Encyclopedia
Gujarati 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
Mohandas K. Gandhi, the "father of India",
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 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 . 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 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.
Geographic distribution
Official status
Gujarati 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.
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
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. There are many regional dialects within the language of gujarati. For instance people from mahesana district speak much differently than amdavadis.
Grammar
Gujarati grammar is very much like that of its Indo-Aryan cousin languages such as
Punjabi, Nepali,
Hindi,
Bengali, and
Marathi.
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 short replies. OSV is also acceptable for a set of "passive-type" verbs. 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" can sometimes be used for 'a'. Gujarati does have demonstratives, proximal and distal.
This section will overview the grammar of standard Gujarati. It will be written in Gujarati script, along with according romanizations.
Gender and number
Gujarati has three genders and two numbers possessed by its nouns. They are masculine , neuter , feminine , singular , and plural .
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 markers may find themselves on the end of adjectives, verbs, adverbs, possessives, and pronouns that agree with those nouns.
;Number markers
- Ø Singular
- ? o Plural
;Gender markers
- ? i Feminine
- ? o Masculine singular
- ?? u? Neuter singular
- ? a Masculine plural
- ?? a? 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, ??, when there is nothing there for them to agree with. Non-nouns without gender markers, ending in consonants, are called 'invariable'.
Honourables are plural. Honourable and plural feminine animates take ??
a? instead of ?
i.
Nouns
Common Nouns
Common nouns come in the form of Noun Stem + + + Case Marker.
Dealing with gender and number markers first, in the case markerless nominative case, we can say that nouns can have...
- Both GM and NM: ??????,???????
- Only the NM: ????
- Only the GM: ?????
- Neither: ???? , ????
Since masculine and neuter already have distinct gender markers for the plural form, the pluralizing ? is often dropped in the direct case.
No other words can have a gender marker except for common nouns.
;Case Markers
- Ø Nominative
- ?? Accusative / Dative
- ? Ergative, Locative, Accusative / Dative
- ??? Genitive
Out of the direct case, when being appended with a marker, the noun takes the oblique form, which is made by using the plural form of the gender marker.
Becoming a Noun
Certain non-noun words can become nouns if isolated. In the French language, for example,
vieux is an adjective for old. However, when not attached to a noun, it becomes a noun itself,
old one. The similar follows in Gujarati.
For example, possesive determiners can become pronouns if left alone.
- ???? ????? ?? mari cop?i che / It's my book
- ????? ???? ?? cop?i mari che / The book is mine
Pronouns
Personal
| First Person | Second Person | Third Person | Singular | Plural | Singular Informal | Plural or Singular Formal | Proximal | Distal | Inclusive | Exclusive | Singular | Plural | | Nominative | ??? hu? | ???? ap?e | ??? ame | ??? tu? | ??? tame | ? a | ?? te | ??? teo |
|---|
| Ergative | ??? me? | ???? ap?e | ??? ame | ??? te? | ??? tame | ??? a?e | ???? te?e | ???? teoe, ????? tem?e |
|---|
| Genitive | ????? maru? | ????? ap?u? | ?????? amaru? | ????? taru? | ?????? tamaru? | ???? anu? | ????? tenu? | ?????? teonu?, ?????? temnu? |
|---|
| Accusative / Dative | ??? mane | ????? ap?ne | ???? amne | ??? tane | ???? tamne | ??? ane | ???? tene | ????? teone, ????? temne |
|---|
| Accusative / Dative | ???? mare | ???? ap?e | ????? amare | ???? tare | ????? tamare | ??? a?e | ???? te?e | ???? teoe, ????? tem?e |
|---|
|
The third person works differently than in English and must be explained. Both ? and ?? are demonstrative pronouns, meaning this/these and that/those . Therefore, ? ????? is
these cars and ?? ?????? is
that cat, and so on. When ? and ?? are not put before specific nouns, they become this/these
one and that/those
one. In this way they can move from being demonstrative pronouns to being personal pronouns. "That one" or "this one" may be used for He/She/It and "these ones" and "those ones" for They. One does not have the ability to specify gender like in English, but unlike in English one does have the ability to specify whether the referred to He is a proximal or a distal He. Most of the time, the He/She/It's we use in English are distal, so grammars generally just stick the label of He/She/It to ??, rather than go through this lengthy explanation. And finally, when used as a personal pronoun, ?? can get the pluralizing ? as a number marker to make "they", which is the only instance where a word that isn't a common noun gets a number marker.
