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Dhundhari (also known as Jaipuri) is a dialect of Rajasthani spoken in the Dhundhar region of northeastern
Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
state,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. Dhundari-speaking people are found in four districts –
Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known as ...
,
Sawai Madhopur Sawai Madhopur is a city and Municipal Council (Nagar Parishad) in the Sawai Madhopur District in Rajasthan state, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Sawai Madhopur District of Rajasthan. Ranthambore National Park which is 7&nbs ...
,
Dausa Dausa is a city and administrative headquarters of Dausa district in the state of Rajasthan, India. It is 55 km from Jaipur, 240 km from Delhi and located on Jaipur-Agra National Highway (NH-21).Current population is around 1.25 lak ...
, Tonk and some parts of Sikar With some 1.5 million speakers, it is not the largest speaking dialect in Rajasthan, though fairly used in the regions mentioned above. Dhundhari is spoken widely in and around
Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known as ...
. According to G.A.Grierson, Jaipuri is the form of speech of Central Eastern dialect of Rajasthani, which means literally the language of Rajasthan. MacAlister completed the grammatical analysis on 24 February 1884. Books on Jain philosophy, such as ''Moksha Marga Prakashak,'' have been written in Dhundari by Acharyakalpa Pt. Todarmalji. The Serampore missionaries translated the New Testament into Jaipuri proper in 1815.


Etymology

It is called Dhundhari as it was mainly spoken in the Dhundhar region. The state was divided into-Marwar, Mewar, Dhundhar, Hadoti, and Vagad. These divisions were based on culture and language. Now there is no such division and the districts which fall in that region are the ones listed above. Most of the Dhundhari-speaking population is in Jaipur and hence, the name Jaipuri. The derivation of the name ‘Dhundhari’ is thought to be from two origins. # According to the first opinion, Dhundhari is believed to have drawn its name from the Dhundh or Dhundhakriti mountain, which is situated near Jobner in Jaipur District or in the West frontier of the State. # The other opinion is that it is named after a river called Dhundh flowing through this region. Hence the name became Dhundhar. This tract is the place lying to the southeast of the range of the hills forming the boundary between Shekhawati and Jaipur.


Geographical Distribution

Dhundhari is primarily spoken in the state of Rajasthan. ''Mewati'' is another dialect of Rajasthani to the northeast, which assumes the form of ''Braja Bhasha'' in Bharatpur. Mewati is actually the language of the former Mewat, the abode of the Meos. ''Dang'' is a further sub-dialect of Braja Bhasa in Karauli and that of ''Bundeli'' and ''Malvi'' in Jhalawar and the southern parts of Kota.


Lexis

Modern Dhundhari wr which is used in the present time, in Rajasthan shares a 75-80% lexical similarity with Hindi (this is based on a Swadesh 207 word list comparison). It has many cognate words with Hindi. It also shares many words with other Rajasthani dialects. In some parts, it is also spoken mixed with Hindi and other similar languages.


Phonology

The phonemic inventory of Jaipuri consists of both segmental phonemes and suprasegmental phonemes. There are 6 vowel phonemes and 32 consonantal phonemes in Jaipuri language. Out of the 32 consonantal phonemes, there are 20 Stops, 2 fricatives, 4 nasals, 2 flaps and 2 lateral and 2 semivowels.


Suprasegmental Phonemes

Nasalization is a suprasegmental phoneme found in Jaipuri language which occurs with all vowels. Some of the occurrences of nasalized vowels are given below in contrast with non-nasalised vowels. Examples—'Ãguli' means finger where the first letter A(ɐ) is nasalized; 'bɐgicho' is garden in Dhundhari and ɐ is not nasalized. 'pũ:cʰŋo' is 'to wipe’ and again u is the suprasegmental phoneme.


Morphology

Dhundhari have a structure that is quite similar to Hindustani (Hindi or Urdu). The primary word order is subject–object–verb. Most of the interrogatives used in Dhundhari are different from Hindi.


Vocabulary

Dhundhari vocabulary is somewhat similar to other Western Indo-Aryan languages, especially Rajasthani. A little similarity can be traced between Dhundhari and Gujarati too. However, elements of grammar and fundamental terminology differ enough to significantly impede mutual intelligibility. Dhundhari also uses some words of Sanskrit which are not a part of Hindi now.


Writing System

Dhundhari is generally written in Devanagari script. Though not very much use of written Dhundhari is seen nowadays.


Usage

Though Jaipuri is used as a mother tongue in the home domains, the usage varies since the younger generation use Jaipuri mixed with Hindi. Jaipuri is used in the public places of the locality and the market among the Jaipuri speakers. Though Jaipuri is not taught as a separate subject or as a medium of instruction in the schools, oral communication and teaching is done mostly through Jaipuri language in the rural areas where Jaipuri speakers are in dominance. Many people in the last years have migrated to Hindi and stopped using Dhundhari altogether and this trend continues. It reduces the actual number of speakers in the census.


References


External links


Jaypuri
at
Linguistic Survey of India The Linguistic Survey of India (LSI) is a comprehensive survey of the languages of British India, describing 364 languages and dialects. The Survey was first proposed by George Abraham Grierson, a member of the Indian Civil Service and a linguist w ...
Languages of Rajasthan {{IndoAryan-lang-stub