Gujarati language
Gujarati | |
---|---|
ગુજરાતી Gujǎrātī | |
Pronunciation | /gudʒ.(ə)'ɾat̪i/ |
Region | India, Pakistan, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, U.S., UK, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Canada, Zimbabwe |
Native speakers | 46.1 million[1] |
Gujarati script | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Gujarat (India)[1][2] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | gu |
ISO 639-2 | guj |
ISO 639-3 | guj |
Gujarati (ગુજરાતી Gujǎrātī; also known as Gujerati, Gujarathi, Guzratee, and Guujaratee[3]) is an Indo-Aryan language descending from Sanskrit, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is native to the Indian state of Gujarat, and is its chief language, as well as of the adjacent union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
There are about 46 million speakers of Gujarati worldwide, making it the 26th most spoken native language in the world. Along with Romany and Sindhi, it is among the most western of Indo-Aryan languages. Gujarati was the first language of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the "father of India", Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the "father of Pakistan" and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the "iron man of India".
History

Gujarati is a modern Indo-Aryan language evolved from Sanskrit. The traditional practice is to differentiate the IA languages on the basis of three historical stages[3]:
- Old IA (Vedic and Classical Sanskrit)
- Middle IA (various Prakrits and Apabhramshas)
- New IA (modern languages such as Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, etc.)
Another view accords successive family, tree splits, in which Gujarati is assumed to have separated from other IA languages in four stages[7]:
- IA languages split into Northern, Eastern, and Western divisions based on the innovate characteristics such as stops becoming voiced in the Northern (Skt. danta "tooth" > Punj. dānd) and dental and retroflex sibilants merging with the palatal in the Eastern (Skt. sandhya "evening" > Beng. śājh).[8]
- Western, into Central and Southern.
- Central, in Gujarati/Rajasthani, Western Hindi, and Punjabi/Lahanda/Sindhi, on the basis of innovation of auxiliary verbs and postpositions in Gujarati/Rajasthani.[3]
- Gujarati/Rajasthani into Gujarati and Rajasthani through development of such characteristics as auxiliary ch- and the possessive marker -n- during the 15th century.[9]
The principal changes from Sanskrit are the following[7]:
- Phonological
- Loss of phonemic length for vowels
- Change of consonant clusters to geminate and then to single consonants (with compensatory vowel length)
English | Sanskrit | Prakrit | Gujarati | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
hand | hasta | hattha | hāth | [10] |
seven | sapta | satta | sāt | [11] |
eight | aṣṭā | aṭṭha | āṭh | [12] |
snake | sarpa | sappa | sāp | [13] |
- Morphological
- Syntax
- Split ergativity
- More complex agreement system
Gujarati is customarily divided into the following three historical stages[3]:

- Old Gujarati (1100 — 1500 AD), ancestor of Gujarati and Rajasthani,[5] was spoken by the Gurjars in northern Gujarat and western Rajasthan. Texts of this era display characteristic Gujarati features such as direct/oblique noun forms, postpositions, and auxiliary verbs.[7] It had 3 genders as Gujarati does today, and by around the time of 1300 CE a fairly standardized form of this language emerged. While generally known as Old Gujarati, some scholars prefer the name of Old Western Rajasthani, based on the argument that Gujarati and Rajasthani were not yet distinct at the time. Also factoring into this preference was the belief that modern Rajasthani sporadically expressed a neuter gender, based on the incorrect conclusion that the /ũ/ that came to be pronounced in some areas for masculine /o/ after a nasal consonant was analogous to Gujarati's neuter /ũ/.[14] A formal grammar of the precursor to this language (Gurjar Apabhraṃśa) was written by Jain monk and eminent scholar Hemachandra Suri in the reign of Rajput king Siddharaj Jayasinh of Anhilwara (Patan). It was called Siddhahaima Apabhraṃśa Vyākaraṇa.[15][16]
- Middle Gujarati (1500 — 1800 AD), split off from Rajasthani, and developed the phonemes ɛ and ɔ, the auxiliary stem ch-, and the possessive marker -n-.[17]
- Modern Gujarati (1800 AD — ). The third quarter of the 19th century saw a series of milestones for Gujarati, which previously had had verse as its dominant mode of literary composition.[16]
- 1840s, personal diary composition; Nityanondh, Durgaram Mahetaji.
- 1851, first essay; Maniaḷī Maḷvāthi thātā Lābh, Narmadashankar Lalshankar Dave.
- 1866, first novel; Karaṇ Ghelo, Nandashankar Mehta.
- 1866, first autobiography; Mārī Hakīkat, Narmadashankar Lalshankar Dave.
