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GUJARATI and RAJASTHANI , the names of two members of the western sub-group of the Intermediate Group of Indo-Aryan languages (q.v.). The remaining member of this sub-group is Panjabi or Punjabi (see HINDOSTANI). In 1901 the speakers of those now dealt with numbered: Gujarati, 9,439,925, and Rajasthani , 10,917,71 2. The two languages are closely connected and might almost be termed co-dialects of the same form of speech. Together they occupy an almost square block
some 400 M. broad, reaching from near Agra
In the articles INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES and PRAKRIT the history of the earlier stages of the Indo-Aryan vernaculars is given at some length. It is there shown that, from the most ancient times, there were two main groups of these forms of speechone, the language of the Midland, spoken in the country near the Gangetic Doab, and the other, the so-called " Outer Band," containing the Midland on three sides, west, north and south. The country to the west and south-west of the Midland, in which this outer group of languages was spoken, included the modern Punjab, Rajputana and Gujarat. In process of time the population of the Midland expanded and carried its language to its new homes. It occupied the eastern and central Punjab, and the mixed (or " intermediate ") language which there grew up became the modern Panjabi. To the west it spread into Rajputana, till its progress was stopped by the Indian desert, and in Rajputana another intermediate language took rise and became Rajasthani. As elsewhere explained, the language-wave of the Midland exercised less and less influence as it travelled farther from its home, so that, while in eastern Rajputana the local dialect is now almost a pure midland speech, in the west there are many evident traces of the old outer language still surviving. To the south-west of Rajputana there was no desert to stop the wave of Midland expansion, which therefore rolled on unobstructed into Gujarat, where it reached the sea. Here the survivals of the old outer language are stronger still. The old outer Prakrit of north Gujarat was known as " Saurastri," while the Prakrit of the Midland invaders was called " Sauraseni," and we, may therefore describe Gujarati as being an intermediate language derived (as explained in the articles PRAKRIT) from a mixture of the Apabhramsa forms of Saurastri and Sauraseni, in which the latter predominated. It will be observed that, at the present day, Gujarati breaks the continuity of the outer band of Indo-Aryan languages. To its north it has Sindhi and to its south Marathi, both outer languages with which it has only a slight connexion. On the other hand, on the east and north-east it has Rajasthani, into which it merges so gradually and imperceptibly that at the conventional border-line, in the state of Palanpur, the inhabitants of Rajputana say that the local dialect is a form of Gujarati, while the inhabitants of Gujarat say that it is Rajasthani. Gujarati has no important local dialects, but there is consider-able variation in the speeches of different classes of the corn-Language. munity. Parsees and Mussulmans (when the latter use the language--as a rule the Gujarat Mussulmans speak Hindostani) have some striking peculiarities of pronunciation, the most noticeable of which is the disregard by the latter of the distinction between cerebral and dental letters. The uneducated Hindus do not pronounce the language in the same way as their betters, and this difference is accentuated in northern Gujarat, where the lower classes substitute e for i, c for k, ch for kh, s for c and ch, h for s, and drop h as readily as any cockney. There is also (as in the case of the Mussulmans) a tendency to confuse cerebral and dental consonants, tc substitute r ford and 1, to double medial consonants, and to pronounce the letter a as a, something like the a in " all." The Bhils of the hills east of Gujarat also speak a rude Gujarati, with special
Rajasthani has numerous dialects, each state claiming one or more of its own. Thus, in the state of Jaipur there have been catalogued no less than ten dialects among about 1,688,000 people. All Rajasthani dialects can, however, be easily classed in four well-defined groups, a north-eastern, a southern, awestern and an east-central. The north-eastern (Mewati) is that form of Rajasthani which is merging into the Western Hindi of the Midland. It is a mixed form of speech, and need not detain us further. Similarly, the southern (Malvi) is much mixed with the neighbouring Bundeli form of Western Hindi. The western (lNiarwari) spoken in Marwar and its neighbourhood, and the east-central (Jaipuri) spoken in Jaipur and its neighbour-hood, may be taken as the typical Rajasthani dialects. In the following paragraphs we shall therefore confine ourselves to Gujarati, Marwari and Jaipuri. We know more about the ancient history of Gujarati than we do about that of any other Indo-Aryan language. The one native grammar of Apabhrath a Prakrit which we possess in a printed edition, was written by Hemacandra (12th century A.D.), who lived in what is now north Gujarat, and who naturally described most fully the particular vernacular with which he was personally familiar. It was known as the Nagara Apabhramsa, closely connected (as above explained) with Sauraseni, and was so named after the Nagara Brahmans of the locality. These men