Further things to note for personal pronouns:
- For boxes with two entries, the underline denotes the more frequently used.
- ??? is almost never spoken. Instead, it's ?? ???? .
- As there are no ??, ????, and ???, ???? can added to specify plurality.
- The ?? in ??, ???-, and the other pronouns that start with it is mostly dropped in speech, for ?, ? ????, ?????, ?????, etc.
- ?? is also dropped in ??? for ??.
- ?? is borrowed from Hindi and is much more formal in Gujarati than in its original Hindi. It is very rarely used.
- Accusative/Dative is the primary form; is a special form used for specific circumstances: expressing want, need, possession, obligation, and intention.
Interrogative
| Nominative | Genitive | | Gujarati | English | Gujarati |
|---|
| Variable | ??? su? | What | ????? senu? |
|---|
| ???? kayu? | Which | ??????? kaya?nu? |
| ????? kevu? | What kind | |
| ?????? ke?lu? | How much | ????????? ke?la?nu? |
| ?????? kev?u? | How big | |
| Invariable | ????? kya? | Where | ???????? kya?nu? |
|---|
| ??? ko? | Who | ????? konu? |
| ?????? kyare | When | ???????? kyarnu? |
|
In speech, ??? is most often not variable. The underlined genitive forms deviate from their nominative.
How and WhyThese two are not so clear-cut. From a more archaic and grammatically consistent point of view, these are the words for how and why:
However this is the general modern usage:
- ???? ???? / ??? ???? | How
- ??? | Why
So basically, don't use ??? as 'how', except in certain rare phrasings.
Relative-Correlative
| Interrogative | Relative | Correlative | | Gujarati | English | Gujarati | English | Gujarati | English |
|---|
??? su? | What | ?? je | What | ?? te | That | ???? kayu? | Which | ?? je | | ?? te | That | ????? kevu? | What kind | ????? jevu? | As | ????? tevu? | | ?????? ke?lu? | How much | ?????? je?lu? | As much | ?????? te?lu? | That much | ?????? kev?u? | How big | ?????? jev?u? | As big | ?????? tev?u? | That big | ????? kya? | Where | ????? jya? | Where | ????? tya? | There | ??? ko? | Who | ? je, ??? jeo | Who | ?? te, ??? teo | He/She/It/They | ?????? kyare | When | ?????? jyare | When | ?????? tyare | Then | ??? kem | How | ??? jem | As | ??? tem | |
Verbs
Infinitive
The formation of the infinitive is: Root + ???. Remember, the ?? is the variable gender marker, shown right now in default neuter form. 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 remain neuter.
- ????? To do
- ????? To sing
- ????? To eat
- ?????? To say, to tell
- ??? ???? To phone
- ??? ???? To talk
Participles
Root +
- Present: ???
- Past: ????
- Conjunctive: ???
The conjunctive is the form, "Having ". Also, where in English two verbs are seperated by an "and", the conjunctive form is frequently used Gujarati. "Go upstairs and sleep!" ? "Having gone upstairs, sleep!"
Passive
There are three ways of expressing the passive voice. Verbal agreement is with the direct object.
Root ModificationA transitive verb's passive counterpart is made by modifying the root as such:
- If there is an ? a vowel, it becomes ? a.
- If ending in a vowel, ? ha or ? va is suffixed.
- Final suffix of ? a.
"To come" suffixA passive counterpart can be equally made by suffixing ??? ?????
ma? avvu? to the infinitive. The infinitive is of course obliqued.