Demographics and Distribution

Of the approximately 46 million speakers of Gujarati, 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.[1] There is also a large Gujarati community in Mumbai, India.
The United Kingdom has 300 000 speakers, many of them situated in the London areas of Wembley, Harrow and Newham and in Leicester, Coventry and Bradford. A considerable population exists in North America as well. A portion of these numbers consists of East African Gujaratis who, under increasing discrimination and policies of Africanisation in their newly-independent resident countries (especially Uganda, where Idi Amin expelled 50 000 Asians), were left with uncertain futures and citizenships. Most, with British passports, settled in the UK.[5][18]
Besides being spoken by the Gujarati people, non-Gujarati residents of and migrants to the state of Gujarat also count as speakers, among them Hindu Sindhi refugees from Pakistan, the Kutchis (as a literary language)[5], and the Parsis (adopted as a mother tongue).
Official status
Gujarati is one of the 22 official languages and 14 regional languages of India. It is officially recognized in the state of Gujarat, India.
Dialects

As 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.
Ethnologue lists the following dialects and subdivisions.[1]
- Standard Gujarati
- Saurashtra Standard
- Nagari
- Bombay Gujarati
- Patnuli
- Gamadia
- Gramya
- Surati
- Anawla
- Brathela
- Eastern Broach Gujarati
- Charotari
- Patidari
- Vadodari
- Ahmedabad Gamadia
- Patani
- Parsi
- Kathiyawadi
- Jhalawadi
- Sorathi
- Holadi
- Gohilwadi
- Bhavnagari
- Kharwa
- Khakari
- Tarimukhi
- Ghisadi
Closely related languages
Kutchi, also known as Khojki, is often referred to as a dialect of Gujarati, but most linguists consider it closer to Sindhi.
Phonology
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Writing system
Similar to other Nāgarī writing systems, the Gujarati script is an abugida. It is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. It is a variant of Devanāgarī script differentiated by the loss of the characteristic horizontal line running above the letters and by a small number of modifications in the remaining characters.
Gujarati and closely related languages, including Kutchi, can be written in the Arabic or Persian scripts. This is traditionally done by many in Gujarat's Kutch district.
There are many possible romanization schemes for Gujarati, initially created to represent Sanskrit/Devanagari. Used here and with all specimens of Gujarati on Wikipedia unless otherwise noted, is the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST), most often in italicized form.
Vocabulary
Categorization and Sources
These are the three general categories of words in modern Indo-Aryan: tatsam, tadbhav, and loanwords.[20]
Tadbhav
તદ્ભવ્ tadbhav, "of the nature of that". Gujarati is a modern Indo-Aryan language descended from Sanskrit (old Indo-Aryan), and this category pertains exactly to that: words of Sanskritic origin that have demonstratively undergone change over the ages, ending up characteristic of modern Indo-Aryan languages specifically as well as in general. Thus the "that" in "of the nature of that" refers to Sanskrit. They tend to be non-technical, everday, crucial words; part of the spoken vernacular. Below is a table of a few Gujarati tadbhav words and their Old Indo-Aryan sources:
Old Indo-Aryan | Gujarati | Ref | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
I | aham | huṃ | [21] | |
falls, slips | khasati | khasvuṃ | to move | [22] |
causes to move | arpayati | āpvuṃ | to give | [23] |
school | nayaśālā | niśāḷ | [24] | |
attains to, obtains | prāpnoti | pāmvuṃ | [25] | |
tiger | vyāghra | vāgh | [26] | |
equal, alike, level | sama | samuṃ | right, sound | [27] |
all | sarva | sau | [28] |
Tatsam
તત્સમ્ tatsam, "same as that". While Sanskrit eventually stopped being spoken vernacularly, in that it changed into Middle Indo-Aryan, it was nonetheless standardized and retained as a literary and liturgical language for long after. This category consists of these borrowed words of (more or less) pure Sanskrit character. They serve to enrich Gujarati and modern Indo-Aryan in its formal, technical, and religious vocabulary. They are recognizable by their Sanskrit inflections and markings; they are thus often treated as a separate grammatical category unto themselves.
Tatsam Word | English | Participle | Notes | Gujarati equivalent |
---|---|---|---|---|
પરિક્ષા parikṣā | test | -ā | Feminine gender marker | -ī |
પરિક્ષિત parikṣit | tested | -it | "-ed" | -eluṃ |
પરિક્ષણ parikṣaṇ | testing | -aṇ | "-ing" | -vānuṃ |
Many old tatsam words have changed their meanings or have had their meanings adopted for modern times. પ્રસારણ prasāraṇ means "spreading", but now it's used for "broadcasting". In addition to this are neologisms, often being calques. An example is telephone, which is Greek for "far talk", translated as દુરભાષ durbhāṣ. Though most people just use ફોન phon and thus neo-Sanskrit has varying degrees of acceptance.