carried on the tradition of learning inherited from Hemacandra, and we see Gujarati almost in the act of taking birth in a work called the Mugdhavabodhamauktika, written by one of them only two hundred years after his death. Formal Gujarati literature is said to commence with the poet Narsingh Meta in the 15th century. Rajasthani literature has received but small attention from European or native scholars, and we are as yet unable to say how far back the language goes. Both Gujarati and Rajasthani are usually written in current scripts related to the well-known Nagari alphabet (see SANSKRIT). The form employed in Rajputana is known all over northern India as the " Mahajani " alphabet, being used by bankers or Mahajans, most of whom are Marwaris. It is noteworthy as possessing two distinct characters for d and The Gujarati character closely resembles the Kaithi character of northern India (see BIaARI). The Nagari character is also freely used in Rajputana, and to a less extent in Gujarat, where it is employed by the Nagara Brahmans, who claim that their tribe has given the alphabet its name. In the following description of the main features of our two languages, the reader is presumed to be familiar with the leading facts stated in the articles INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES and PRAKRIT. The article HINDOSTANI may also be perused with advantage. (Abbreviations. Skr. =Sanskrit. Pr. = Prakrit. Ap. = Apabh- ramsa. G. =Gujarati. R. =Rajasthani. H. =Hind ostani.) Vocabulary.The vocabulary of both Gujarat and Rajasthani is very free from tatsama words. The great mass of both vocabularies is tadbhava (see INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES). Rajputana was from an early period brought into close contact with the Mogul court at Agra
Phonetics.With a few exceptions to be mentioned below, the sound-system of the two languages is the same as that of Sanskrit, and is represented in the same manner in the Roman character (see SANSKRIT). The simplest method for considering the subject in regard to Gujarati is to compare it with the phonetical system of Hindostani (q.v.). As a rule, Rajasthani closely follows Gujarati and need not be referred to except in special
which is also common in Bengali. Many words which have i in H. have a in G. and R., thus, H. liklze, G. lakhe, he writes; H. din, G. and R. dan, a day. Similarly we have a for u, as in H. turn, G., R. lame, you. In colloquial G. a often becomes d, and i becomes e; thus, pdni for pani, water; mares for maxis, I shall strike. As in most Indo-Aryan vernaculars an a after an accented syllable is very lightly pronounced, and is here represented by a small a above the line. The Vedic cerebral l and the cerebral n are very common as medial letters in both G. and R. (both being unknown to literary H.). The rule is, as elsewhere in western and southern intermediate and outer languages, that when n and l represent a double nn (or nn) or a double ll in Pr. they are dental, but when they represent single medial letters they are cerebralized. Thus Ap. sonnau, G. sonu, gold; Ap. ghanaa, G. ghania, dense; Ap. callai, G. cilia, he goes; Ap. calai, G. care, he moves. In northern G. and in some caste dialects dental and cerebral letters are absolutely interchangeable, as in (Mirada or dahada, a day; to or tit, thou; didho or didho, given. In G. and R. medial d is pronounced as a rough cerebral y, and is then so transcribed. We have seen that in the Marwari alphabet there are actually distinct letters for these two sounds. In colloquial G. c and ch are yronounced s, especially in the north, as in pas for pac, five; playa for puchyO, he asked. Similarly, in the north, j and jh become z, as in zad for jhad, a tree. In some localities (as in Marathi) we have is and dz for these sounds, as in Tsarotar (name of a tract of country) for Caroler. On the other hand, k, kh and g, especially when preceded or followed by i, e or y, become in the north c, ch and j respectively; thus, dicaro for dikaro, a son; chetar for khetar, a field ; lajyo for lagyo, begun. A similar change is found in dialectic Marathi, and is, of course, one of the commonplaces of the philology of the Romance languages. The sibilants s and s are colloquially pronounced h (as in several outer languages), especially in the north. Thus deli for des, a country; ha formk, what ; hamajavyo for samajavyo, he explained. An original
Declension.Gujarati agrees with Marathi (an outer language) as against Hindostani in retaining the neuter gender of Sanskrit and Prakrit. Moreover, the neuter gender is often employed to indicate Iiving beings of which the sex is uncertain, as in the case of dikaru, a child, compared with di/era, a son, and dikari, a daughter. In R. there are only sporadic instances of the neuter, which grow more and more rare as we approach the Midland. Nouns in both G. and R. may be weak or strong as is fully explained in the article HINDOST.iNI. We have there seen that the strong form of masculine nouns in Western Hindi generally ends in au, the a of words like the Hindostani ghara, a horse, being an accident due to the fact that the Hindostani dialect of Western Hindi borrows this termination from Panjabi. G. and R. follow Western Hindi, for their masculine strong forms end in o. Feminine strong forms end in ias elsewhere. Neuter strong forms in G. end in u, derived as follows: Skr, svarnakam, Ap. sonnau", G. sonu`, gold. As an example of