they are typed as those characters and the font draws the joined shape. The anusvara ं marks a nasal sound and in Marathi-style spelling also stands for a nasal before another consonant, as in संसार. The visarga ः and the vowel ऋ ृ are found in learned words taken from Sanskrit.
ळ is the retroflex l, said with the tongue curled back. Hindi does not have it, Marathi and Gujarati do, and it is everywhere in the names of Khandesh: जळगाव (Jalgaon) and the bullock festival पोळा (Pola). ॲ with its matra ॅ and ऑ with ॉ write the vowels of English bat and ball in loanwords: बॅट, बॉल, डॉक्टर.
Khandeshi language words: festivals, food and songs
Many words people look up in Khandeshi belong to the year's festivals. आखाजी (Akhaji) is Akshaya Tritiya, when married daughters come home, swings are hung and women sing Akhaji songs. कानबाई (Kanbai) is the family festival of the goddess Kanbai in the month of Shravan, kept with a lamp and songs. पोळा (Pola) honours the bullocks that pull the ploughs, painted and decorated for the day.
Khandeshi food has its own vocabulary too: भरीत (bharit), the smoky eggplant mash of Jalgaon , eaten with भाकरी (bhakri), a flatbread of jowar or bajra , and शेव भाजी (shev bhaji), a fiery curry of gram-flour noodles made with Khandeshi black masala. Jalgaon district is one of India's great banana growing areas . In searches, Ahirani songs, गाणे (gane), are among the things people look up most: their lyrics are written in Devanagari and shared with the videos, a common use for the letters above.
How to type Khandeshi in Devanagari on a keyboard and phone
There is no separate Khandeshi keyboard; the Windows Marathi InScript layout includes ळ but not the separate character ॲ. On Windows, add Marathi under Settings Time & language Language & region and pick a layout: Marathi (InScript) puts the letters on fixed keys, and where a phonetic layout is offered it lets you type ka to get क. Switch with WinSpace. On a Mac, add Devanagari – QWERTY under System Settings Keyboard Input Sources and switch with ControlSpace or the Globe key.
On a phone, add Marathi in Gboard and turn on transliteration: type ram ram in Latin letters and pick राम राम from the suggestions, a common way to write Ahirani on WhatsApp. In HTML, any letter can be written by its code: ख is ख, ळ is ळ, ॲ is ॲ and ₹ is .
Song verses may end with the danda । or the double danda ॥, but everyday Marathi-style writing uses the English full stop, and commas, question marks and quotation marks are the same as in English. Numbers can be written with Devanagari digits ०१२३४५६७८९, as taught in Marathi schools, or with 0–9. Prices take the rupee sign: ५० or 50.
Where the Khandeshi language is spoken
Khandeshi is spoken in Maharashtra, in the Jalgaon, Dhule and Nandurbar districts and the northern part of Nashik district, and over the borders in neighbouring parts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, around Burhanpur, the old capital of the Khandesh sultanate. CLDR estimates about 2.1 million speakers, all in India; other sources give different counts.
Its neighbours are its relatives: Marathi, whose spelling it follows, Gujarati to the west, and the Bhili languages spoken in the Satpura hills to the north. See the Marathi, Gujarati, Bhili and Hindi collections for their letters, and the India page for the flag and India's national symbols.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyKhandeshi Language Letters combos
12Worth knowing
- The poet Bahinabai Chaudhari (1880–1951) of Asoda village near Jalgaon could not read or write; she composed her poems aloud in the speech of her Leva community, a Khandeshi variety, and her son Sopandev wrote them down and had them published after her death.
- In 2018 the university in Jalgaon was renamed Kavayitri Bahinabai Chaudhari North Maharashtra University, after that unschooled village poet.
- Marathi fonts draw some letters differently from Hindi fonts, most visibly अ and झ, yet they are the same Unicode characters: the shape comes from the font and the language setting, not from the code point.
- ॲ was added to Unicode in 2008, chiefly for Marathi spelling of English loanwords, which is why older Marathi texts write the same vowel as अॅ.
Questions people ask
7Khandeshi language is spoken in which state?
Mainly in Maharashtra, in the Khandesh districts of Jalgaon, Dhule and Nandurbar and the north of Nashik district, with speakers over the borders in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
Is Ahirani and Khandeshi the same language?
Ahirani is the main and best-known variety of Khandeshi, and the two names are often used interchangeably. Khandeshi also covers other varieties, such as Dangi in Gujarat.
What is the origin of the Ahirani language?
Ahirani is an Indo-Aryan language that grew up in the Tapi valley between the areas of Marathi and Gujarati, and shares features with both. Its name is usually traced to the Ahir (Abhira) people of the region.
Does Khandeshi have its own script?
No. Khandeshi is written in Devanagari, spelled the Marathi way, with the vowels, matras, consonants (ळ included) and signs shown on this page.
How to type Ahirani in WhatsApp?
Add Marathi in Gboard and turn on transliteration: type the words in English letters (ram ram) and pick the Devanagari suggestion (राम राम). Or copy letters from this page.
How do you type ळ?
Every Marathi keyboard layout has ळ as a letter of its own, so adding a Marathi keyboard is the easiest way. You can also copy it here, or write ळ in HTML.
Who is the famous poet of Khandeshi?
Bahinabai Chaudhari (1880–1951) of Asoda near Jalgaon, whose poems in the speech of the Leva community, such as अरे संसार संसार, are known across Maharashtra.