So, while having unique tadbhav sets, modern IA languages have a common, higher tatsam pool. Also, tatsams and their derived tadbhavs can also co-exist in a language; sometimes of no consequence: dharma-dharam, other times with differences in meaning, with the former holding a "higher" one:
Tatsam | Tadbhav | ||
---|---|---|---|
karma | Work — Dharmic religious concept of works or deeds whose divine consequences are experienced in this life or the next. | kām | Simply... work. |
kṣetra | Field — Abstract sense, such as a field of knowledge or activity; khāngī kṣetra → private sector. Physical sense, but of higher or special importance; raṇǎkṣetra → battlefield. | khetar | Regular old field, such as to farm on. |
What remains are words of foreign origin (videśī), as well as words of local origin that cannot be pegged as belonging to any of the three prior categories (deśaj). The former consists mainly of Persian, Arabic, and English, with trace elements of Portuguese and Turkish. While the phenomenon of English loanwords is relatively new, Perso-Arabic has many centuries of history behind it. Both English and Perso-Arabic influences are/were nation-wide, in a way paralleling tatsam as a common vocabulary set or bank. What's more is how, beyond a transposition into general Indo-Aryan, the Perso-Arabic set has also been assimilated in a manner characteristic and relevant to the specific Indo-Aryan language it's being used in, bringing to mind tadbhav.
Perso-Arabic
Gujarat was ruled for many a century by Persian-speaking Muslims. As a consequence the language was changed greatly, with the large scale entry of Persian and its many Arabic loans into the Gujarati lexicon. One fundamental adoption was Persian's conjunction "that", ke. Also, while tatsam or Sanskrit is etymologically continuous to Gujarati, it is essentially of a differing grammar (or language), and that in comparison while Perso-Arabic is etymologically foreign, it has been in certain instances and to varying degrees grammatically indigenized. Owing to centuries of situation and the end of Persian education and power, (1) Perso-Arabic loans are quite unlikely to be thought of or known as loans, and (2) more importantly, these loans have often been Gujarati-ized. dāvo - claim, fāydo - benefit, natījo - result, and humlo - attack, all carry Gujarati's masculine gender marker, o. khānuṃ - compartment, has the neuter uṃ. Aside from easy slotting with the auxiliary karvuṃ, a few words have made a complete transition of verbification: kabūlvuṃ - to admit (fault), kharīdvuṃ - to buy, kharǎcvuṃ - to spend (money), gujarvuṃ - to pass. The last three are definite part and parcel.
Thus, while Indo-Aryan languages like Marathi, Nepali, and Bengali are conservative in their lexicons, central and western/northwestern tongues like Punjabi, Hindustani, Sindhi, and Gujarati have been Persianized. The most resounding occurrence of this was that of the Delhi dialect of Hindustani; Delhi being the seat of Muslim power. Its Persianization and subsequent dePersianization and Sanskritization lead to the reality of the two registers if not languages of Urdu and Hindi, which became the national languages of Pakistan and India. Gujarati is not split in this way, but nonetheless its loaning is to be noted.
Below is a table displaying a number of these loans. Currently some of the etymologies are being referenced to an Urdu dictionary, so it should be noted that Gujarati's singular masculine o corresponds to Urdu ā, neuter uṃ groups into ā as Urdu has no neuter gender, and Urdu's Persian z is not upheld in Gujarati and corresponds to j or jh. In contrast to modern Persian, the pronunciation of these loans into Gujarati and other Indo-Aryan languages, as well as that of Indian-recited Persian, seems to be in line with Persian spoken in Afghanistan and Central Asia, perhaps 500 years ago[29].