Pseudo-PassiveA third way is simply to use the active, 3rd person, and just omit the subject. This would be like English's generalized "They... ", or "One... ", but even slightly moreso.
| Tense | Active | Verb | Passive |
|---|
| English | Gujarati | Active | Passive | Gujarati | English |
|---|
| Gujarati | English | Root Modification | "To come" suffix | English | Root Modification | "To come" suffix |
|---|
| Present | He's doing the work / He does the work | ? ??? ??? ?? e kam kere che | ????? kervu? | To do | ?????? keravu? | ??????? ????? kervama? avvu? | To be done | ????? ??? ???? ?? enathi kam keray che | ????? ??? ??????? ??? ?? enathi kam kervama? ave che | The work is being done by him / The work is done by him |
|
The post-position ??
thi marks the agent . The major meaning is underlined.
Causatives
The distinction between intransitive and transitive is very important in Gujarati. The first matter it effects is verb form, which will be discussed here; the second, subject case and verb agreement, which is discussed in the section on Past Tense.
Take these three English verbs: "to tear", "to spoil", and "to crack". Here are some phrases using those three:
- "The paper is tearing... ", "Did you tear the paper?... "
- "Make sure the food doesn't spoil... ", "You're really spoiling him... "
- "I noticed that the glass has cracked... ", "I think I cracked it yesterday... "
However, these three English verbs represent
six Gujarati verbs. For each pair of phrases for a single verb, the first phrase is the intransitive usage, and the second the transitive. Often times, a single English verb can cover for both intransitive and transitive usage, but not the case in Gujarati: the intransitive and transitive have a different verb for each.
| Intransitive | Transitive |
|---|
| Phrase | Verb | Phrase | Verb |
|---|
| English | Gujarati | English | English | Gujarati | English |
|---|
| The paper is tearing | ???? ???? ?? kaga? fa?e che | ?????? fa?vu? | To tear ? to be torn | Did you tear the paper? | ??? ?????? ??????? te? kaga?ne fa?yu?? | ?????? fa?vu? | To tear ? to cause to be torn |
| Make sure the food doesn't spoil | ????? ?? ??????? ? ???? joijo ke khavanu? na bag?e | ?????? baga?vu? | To spoil? to be spoiled | You're really spoiling him | ??? ??? ????? ????? ?? tame ene kharekhar baga?o cho | ??????? baga?vu? | To spoil ? to cause to be spoiled |
| I noticed that the glass has cracked | ????? ???????? ????? ?? ??? ????? ?? mara? dhyanma? avyu? ke kac fu?yo che | ?????? fu?vu? | To crack ? to be cracked | I think I cracked it yesterday | ??? ???? ?? ?? ??? ?? ???? ????? mane lage che ke me? gai kale fo?yo | ?????? fo?vu? | To crack ? to cause to be cracked |
As at a basic level, "to cause to" is being added to transitivize these verbs, they are also called causatives.
Tenses and Conjugation
The general scheme of Gujarati verb conjugation involves the verbal root appended with tense marking information, further appended with some sort of a person marker.
Verbs agree with subjects, and the subjects are in nominative case, except for in the transitive past tense, where verbs agree with objects and the subjects are in ergative case.
Present
;?????
hovu?, To be
?????
hovu? should be dealt with first, due to its importance. In English, "to be" can in simple tenses be just like any other verb; in continuous tenses it becomes unique as an auxiliary verb. Gujarati follows the latter to an even higher degree by having ?????
hovu? as an auxiliary in almost every verb form, even when it wouldn't mean anything in English. As it would in the English continuous, and moreso overall in Gujarati, the ?????
hovu? auxiliary has an important role as a tense marking particle.
?????
hovu? has three roots: ??
ch, ?
ha, and ??
ho. ??
ch and ?
ha are auxiliary forms, while ??
ho is a non-auxiliary form. ??
ch is for the present, ?
ha for the past and future, and ??
ho is used for conditional statements and general statements. Here is the conjugation table for the present tense of "to be":
| Person | Singular | Plural | First | ??? ??? hu? chu? / I am | ????, ??? ??? ap?e, ame chie / We are | Second | ??? ?? tu? che / You are | ??? ?? tame cho / You are | Third | ?? ?? te che / He-She-It is | ??? ?? teo che / They are | |
;Non-?????
hovu? verbs, and continuous vs simple
With all other verbs, they are added, with ?????
hovu? acting as the auxiliary. The verb comes before ?????
hovu?, in between the subject and ?????
hovu?. Its root takes the same vowel suffix as its auxiliary ?? root. Here is the conjugation table for the present tense of ?????