the three genders of the same word we may take G. chokaro (masc.), a boy; chok'ri (fern.); a girl; chokaru (neut.), a child. Long forms corresponding to the Eastern Hindi ghorawa, a horse, are not much used, but we not infrequently meet another long form made by suffixing the pleonastic termination do or ro (fern. di or ri; G. neut. du" orruu) which is directly descended from the Ap. pleonastic termination dau, dai, daft. We come across this most often in R., where it is used conternptuously, as in Turuk-ro, a Turk. In the article HINDOSTANI it is shown that all the oblique cases of each number in Sanskrit and Prakrit became melted down in the modern languages into one general oblique case, which, in the Mid-land, is derived in the singular from the Ap.termination -hior -hi,and that even this has survived only in the case of strong masculine nouns; thus, ghara, obl. ghare. In G. and R. this same termination has also survived, but for all nouns as the case sign of the agent and locative cases. The general oblique case is the same as the nominative, except in the case of strong masculine and neuter nouns in o and a respectively, where it ends in a, not C. This a-termination is characteristic of the outer band of languages, and is one of the sur vivals already referred to. It is derived from the Apabhrariisa genitive form in -aha, corresponding to the Magadhi Pr. (an outer Prakrit) termination -aha. Thus, G. chokaro, a son; chokaru", a child; obl. sing. chokard. In G. the nominative and oblique plural for all nouns are formed by adding o to the oblique form singular, but in the neuter strong forms the oblique singular is nasalized. The real plural is the same in form as the oblique singular in the case of masculines, and as a nasalized oblique singular in the case of neuter strong forms, as inother modern Indo-Aryan vernaculars, and the added o is a further plural termination (making a double plural, exactly as it does in the Ardhamagadhi Prakrit putta-o, sons) which is often dropped. The nasalization of the strong neuter plurals is inherited from Ap., in which the neuter nom. plural of such nouns ended in -era In R. the nominative plural of masculine nouns is the same in form as the oblique case singular, and the oblique plural ends in -. The feminine has i both in the nominative and in the oblique plural. These are all explained in the article HINDOSTANI. We thus get the following paradigms of the declension of nouns. The general oblique case can be employed for any case except the nominative, but, in order to define the meaning, it is customary to add postpositions as in Hindostani. These are: Genitive. Dative. Ablative. Locative. Gujarati . no ne thi ma Rajasthani rO, kb nai, rai, kai su mad The suffix no of the genitive is believed to be a contraction of Jana, which is found in old Gujarati poetry, and which, under the form tanas in Sanskrit and tanaii in Apabhrariisa, mean " belonging to." It is an adjective, and agrees in gender, number and case with the thing possessed. Thus, raja-no dikaro, the king's son; rajd-ni dikari, the king's daughter; raja-nu ghar, the king's house
house
Strong adjectives agree with the nouns they qualify in gender, number and case, as in the examples of the genitive above. Weak adjectives are immutable. Pronouns closely agree with those found in Hindostani In the table on following page we give the first two personal pronouns, and the demonstrative
Similarly are formed the remaining pronouns, viz. G. a, R. u, he, that; G. te, R. so (obi. sing. li), that; G. je, R. jo, who; G. kdn (obl. ban, ko, or ke), R. kun (obi. kun), who?; G. sua, R. hai,what ?; G., R. kai, anyone, someone, kai anything, something. G. has two other demonstratives, polo and olyo, both meaning " that." The derivation of these and of Ca has been discussed without any decisive result. The rest are explained in the article HINDOSTANI. The Apabhramsa. Gujarati. Rajasthani. Strong Noun Masc. ghat/ au ghodo ghodo " A horse." Sing. Nom. ghodaaha ghoda ghoda Obl. glzodaahi ghodo, ghodae ghodai Ag.-Loc. ghodad ghoda-o ghoda Plur. Nom. ghodaaha ghoda-o ghoda Obl. ghodaahi ghoda-o-e ghoda Ag.-Loc. sonnau sonu" ghodi Strong Noun Neut. sonnaaha song ghodi " Gold." Sing. Nom. son?zaahi sane, sonde ghodi Obl. sonnaai sane ghodya Ag.-Loc. sonzzaaha sons-o ghodya Plur. Nom. sonnaah't sand-o-e ghodya` Obl. ghodia ghodi ghar Ag.-Loc. ghocliahi ghodi ghar Strong Noun Fem. gizodiae ghodie gharai " A mare." Sing. Nom. ghodia-o ghodi-o ghar Obl. ghodiahu ghodi-o ghara Ag.-Loc. ghodiah% ghodi-o-e ghara Plur. Nom. gharu (neut.) ghar bat Obl. gharaha ghar bat Ag.-Loc. gharahi ghare bat Weak Noun Masc. or Neut. gharai ghar-o bata " A house." Sing. Nom. gharaha ghar-O bats Obl. gharahi ghar-o-e bald Ag.-Loc. valid watt
Plur. Nom. vattahi wat Obl. vattae wate Ag.-Loc. vatta-o wat-o Weak Noun Ferri. vattahu writ-5 " A word." Sing. Nom. vattahi wat-o-e Obl. Ag.-Loc. Plur. Nom. Obl. Ag.-Loc. Apabhrariisa. Gujarati. Rajasthani. I Nom. hat hl hu, mhu, mai Obl. mar, mahu, majjhu ma, maj ma, mha, mu MY maharau metro maro, mharo WE Nom. amhe ame mhe Obl. amhahei am-o ma' OUR amharau amaro mha-ro, rnha-ko THOU Nom. tuba" to ta Obl. Uzi, tuha, tujjhu ta, tuj ta, tha, tit THY tnharati taro tharo You Nom. lumhe tame the, tame Obl. tumhaha tam-o tha, tams YOUR tumharau tamaro thel-ro, tha-ko End of Article: GUJARATI If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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