Gujarati language
Language
name=Gujarati | nativename=ગુજરાતી Gujarātī | region=India, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Pakistan, USA, UK, Australia, Fiji, Canada | speakers=46 million | rank=22 | familycolor=Indo-European | fam2=Indo-Iranian | fam3=Indo-Aryan | fam4=Western Indo-Aryan | script=Gujarati script | nation=Gujarat | agency=Language Academy | iso2=guj|iso3=guj | notice=Indic}}
Gujarati (ગુજરાતી Gujarātī) is an Indo-Aryan language, part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is one of the 22 official languages and 14 regional languages of India, and one of the minority languages of neighboring 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 Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. It is also the language of the large Gujarati community in Mumbai, India. A considerable population of Gujarati speakers exists in North America and the United Kingdom as well. Gujarati was the mother-tongue of Shri Mohandas ("Mahatma") Gandhi, the "father of India", Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the "father of Pakistan" and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the "iron man of India".The history of the language can be traced back to 12th century 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 referred to as an Apabhransa grammar, signifying a "corrupted" form of the formal languages of the time, Sanskrit and Ardhamagadhi Prakrit. The earliest literature in the language survives in oral tradition and can be traced to the Krishna devotee and great egalitarian Narsinh Mehta. The story of Narsinh Mehta himself was composed in the 17th century as a long narrative ballad by Premananda, accorded the title mahakavi or "great poet" by modern historians of the language. Other than this, a large number of poets flourished during what is now characterised as the bhakti ("devotional") movement in Hinduism, a movement of the masses to liberate the religion from entrenched priesthood.
Premananda was a vyakhyan-kar, or traveling storyteller, who narrated his subject in song and then perhaps elaborated on the lines in prose. His style was so fluent that his long poems, running into hundreds of lines, were nonetheless memorised by the people and are still sung today. In this sense, the oral tradition of the much more ancient Vedas was clearly continuing in India till late. Premananda's famous poetic 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. Farbas Gujarati Sabha, the learned body devoted to the Gujarati language, is named after him, with headquarters in Mumbai.Official statusGujarati is officially recognized in the state of Gujarat, India.DialectsAs with most languages, Gujarati comes in numerous regional dialects that differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, and/or grammar. Some dialects have many Arabic and Persian borrowings, while others, such as the southern dialects, take more from Portuguese and English, while others take more from Hindi.
Selected dialects of Gujarati 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
*Persian-influenced Gujarati
*Kathiyawadi
**Jhalawadi
**Sorathi
**Holadi
**Gohilwadi
**Bhavnagari
**Mer
*Kharwa
*Khakari
*Tarimukhi
**Ghisadi
*East African GujaratiClosely related languagesKutchi, also known as Khojki, is often referred to as a dialect of Gujarati.Gujarati grammar is somewhat like that of other Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi and Sanskrit. An unusual feature of Gujarati, as compared to other Indo-European languages, is that it displays the inclusive and exclusive we feature, that is common to the Dravidian languages.
The word order of Gujarati is SOV. However there is considerable flexibility, such that SVO can be used for stylistic or complex constructions, and OVS for conversation or short replies. Personal pronouns can also be omitted in conversational speech and instead inferred from context as well as through unique verbal conjugations that render the pronouns redundant.
Gujarati possesses no definite or indefinite articles. The word 'one': ek can sometimes be used for 'a'. Gujarati does have demonstrative articles: singular this and that, and plural these and those.Gender and numberGujarati has three genders and two numbers possessed by its nouns. They are masculine (પુલ્લિંગ), neuter (નપુંસકલિંગ), feminine (સ્ત્રીલિંગ), singular (એકવચન), and plural (બહુવચન).
As such, with three genders and two numbers, there are five gender markers and two number markers in Gujarati. Gender and number markers may find themselves on the ends of nouns, and gender (but not number) markers may find themselves on the end of adjectives, verbs, adverbs, possessives, and pronouns that agree with those nouns.