ghasvu?, "to scrub":
| Person | Singular | Plural | First | ??? ???? ??? hu? ghasu? chu? | ????, ??? ???? ??? ap?e, ame ghasie chie | Second | ??? ??? ?? tu? ghase che | ??? ??? ?? tame ghaso cho | Third | ?? ??? ?? te ghase che | ??? ??? ?? teo ghase che | |
While the header says the ambiguous "Present ", one may infer that what is being referred to above is specifically the continuous present tense, as "to be" is the auxiliary, just as it is in the English continuous present tense. This is not the case. ??? ???? ???
hu? ghasu? chu? can mean "I am scrubbing" or "I scrub", depending on the context. This is one present tense, covering both continuous and simple present . However, this present tense is nonetheless more skewed towards the continuous , and for ease, now and later, it is best to go with that logical inference, that literal analysis, and make the reduction that this present tense
is the continuous present tense, and that the ??-
ch- forms are "am/is/are" and the ???-
ghas- forms are "scrubbing". The formation of present tense general statements will be elucidated later.
| Gujarati | English | | Major | Minor |
|---|
??? ??? ?? teo ghase che | They are scrubbing | They scrub | |
;Negation
There are two words in Gujarati that are equivalent to English's "not". They are ?
na and ???
nahi. When ?
na is used, it comes before the negated verb; ???
nahi comes after. In some cases either can be used and in others only one . The present tense requires ???
nahi. On top of that, whenever a ??-
ch- is followed by ???
nahi, they combine to make an invariable ???
nathi. They are often separated back for emphasis.
If ???
nathi is not alone and is an auxiliary to a non-?????
hovu? verb, then the root of that verb is appended with ???
tu?. Remember, ??
u? is a variable gender marker. Gender marker vowel suffixes are different from the less logical vowel suffixes shown for the affirmative present tense so far . Refer to the gender section for the appropriate appended vowel endings.
Indefinite Form
The indefinite form is the present tense without the ??-
ch- auxiliary. It can be negated by either ?
na or ???
nahi, though does it not take the ???
tu? vowel ending in place of ??
u?/?
e/??
ie/?
o.
The name indefinite form does not have any grammatical meaning; it is simply a reference to a form that has different grammatical functions for different situations.
- Conditional sentence, If clause: Simple Present Tense
- Conditional sentence, Then clause: Conditional Tense
- Interrogative mood: Adds, major- "should" / minor- "can"
- Indicative mood: Generalized statement, Conditional Tense, "weakened" Future Tense
Past
;?????
hovu?, the ?
ha root
If ??-
ch- is the present root for ?????
hovu? and accounts for "am/is/are", then ?
ha is its past counterpart accounting for "was/were". ?
ha is suffixed with ???
tu?.
Imperfect
The imperfect is made by the root taking ???
tu?, with ????
hatu? as auxiliary.
| Gujarati | English | | Major | Minor |
|---|
??? ????? ??? tu? nacti hati | You were dancing | You danced | |
This tense is negated by placing ?
na in front of ????
hatu?. In speech, the ?
ha sound is almost always neglected.
| Written | Speech | ??? ???? ??? ame ramta hata | ??? ?????? ame ramtata | ??? ????? ? ???? mane gamtu? na hatu? | ??? ????? ???? mane gamtu? natu? |
With this, there may be some ambiguity between the feminine ???
nati and the present tense's ???
nathi. This may be resolved by replacing the spoken ????
natu? with ??????
nahotu?, as some speakers do.
Perfect
The perfective is made by adding the gender-variable ???
yu? onto the root; though minus the ??
y in feminine. The auxiliary ?????
hovu? with its many forms acts as tense marker.
Also, here the distinction between transitive and intransitive comes into play:
| Tense | Subject Case | Verb Agreement |
|---|
| Transitive Perfective | Ergative | Direct Object |
|---|
| All Else | Nominative | Subject |
|---|
Future
Simple
These are the suffixes to the verbal root to form the simple future tense:
| | Singular | Plural | First Person | ?? is | ???? isu? | Second Person | ?? is | ?? so | Third Person | ?? se | ?? se | |
There is no ?????
hovu? auxiliary. The sentence can be negated by placing ?
na before the verb or ???
nahi after.
