Gujarati language

Gujarati (ગુજરાતી Gujarātī) is an Indo-European, Indo-Aryan language. It is one of the 22 official language and 14 regional languages spoken in India, and one of the languages spoken in Pakistan. It is a language native to the state of Gujarat in western India and some areas of eastern Pakistan. There are about 46 million speakers of Gujarati worldwide, making it the 23rd most spoken language in the world. Of these, roughly 45.5 million reside in India, 150,000 in Uganda, 250,000 in Tanzania, 50,000 in Kenya and roughly 100,000 in Pakistan. Gujarati is the chief language of India's Gujarat state, as well as the adjacent union territories of formerly Portuguese Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. A considerable population of Gujarati speakers exists in North America and the United Kingdom as well. In the United Kingdom, Leicester (Midlands) and Wembley (North London) are two areas popular with Gujaratis. And in America, states such as New Jersey, New York, California, and Texas are quite popular with Gujaratis. Gujarati was the mother-tongue of Shri Mohandas K. Gandhi, the "father of India" and Quaid-e Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the "father of Pakistan" and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, The iron man of India.

History

The history of the language can be traced back to 12th c. CE. A formal grammar of the precursor of this language was written by Jain monk and eminent scholar Hemachandra-charya in the reign of Rajput king Siddharaj Jayasinh of Anhilwara (Patan). This was called Apabhransa grammar, signifying a language which is a corrupted form of languages like Sanskrit and Ardha-magadhi. The earliest literature in the language survives in oral tradition and can be traced to two stalwarts, the Krishna devotee and great egalitarian Narsinh Mehta (later a source of inspiration to Mahatma Gandhi) dated to be in the 17th century. The story of Narsinh Mehta himself was composed as a long narrative ballad by Premananda, accorded the title "maha-kavi" or great poet by modern historians of the language. His date is perhaps late 17th century. Other than this a large number of poets flourished during what is now characterised as the bhakti or devotional movement in Hinduism, a movement of the masses to liberate the religion from entrenched priesthood.

Premananda was a "vyakhyan-kar", a traveling story teller, who narrated his subject in song form and then perhaps elaborated on the lines in prose. His style was so fluent that the long poems running into hundreds of lines were memorised by the people and are still sung during the morning routines. In this sense the oral tradition of the much more ancient Vedas was clearly continuing in India till late. Premananda's famous poetry-stories deal with epic themes couched in stories of mythical kings, and the puranas. He also wrote a drama based on Narasinh Mehta's life capturing his simplicity and his disregard for worldly divisions of caste and class.

Modern exploration into Gujarat and its language is credited to British administrator Alexander Kinloch Forbes. During the nineteenth century he explored much of the previous thousand years of the history of the land and compiled a large number of manuscripts. The learned body devoted to Gujarati language is named after him, Farbas Gujarati Sabha with headquarters in Mumbai.

Geographic distribution

Official Status

It is officially recognized in the state of Gujarat, India. Guajrati is also one of the main language of Mumbai also, as many Gujarati People stays there.

Dialects

As with most languages, there are regional dialects which differ, some have many Arabic and Persian terms, while others, such as the southern dialects, take more from Portuguese and English, while others take more from Hindi. It is not a single language, and was only created 4 to 5 centuries ago. It combines many languages, as mentioned above.

Some of them are listed below along with subdivisions.

Standard Gujarati
- Saurashtra Standard
- Nagari
- Bombay Gujarati
- Patnuli
- Ahmedabad city
Gamadia
- Gramya
- Surati
- Anawla
- Brathela
- Eastern Broach Gujarati
- Charotari
- Patidari
- Vadodari
- Patani

Farsi or Parsi (Persian)

Kathiyawadi
- Jhalawadi
- Sorathi
- Holadi
- Gohilwadi
- Bhavnagari
- Mer
Kharwa

Khakari

Tarimukhi
- Ghisadi

East African Gujarati

Derived languages

Kutchi or less commonly known as Khojki is many times referred to as a dialect of Gujarati.

Vocabulary

The Gujarati spoken today includes some vocabulary from the Arabic and Persian languages due to the more than five centuries of Islamic rule, as well as the influence of Zoroastrian Persian immigrants known as Parsis. The influence of English and Portugese are also highly notable in modern spoken Gujerati due to past Portugese and British colonisation.

Writing system

Gujarati is written using the Gujarati script, an abugida very similar to Devanagari (the script used for Sanskrit, Marathi and Hindi), but without the line at the top of the letters as well as a few other differences.

Gujarati and its dialects, including Kutchi is also written in the Arabic or Persian scripts. It is done so by many in the Kutch district of the state, regardless of religion.

External links

Dictionaries and Linguistic Resources

Gujarati Wiktionary
Chandaria's Gujarati Dictionary
Gujarati News
Gujarati English Dictionary from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition

Other

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Gujarati language