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The Rajasthani languages are a group of Western Indo-Aryan languages, primarily spoken in
Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...
and
Malwa Malwa () is a historical region, historical list of regions in India, region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic plateau, volcanic upland north of the ...
, and adjacent areas of
Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...
,
Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...
and
Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...
in
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
and South Punjab and the adjacent areas of
Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...
in
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
. They have also reached different corners of India, especially eastern and southern parts of India, due to the migrations of people of the Marwari community who use them for internal communication. Rajasthani languages are also spoken to a lesser extent in
Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
, where they are spoken by 25,394 people according to the 2011 Census of Nepal. The term
Rajasthani Rajasthani may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Rajasthan, a state of India * Rajasthani languages, a group of Indic languages spoken there * Rajasthani people, the native inhabitants of the state * Rajasthani architecture, Indian ar ...
is also used to refer to a literary language mostly based on Marwari..


Geographical distribution

Most of the Rajasthani languages are chiefly spoken in the state of
Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...
but are also spoken in
Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...
, Western
Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...
i.e.
Malwa Malwa () is a historical region, historical list of regions in India, region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic plateau, volcanic upland north of the ...
and Nimar,
Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...
and
Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...
. Rajasthani languages are also spoken in the
Bahawalpur Bahawalpur (Urdu: ; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 13th largest city of Pakistan and List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, 8th most populous city of Punjab. Bahawalpur is the capital of Bahawalpur Division. Founded in ...
and
Multan Multan is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, fifth-most populous city in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. Located along the eastern bank of the Chenab River, it is the List of cities in Pakistan by populatio ...
sectors of the
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
i provinces of
Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...
and Tharparkar district of
Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...
. A distribution of the geographical area can be found in '
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 lingu ...
' by George A. Grierson.


Speakers

Standard Rajasthani or Standard Marwari, a version of Rajasthani, the common lingua franca of Rajasthani people and is spoken by over 25 million people (2011) in different parts of Rajasthan.2011 Census data
censusindia.gov.in
It has to be taken into consideration, however, that some speakers of Standard Marwari are conflated with Hindi speakers in the census. Marwari, the most spoken Rajasthani language with approximately 8 million speakers situated in the historic
Marwar Marwar (also called Jodhpur region) is a region of western Rajasthan state in North Western India. It lies partly in the Thar Desert. 'Maru' is a Sanskrit word for desert. The word 'wad' literally means fence in Rajasthani languages. Engl ...
region of western Rajasthan.


History

The various Rajasthani languages and dialects form a sub-branch of the Western Indo-Aryan languages. While references to a separate language of Rajasthan are as old as the 8th century it wasn't until the 18th century that a Rajasthani linguistic identity emerged.


Classification

The Rajasthani languages belong to the Western Indo-Aryan language family. However, they are controversially conflated with the Hindi languages of the Central-Zone in the Indian national census, among other places. The main Rajasthani subgroups are: *Rajasthani **Western Rajasthani *** Marwari **** Dhatki **** Godwari *** Shekhawati *** Mewari **Bhilli-Banjara Adivasi *** Wagdi *** Lambadi *** Saharia **Northern Rajasthani *** Bagri **** Bagri Sri ganganagar district, Hanumangarh district">Sri_ganganagar_district.html" ;"title="Sri ganganagar district">Sri ganganagar district, Hanumangarh district, churu district, majority of bikaner district, Sirsa district, Fatehabad district of haryana and Fazilka district of punjab **** Vishnoi / Bishnoi Bagri [ with a slight difference of pronunciation of some words like स to ह, some differences or words like कठे, बठे /(kathe bathe)where, there) to कित बीत /(kit bit), इन बिन/(ine bine)/(here, there) to इत बीत, उड़ ज्या/(ud jya)/ (go there) to बु ज्या **Eastern Rajasthani *** Malvi **** Ujjaini ( Ujjain, Sehore, Dhar, Dewas,
Indore Indore (; ISO 15919, ISO: , ) is the largest and most populous Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The commercial capital of the state, it has been declared as the List of cleanest cities in India, cleanest city of In ...
, Shajapur and Agar Malwa districts.) **** Rajwadi ( Mandsaur,
Neemuch Neemuch or Nimach is a city in the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh. The town shares its northwestern border with the state of Rajasthan and is the administrative headquarters of Neemuch District. Formerly a large British people, British cantonm ...
and Ratlam districts.) **** Umathwadi ( Rajgarh district.) **** Sondhwadi ( Jhalawar district.) **** Bhoyari / Pawari ( Betul, Chhindwara, