Amongst various languages that are prevalent in the western region of Indian subcontinent, Malvi deserves a special mentioning. As per a survey conducted by IMA in the year 1994, 1,050,000 numbers of people wildly speak Malvi, mainly residing in
Madhya Pradesh and
Gujarat . In Rajasthan, Malvi is widely spoken in Ujjain, Indore, Rathlam, Mandsaur, Rajgarh districts while in Chittaurgarh, Jhalawar districts of Gujarat, quite a handful of Malvi speakers are being found.
The Malvi language has alternative names like Malavi, Ujjaini, Mallow, Malwada, Malwi.
Quite a handful of dialects, namely, Bachadi, Bhoyari, Dholewari, Hoshangabadi, Jamral, Katiyai, Malvi Proper, Patvi, Rangari, Rangri and Sondwari have originated from the Malvi language . In the year 2001, expert linguists have discovered the presence of four more dialects of Malvi. First one, Ujjaini is prevalent in Ujjain, Indore, Dewas, Sehore districts. The remaining dialects are Rajawadi, widely spoken in Ratlam, Mandsaur, Neemuch districts; Umadwadi in Rajgarh district and Sondhwadi in Jhalawar District of Rajasthan. Another dialect, namely Nimadi is regarded to be the standard dialect of southeastern provinces of Rajasthan. About sixty-five to eighty nine percent of words are similar in all the dialects of Malvi.
Malvi is a part of Indo- Aryan language group, belonging to the zone of Rajasthani languages of the same family. The famous Devangiri script has been used for the writing with its literacy rate as a second language rising to forty percent.