Talk:आऊत

@Kutchkutch Wikipedia says Khandeshi and Ahirani are two names for the same language. But they have two ISO codes for some reason. Should we use the name Khandeshi or Ahirani then, if they are truly the same language? —Aryaman ^{(मुझसे बात करो)} 00:52, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

@Aryamanarora Thanks for asking. It's a good question that I am confused about as well and I do not speak it. There appears to be some mutual intelligibility with Standard Marathi so I wanted to add this word (for now maybe more of the language in the future) to compare it to Standard Marathi and other surrounding languages (perhaps Gujarati). 'Khandesh' is the name of a region in Maharashtra so the name 'Khandeshi' is derived from that fact and Ahir is the name of a caste so the name 'Ahirani' is derived from that fact.

The reference I used says 'Ahirani' is the name of the language so that's why I called it by that name in this entry. [1] calls it 'Khandeshi' while [2] calls it 'Ahirani'.

Wikipedia and the rest of the Internet fluctuates between the two names, but it seems 'Ahirani' is the more common name. So I am leaning towards 'Ahirani' for now, but 'Khandesh' sounds more descriptive.

Module:languages/data3/a on Wiktionary says that 'Khandeshi' is an ancestor of 'Ahirani' so that might complicate it even more. Kutchkutch (talk) 01:32, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

@Kutchkutch: Module:languages/data3/a is likely wrong about that. I think I'll merge Khandeshi into Ahirani, and add it as an alternate name. —Aryaman ^{(मुझसे बात करो)} 02:14, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

@Aryamanarora Be sure to update Wiktionary:Language treatment if you're changing a language code. DTLHS (talk) 02:29, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

@Aryamanarora Thanks for the changes! Due to the partial mutual intelligibility with Marathi, it does seem like the language is derived from Maharashtri Prakrit.

There used to be many more Marathi dialects/languages, but at some point in history either the Maratha Empire or British administrators made the Pune dialect the basis of standardisation in mass media, communications, government, and education. As a result, many regional dialects either started becoming extinct or considered 'inferior' if they still exist. The big exception to this trend is the Konkani language since it gained official recognition. Another Marathi 'dialect' that might deserve separate 'language' status on Wiktionary someday could be Varhadi with the ISO code 'vah', but all the resources I could find, which are on shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in, are around 50 years old so perhaps Varhadi can wait until a better resource is found. Template:Languages_of_India shows 'Khandeshi' and 'Varhadi' as major unofficial languages of India with millions of speakers. Kutchkutch (talk) 06:47, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

[3], [4], [5], suggest the language has connections to Western/Central Indo-Aryan, the Bhili language, and various languages in Madhya Pradesh. Perhaps this suggests the transitional nature of the language between Southern Indo-Aryan and Western/Central Indo-Aryan.

[6] says Ahirani's alternate name is 'Ahiri'

[7] says 'The language is used for face-to-face communication by all generations and the situation is sustainable.'

[8] and [9] separate 'Khandeshi' and 'Ahirani' Kutchkutch (talk) 09:51, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

@Kutchkutch: Hmmm, they are treated separately in Indian censuses as well. Perhaps merging is not a good idea. —Aryaman ^{(मुझसे बात करो)} 17:40, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

@Aryamanarora: I encountered this: [10] "The major dialects of Marathi are called Standard Marathi and Warhadi Marathi. There are a few other sub-dialects, such as Ahirani, Dangi, Vadvali, Samavedi, Khandeshi, and Malwani.", which lists both of them separately. Kutchkutch (talk) 01:31, 21 October 2017 (UTC)