;Number markers:∅ Singular:" PluralGender markers:ઈ Feminine:" Masculine singular :ઉં Neuter singular:આ Masculine plural:આં Neuter plural
Non-nouns that have a gender marker, made for agreeing with the noun, are called 'variable'. They are marked by default as neuter singular, ઉં, when there is nothing there for them to agree with. Non-nouns without gender markers, ending in consonants, are called 'invariable'.Nouns;Common Nouns
Common nouns come in the form of Noun Stem + (Gender marker) + (Number marker).
Nouns can have...
* Both GM and NM: સંદેશો,સંદેશા" (message, messages)
* Only the NM: નાક" (noses)
* Only the GM: વીજળી (electricity)
* Neither: ગાંસ (grass)
* False GM: પાણી (water)
Since masculine and neuter have seperate gender markers in the plural form, the pluralizing " is often dropped.
No other words can have a gender marker except for common nouns.
;Interrogative Pronouns
Variable
* શું What
* કયું Which
* કેવું What kind
* કેટલું How much
* કેવડું How big
Invariable
* ક્યાં Where
* કોણ Who
* ક્યારે When
How and Why
These two are not so clear-cut. From a more archaic and grammatically consistent point of view, these are the words for how and why:
* કેમ How ("કેમ છો?" means "How are you?", and its relative-correlative of જેમ...તેમ is suited for "how")
* શા માટે Why (lit. for what, "pourquoi")
However this is the general modern usage:
* કેવી રીતે / કયી રીતે How (lit. in what kind of way / in which way)
* કેમ WhyVerbs;Infinitive
The formation of the infinitive is: Root + વ્ + Gender marker. If the verb is paired with a direct noun, it will agree with it. Otherwise, if it is alone, or paired to an adjective, it will be neuter.
કરવું To do:ગાવું To sing:ખાવું To eat:ફોન કરવો To phone
;Present Participle
Root + ત્ + Gender marker.
દોડતા માણસો Running men: હસતાં છોકરાં" Laughing children
;Past Participle
Root + એલ્ + Gender marker.
;Conjunctive Participle
Root + ઈનેModern Gujarati includes vocabulary from Arabic and Persian 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 Portuguese is also notable in modern spoken Gujarati due to the legacy of European colonisation.English loanwords* બૅન્ક Bank
* ફોન Phone
* બસ Bus
* ટેબલ Table
* સ્ટેશન StationGujarati is written using the Gujarati script, an abugida (alphasyllabary) very similar to Devanagari (the script used for Sanskrit, Marathi and Hindi), but without the characteristic horizontal line (matra) running across the top of the letters. There are also some other minor differences between the two scripts.
Gujarati and closely related languages, including Kutchi, are also written in the Arabic or Persian scripts. This is traditionally done by many in Gujarat's Kutch district.* Languages of India
* List of national languages of India
* List of Indian languages by total speakers
* Gujarati peopleDictionaries and linguistic resources* ઝાઝી સમાચાર Gujarat News
* Gujarati Wiktionary
* Chandaria's Gujarati Dictionary
* Gujarati News
* Gujarati English Dictionary from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition
* Online Gujarati Type Pad
* Free Gujarati Tutorial - Learn Gujarati
* Useful Gujarati phrases in English and other Indian languages.
* Website for reading Gujarati Literature Online
* Gujarati script and alphabets
* Gujarati Editor
* Rachel Dwyer's Teach Yourself GujaratiOther* Religious and Spiritual Texts in Gujarati
* Religious and Spiritual Texts in Gujarati (islam)
* Gujarati Language and Literature
* Kesuda, An online Gujarati Magazine
* Gujarati Samaj of Minnesota - An organization of Gujaratis in Minnesota, U.S.A. teaching values of our culture.
* Gujarati Samaj of Western Australia - Formed to celebrate the language and traditions of Gujarat in Western Australia.
* A brief history of the Gujarati language
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