NOUNS | ADJECTIVES | ||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MASC | NEU | FEM | |||||||||||||||||||||
fāydo | gain, advantage, benefit | A | [30] | khānuṃ | compartment | P | [31] | kharīdī | purchase(s), shopping | P | [32] | tājuṃ | fresh | P | [33] | ||||||||
humlo | attack | A | [34] | makān | house, building | A | [35] | śardī | cold | P | [36] | juduṃ | different, separate | P | [37] | ||||||||
dāvo | claim | A | [38] | nasīb | luck | A | [39] | bāju | side | P | [40] | najīk | near | P | [41] | ||||||||
natījo | result, outcome | A | [42] | śaher | city | P | [43] | cījh | thing | P | [44] | kharāb | bad | A | [45] | ||||||||
gusso | anger | P | [46] | medān | plain | P | [47] | jindgī | life | P | [48] | lāl | red | P | [49] |
Lastly, Persian, being part of the Indo-Iranian language family as Sanskrit and Gujarati are, met up in some instances with its cognates[50]:
Persian | INDO-ARYAN | English |
---|---|---|
marǎd | martya | man, mortal |
stān | sthān | place, land |
ī | īya | <adjectival suffix> |
band | bandh | closed, fastened |
Zoroastrian Persian refugees known as Parsis also speak an accordingly Persianized form of Gujarati.[51] Also, the Dawoodi Bohra community of India and Pakistan speak an Arabicised version of Gujarati, devised in the last 30 years or so, with an Arabic-style script.
English
With the end of Perso-Arabic inflow, English became the current foreign source of new vocabulary. English had and continues to have a considerable influence over Indian languages. Loanwords include new innovations and concepts, first introduced directly through British colonialism, and then streaming in on the basis of continued Anglosphere dominance in the post-colonial period. Besides the category of new ideas is the category of English words that already have Gujarati counterparts which end up replaced or existed alongside with. The major driving force behind this latter category has to be the continuing role of English in modern India as a language of education, prestige, and mobility. In this way, Indian speech can be sprinkled with English words and expressions, even switches to whole sentences.[52] See Hinglish, Code-switching.
In matters of sound, English alveolar consonants map as retroflexes rather than dentals. Two new characters were created in Gujarati to represent English /æ/'s and /ɔ/'s. Levels of Gujarati-ization in sound vary. Some words don't go far beyond this basic transpositional rule, and sound much like their English source, while others differ in ways, one of those ways being the carrying of dentals. See Indian English.
As English loanwards are a relatively new phenomenon, they adhere to English grammar, as tatsam words adhere to Sanskrit. Though that isn't to say that the most basic changes have been underway: many English words are pluralized with Gujarati o over English "s". Also, with Gujarati having 3 genders, genderless English words must take one. Though often inexplicable, gender assignment may follow the same basis as it is expressed in Gujarati: vowel type, and the nature of word meaning.
bâṅk | bank | phon | phone | ṭebal | table | bas | bus | rabbar | eraser | ṭorc | flashlight | dôkṭar | doctor | rasīd | receipt | minaṭ miniṭ |
minute |
helo halo hālo |
hello | hôspiṭal aspitāl ispitāl |
hospital | sṭeśan ṭeśan |
station | sāykal | (bi)cycle | rum | room | āis krīm | ice cream | rôbaṭ | robot | ṭāym | time | ṭikiṭ ṭikaṭ |
ticket |
aṅkal1 | uncle | āṇṭī1 | auntie | pākīṭ | wallet | kavar | envelope | noṭ | banknote | skūl | school | ṭyuśan | tuitoring | esī | AC | sleṭ | slate |
- 1 These English forms are often used (prominently by NRIs) for those family friends and elders that aren't actually uncles and aunts but are of the age.
Portuguese
The smaller foothold the Portuguese had in wider India had linguistic effects. Gujarati took up a number of words, while elsewhere the influence was great enough to the extent that creole languages came to be (See Portuguese India, Portuguese-based creole languages#India and Sri Lanka). Comparatively, the impact of Portuguese has been greater on coastal languages[53] and their loans tend to be closer to the Portuguese originals[54]. The source dialect of these loans imparts an earlier pronunciation of ch as an affricate instead of the current standard of [ʃ].[29]
Gujarati | Meaning | Portuguese |
---|---|---|
istrī | iron | estirar1 |
mistrī ² | carpenter | mestre³ |
sābu | soap | sabão |
cāvī | key | chave |
tamāku | tobacco | tabaco |
kobī | cabbage | couve |
cāju | cashew | caju |
pāuṃ | bread | pão |
baṭāko | potato | batata |
anānas | pineapple | ananás |
pādrī | 'father' | padre |
aṅgrej(ī) | English | inglês |
- 1 "Lengthen".
- 2 Common occupational surname.
- 3 "Master".
Numerals
Cardinal
Gujarati numbers are somewhat irregular compared to English. The following look to be the standard spellings[55], though pronunciation varies.
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After one hundred, numbers are regular and strung together in the same order as English, except that there is no "and". After one thousand, groupings are in hundreds. In gender, cardinals below nineteen are masculine, and nineteen and above are feminine.[56]
100 | so |
1 000 | hajār |
1 00 000 | lākh |
1 00 00 000 | kroḍ |
1 00 00 00 000 | abaj |
Ordinal[57]
1st | paheluṃ |
2nd | bījuṃ |
3rd | trījuṃ |
4th | cothuṃ |
6th | chaṭhṭhuṃ |
For everything else it's the cardinal appended with muṃ.