More on "To be"
?????
hovu? was introduced as the word for "to be". However, there are actually two verbs dealing with two connotions of meaning in "to be". ?????
hovu? deals with the
state of being, while ????
thavu? deals with the
act of being. In this way, ????
thavu? also means "to happen".
In situations where "become" would be equally valid in place of "be", ????
thavu? is to be used. In these two Gujarati sentences, which mean both "I will be a writer"...
- ??? ???? ??? hu? lekhak thais
- ??? ???? ??? hu? lekhak hais
... the first can stand alone, relating to the future movement from non-writer, to writer. The second cannot stand alone, and is used in reference: "
At age _____, I will be a writer". Again, ?????
hovu? "to be" concerns state, while ????
thavu? "to be" concerns act.
Continuous
?????
hovu? is the ubiquitous tense-marking auxiliary, and just as ??-
ch- marks present, ?-
ha- marks future.
- ?? ????? ?? te va?ce che / She is reading ? ?? ?????? ??? te va?cti hase / She will be reading
"Must"
The future of ?????
hovu? has a second meaning. It creates the word "must", as in probability or likeliness; not compulsion. So ?? ?????? ???
te va?ti hase could either mean "She will be reading" or "She must be reading", depending on context.
Mood
Imperative
The imperative in Gujarati is similar to English, where the subject is dropped, but sometimes left on for emphasis. Word order is OV. There are three levels of time, corresponding to three levels of politeness. Added to the verbal root:
| | ??? tu? | ??? tame | Present | Ø | ? o | Near Future | ?? je | ?? jo | Distant Future | ?? is ? | ?? so ? | |
Interrogative
Interrogative pronouns find themselves after the subject: SOV. For Yes-No questions, which lack an interrogative pronoun, "What" may be placed before the subject to designate it a question, though this is not done to the extent that it is in Gujarati's cousin language of Hindi.
The word order is not changed, nor is there an insertion of a "do"-type word; both are redundant. Similiarly redundant, but used in Gujarati, are rising intonation and question mark punctuation. Gujarati makes a complete distinction between interrogative-relative pronoun counterparts. Relatives start with ??
j and and interrogatives start with ??
k . None of these four things are needed when there is a word being used that could only ever be used in the context of a question.
Though, a Yes-No question without "What" at beginning would need rising intonation in speech and a question mark on paper to mark it as a question.
Conditional
The words for If and Then are ??
jo and ??
to. Where in English the If is mandatory, with the Then optional, in Gujarati it is the ??
jo that is optional and the ??
to that is mandatory.
Furthermore, in both clauses, these changes are made:
- ????? hovu? ??- ch- forms become ??- ho- forms
- ???? hatu? becomes ??? hot
Miscellaneous
Quoting Speech
Referring to someone else's speech may be done in two ways:
- 1. "... He said, 'I... '"
- 2. "... He said that he... "
In Gujarati, number 1 is the common form. Gujaratis often will say it in its original language too, making it even more of a "direct quote".
Vocabulary
Common Words and Phrases
| Gujarati | English | Notes |
|---|
>??? ??? | How are you? | | >??? ??????? ???? ??? | Do you speak Gujarati? | | >?????? ??? ??? ??? | What is your name? | | >????? ??? ______ ?? | My name is ______ | | >??, ??, ????? | Yes | In increasing formality | >??, ???? | No | In increasing formality | >???? | Bye | lit. Come | >??? ????? | What happened? | >?????? ??????? | What time is it? | lit. How much did it strike? | >?????? | Take care | | >????? ????? ? ?? | Don't bother me | lit. Do not eat my head |
Loanwords
Modern 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
- ????? Bank
- ??? Phone
- ?? Bus
- ???? Table
- ?????? Station
Writing system
Gujarati is written using the
Gujarati script, an abugida very similar to
Devanagari , but without the characteristic horizontal line 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.
See also
- Languages of India
- List of national languages of India
- List of Indian languages by total speakers
- Gujarati people
External links
Dictionaries and linguistic resources
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- from - the Rosetta Edition
Other