Fractions[58]
Gujarati has a colloquial set of fractions. For precision and mathematics, the Sanskritic system is used.
Fraction | Noun | Adjectival modification of | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1, 2 | 3-99 | so, hajār, lākh | Non-number | ||
pā | 0.25 | 25% | |||
ardhuṃ | 0.50 | 50% | |||
poṇuṃ | -0.25 | -25% | |||
savā | +0.25 | +25% | |||
sāḍā | +0.50 | ||||
doḍh | 1.5 | 150% | |||
aḍhī | 2.5 | 250% |
Loans into English
1676, from Gujarati bangalo, from Hindi bangla "low, thatched house," lit. "Bengalese," used elliptically for "house in the Bengal style."[59]
1598, "name given by Europeans to hired laborers in India and China," from Hindi quli "hired servant," probably from kuli, name of an aboriginal tribe or caste in Gujarat.[60]
Tank—
c.1616, "pool or lake for irrigation or drinking water," a word originally brought by the Portuguese from India, ult. from Gujarati tankh "cistern, underground reservoir for water," Marathi tanken, or tanka "reservoir of water, tank." Perhaps from Skt. tadaga-m "pond, lake pool," and reinforced in later sense of "large artificial container for liquid" (1690) by Port. tanque "reservoir," from estancar "hold back a current of water," from V.L. *stanticare (see stanch). But others say the Port. word is the source of the Indian ones.[61]
Grammar
Gujarati is a head-final, or left-branching language. Adjectives precede nouns, direct objects come before verbs, and there are postpositions. The word order of Gujarati is SOV, and there are three genders and two numbers. There are no definite or indefinite articles. A verb is expressed with its verbal root followed by suffixes marking aspect and agreement in what is called a main form, with a possible proceeding auxiliary form derived from to be, marking tense and mood, and also showing agreement. Causatives (up to double) and passives have morphological basis'.[62]
Sample Text

- ગાંધીજીની ઝૂંપડી-કરાડી
- જગ પ્રસિદ્ધ દાંડી કૂચ પછી ગાંધીજીએ અહીં આંબાના વૃક્ષ નીચે ખજૂરીનાં છટિયાંની એક ઝૂંપડીમાં તા.૧૪-૪-૧૯૩૦થી તા.૪-૫-૧૯૩૦ સુધી નિવાસ કર્યો હતો. દાંડીમાં છઠ્ઠી એપ્રિલે શરૂ કરેલી નિમક કાનૂન ભંગની લડતને તેમણે અહીંથી વેગ આપી દેશ વ્યાપી બનાવી હતી. અહીંથીજ તેમણે ધરાસણાના મીઠાના અગરો તરફ કૂચ કરવાનો પોતાનો સંકલ્પ બ્રિટિશ વાઈસરૉયને પત્ર લખીને જણાવ્યો હતો.
- તા.૪થી મે ૧૯૩૦ની રાતના બાર વાગ્યા પછી આ સ્થળેથી બ્રિટિશ સરકારે તેમની ધરપકડ કરી હતી.
- gāndhījīnī jhūṃpḍī-Karāḍī
- jag prasiddh dāṇḍī kūc pachī gāndhījīe ahīṃ āmbānā vṛkṣ nīce khajūrīnāṃ chaṭiyāṃnī ek jhūṃpḍīmāṃ tā.14-4-1930thī tā.4-5-1930 sudhī nivās karyo hato. dāṇḍīmāṃ chaṭhṭhī eprile śarū karelī nimak kānūn bhaṅgnī laḍatne temṇe ahīṃthī veg āpī deś vyāpī banāvī hatī. ahīṃthīj temṇe dharāsaṇānā mīṭhānā agaro taraph kūc karvāno potāno saṅkalp briṭiś vāīsarôyne patra lakhīne jaṇāvyo hato.
- tā.4thī me 1930nī rātnā bār vāgyā pachī ā sthaḷethī briṭiś sarkāre temnī dharpakaḍ karī hatī.
Simple gloss —
- gandhiji's hut-karadi
- world famous dandi march after gandhiji here mango's tree under palm date's bark's one hut-in date.14-4-1930-from date.4-5-1930 until residence done was. dandi-in sixth april-at started done salt law break's fight(-to) he here-from speed gave country wide made was. here-from he dharasana's salt's mounds towards march doing's self's resolve british viceroy-to letter written-having notified was.
- date.4-from may 1930's night's twelve struck after this place-at-from british government his arrest done was.
Transliteration and detailed gloss —
gāndhījī-n-ī jhūṃpḍ-ī-Ø Karāḍī gandhiji–GEN–FEM hut–FEM–SG karadi
jag prasiddh dāṇḍī kūc pachī gāndhījī-e ahīṃ āmb-ā-Ø-n-ā vṛkṣ nīce world famous dandi march after gandhiji–ERG here mango–MASC.OBL–SG–GEN–MASC.OBL tree under
khajūr-ī-Ø-n-āṃ chaṭiy-āṃ-n-ī ek jhūṃpḍ-ī-Ø-māṃ tā. 14 4 1930thī tā. 4 5 1930 sudhī palmdate–FEM–SG–GEN–NEUT.OBL bark–NEUT.PL.OBL–GEN–FEM.OBL one hut–FEM–SG–in date 14 4 1930–from date until
nivās kar-y-o ha-t-o . dāṇḍī-māṃ chaṭhṭhī epril-e śarū kar-el-ī nimak kānūn residence.MASC.SG.OBJ.NOM do–PERF–MASC.SG be–PAST–MASC.SG dandi–in sixth April–at started do–PAST.PTCP–FEM salt law
bhaṅg-n-ī laḍat-Ø-ne te-m-ṇe ahīṃ-thī veg āp-ī deś vyāpī break–GEN–FEM.OBL fight.FEM.OBJ–SG–ACC 3.DIST–HONORIFIC–ERG here–from speed–OBJ give–CONJUNCTIVE country wide
ban-āv-Ø-ī ha-t-ī . ahīṃ-thī-j te-m-ṇe dharāsaṇā-n-ā become–CAUS–PERF–FEM be–PAST–FEM here–from–INTENSIFIER 3.DIST–HONORIFIC–ERG dharasana–GEN–MASC.PL
mīṭh-ā-n-ā agar-o taraph kūc kar-v-ā-n-o potā-n-o salt–NEUT.SG.OBL–GEN–MASC.PL mound.MASC–PL towards march.MASC.SG do–INF–OBL–GEN–MASC.SG REFL–GEN–MASC.SG
saṅkalp briṭiś vāīsarôy-Ø-ne patra lakh-īne jaṇ-āv-y-o ha-t-o . tā. resolve.MASC.SG.OBJ.ACC British viceroy.OBJ–SG–DAT letter write–CONJUNCTIVE know–CAUS–PERF–MASC.SG be–PAST–MASC.SG date
4-thī me 1930-n-ī rāt-Ø-n-ā bār vāg-y-ā pachī ā sthaḷ-e-thī briṭiś 4-from may 1930–GEN–FEM.OBL night.FEM–SG–GEN–MASC.OBL twelve strike–PERF–OBL after 3.PROX place–at–from British
sarkār-e te-m-n-ī dharpakaḍ kar-Ø-ī ha-t-ī . government–ERG 3.DIST–HONORIFIC–GEN–FEM arrest.FEM.SG.OBJ.ACC do–PERF–FEM be–PAST–FEM
Translation (by Wikipedia) —
- Gandhiji's hut-Karadi
- After the world-famous Dandi March Gandhiji resided here in a date palm bark hut underneath a/the mango tree, from 14-4-1930 to 4-5-1930. From here he gave speed to and spread country-wide the anti-Salt Law struggle, started in Dandi on April the 6th. From here, writing in a letter, he notified the British Viceroy of his resolve in marching towards the salt mounds of Dharasana.
- The British government arrested him at this location, after twelve o'clock on the night of the 4th of May, 1930.
Translation (provided at location) —
- Gandhiji's hut-Karadi
- Here under the mango tree in the hut made of palm leaves (khajoori) Gandhiji stayed from 14-4-1930 to 4-5-1930 after the world famous Dandi march. From here he gave impetus to the civil disobedience movement for breaking the salt act started on April 6 at Dandi and turned it into a nation wide movement. It was also from this place that he wrote a letter to the British viceroy expressing his firm resolve to march to the salt works at Dharasana.
- This is the place from where he was arrested by the British government after midnight on May 4, 1930.
Common Words, Phrases, and Idioms
Gujarati | Transliteration | English | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
કેમ છો? | kem cho? | How are you? | The Gujarati greeting. |
નમસ્તે, નમસ્કાર | namaste, namaskār | Greetings | Formal pan-Indian (or rather perhaps, pan-Hindu) greetings. |
તમે ગુજરાતી બોલો છો? | tame gujarātī bolo cho? | Do you speak Gujarati? | The pronoun tame and the os following bol and ch are honorific. They'd be equivalent to French's vous and parlez. |
હું ગુજરાતી બોલું છું | huṃ gujarātī boluṃ chuṃ | I speak Gujarati | |
મને ગુજરાતી (બોલતા) આવડે છે | mane gujarātī (boltā) āvḍe che | I know (how to speak) Gujarati | |
અંગ્રેજી | aṅgrejī | English | Traditional Portuguese loan; ઇંગ્લિશ iṅgliś is equally well understood. |
સારું | sāruṃ | Good | The end vowel uṃ signifies that this adjective is variable. It agrees with what it describes. The root is sār and the appropriate agreement vowel is slotted in behind it. Right now that vowel is singular neuter uṃ, default for when the variable is alone and not describing (agreeing with) something. |
ખરાબ | kharāb | Bad | Arabic loan. |
તમારું નામ શું છે? | tamāruṃ nām śuṃ che? | What is your name? | tamāruṃ "Your" is honorific. French: votre. |
મારું નામ ___ છે | māruṃ nām ___ che | My name is ___ | Name is a neuter noun. |
ગુજરાતીમાં ___(ને) શું કેવાય? | gujarātīmāṃ ___(ne) śuṃ kevāy? | What is ___ called in Gujarati? | |
હા, હાંજી | hā, hāṃjī | Yes | In increasing formality. |
ના, નાજી | nā, nājī | No | |
આવજો | āvjo | Bye | lit. Do come |
ને? | ne? | Eh?, Right?, Isn't it? | |
બસ | bas | That's it!, Enough!, Just... | Persian loan. |
શું થયું? | śuṃ thayuṃ? | What happened? | |
મને ___ ગમે છે | mane ___ game che | I like ___ | approx. lit. ___ is (being) likeable to me; note the OSV word order. |
કેટલાં વાગ્યાં? | keṭlāṃ vāgyāṃ? | What time is it? | lit. How many did it strike? |
સંભાળજો | sambhāḷjo | Take care | |
મારું માથું ન ખા | māruṃ māthuṃ na khā | Don't bother me | lit. Do not eat my head |
... કે ન પૂછવાની વાત | ke na pūchvānī vāt | ... that you wouldn't believe it | lit. an un-ask-able talk or a talk not to (be) ask(ed) |
See also
- Gujarati grammar
- Gujarati script
- Gujarati phonology
- Languages of India
- List of national languages of India
- List of Indian languages by total speakers
- Gujarati people
References
- ^ a b c d Gordon 2005
- ^ Dwyer 1995, p. 5
- ^ a b c d Mistry 2001, pp. 274
- ^ Timeline: Personalities, Story of Pakistan. ""Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948)"". Retrieved 2007-05-12.
- ^ a b c d Dalby 1998, p. 237
- ^ Mistry 1997, p. 654
- ^ a b c Mistry 2003, p. 115
- ^ Mistry 1997, pp. 654–655
- ^ Mistry 1997, p. 655
- ^ Turner 1966, p. 811. Entry 14024.
- ^ Turner 1966, p. 760. Entry 13139.
- ^ Turner 1966, p. 41. Entry 941.
- ^ Turner 1966, p. 766. Entry 13271.
- ^ Smith, J.D. (2001) "Rajasthani." Facts about the world's languages: An encyclopedia of the world's major languages, past and present. Ed. Jane Garry, and Carl Rubino: New England Publishing Associates. pp. 591-593.
- ^ Gujarati – Language from the Land of the Gujjars. BhashaIndia.com
- ^ a b Yashaschandra, S. (1995) "Towards Hind Svaraj: An Interpretation of the Rise of Prose in Nineteenth-Century Gujarati Literature." Social Scientist. Vol. 23, No. 10/12. pp. 41-55.
- ^ Mistry 2003, pp. 115–116
- ^ Dwyer 1995, p. 273
- ^ Tisdall 1892, p. 148
- ^ Snell, R. (2000) Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 83-86.
- ^ Turner 1966, p. 44. Entry 992.
- ^ Turner 1966, p. 203. Entry 3856.
- ^ Turner 1966, p. 30. Entry 684.
- ^ Turner 1966, p. 401. Entry 6969.
- ^ Turner 1966, p. 502. Entry 8947.
- ^ Turner 1966, p. 706. Entry 12193.
- ^ Turner 1966, p. 762. Entry 13173.
- ^ Turner 1966, p. 766. Entry 13276.
- ^ a b Masica 1991, p. 75
- ^ Platts 1884, p. 776
- ^ Platts 1884, p. 486
- ^ Platts 1884, p. 489
- ^ Platts 1884, p. 305
- ^ Tisdall 1892, p. 168
- ^ Platts 1884, p. 1057
- ^ Platts 1884, p. 653
- ^ Tisdall 1892, p. 170
- ^ Platts 1884, p. 519
- ^ Platts 1884, p. 1142
- ^ Tisdall 1892, p. 160
- ^ Tisdall 1892, p. 177
- ^ Platts 1884, p. 1123
- ^ Tisdall 1892, p. 184
- ^ Platts 1884, p. 471
- ^ Tisdall 1892, p. 172
- ^ Platts 1884, p. 771
- ^ Tisdall 1892, p. 175
- ^ Tisdall 1892, p. 169
- ^ Platts 1884, p. 947
- ^ Masica 1991, p. 71
- ^ Tisdall 1892, p. 15
- ^ Masica 1991, pp. 49–50
- ^ Masica 1991, p. 49
- ^ Masica 1991, p. 73
- ^ Dwyer 1995, p. 324
- ^ Dwyer 1995, p. 171
- ^ Dwyer 1995, p. 172
- ^ Dwyer 1995, pp. 172–174
- ^ Bungalow. Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Coolie. Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Tank. Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Mistry 2001, pp. 276–277
Bibliography
Dictionaries
- Belsare, M.B. (1904) An etymological Gujarati-English Dictionary.
- Deshpande, P.G. (1974) Gujarati-English Dictionary. Ahmadabad: University Granth Nirman Board.
- Deshpande, P.G. (1982) Modern English-Gujarati Dictionary. Bombay: Oxford University Press.
- Deshpande, P.G. & Parnwell, E.C. (1977) Oxford Picture Dictionary. English-Gujarati. Oxford University Press.
- Deshpande, P.G. (1988) Universal English-Gujarati Dictionary. Bombay: Oxford University Press.
- Mehta, B.N. & Mehta, B.B. (1925) The Modern Gujarati-English Dictionary.
- Template:Harvard reference.
- Suthar, B. (2003) Gujarati-English Learner's Dictionary (1 Mb)
- Template:Harvard reference.
Grammars
Courses
Phonology
- Template:Harvard reference.
- Template:Harvard reference.
- Template:Harvard reference.
- Template:Harvard reference.
- Template:Harvard reference.
- Template:Harvard reference.
Overviews
Old Gujarati
- Bender, E. (1992) The Salibhadra-Dhanna-Carita: A Work in Old Gujarati Critically Edited and Translated, with a Grammatical Analysis and Glossary. American Oriental Society: New Haven, Conn. ISBN 0-940490-73-0
- Brown, W.N. (1938) "An Old Gujarati Text of the Kalaka Story." Journal of the American Oriental Society. Vol. 58, No. 1. pp. 5-29.
- Dave, T.N. (1935) A Study of the Gujarati Language in the XVth Century. The Royal Asiatic Society. ISBN 0947593306
- Tessitori, L.P. (1914-1916) "Notes on the Grammar of Old Western Rajasthani." Indian Antiquary. 43-45.
Other
- Template:Harvard reference.
- Template:Harvard reference.
- Template:Harvard reference.
- Template:Harvard reference.
- Template:Harvard reference.
External links
Linguistic resources
- UCLA Language Materials Project: Gujarati
- Ratilal Chandaria's Online Language Resources
- Gujarati Wiktionary
- Website for reading Gujarati Literature Online
- Gujarati English Dictionary from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition
- Online Gujarati Type Pad
- Free Gujarati Tutorial - Learn Gujarati
- Gujarati script and alphabets
- Gujarati Editor
Newspapers
- Akila Daily
- Gurjari.Net
- Sandesh
- Gujarati Samachar
- Divya Bhaskar
- Sambhaav
- Jai Hind
- The Bombay Samachar
Religious
- Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavat, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Upanishad, Yog Sutra, Bhajans and more in Gujarati (Hinduism)
- Religious and Spiritual Texts in Gujarati (Islam)
- World Bible Translation Center: Gujarati New Testament (Christianity)
- Avesta -- Zoroastrian Archives: Khorda Avesta (Zoroastrianism)
Other
- Gujarati Language and Literature
- Gujarati Samaj of Minnesota
- Gujarati Samaj of Western Australia
- A brief history of the Gujarati language
- The UK Gujarati Teachers Association
- Gujarati Writers Guild UK
- SBS Gujarati Radio (Australia)
- The South Asian Literary Recordings Project, The Library of Congress. Gujarati Authors.
- Gujarati Womans Magazine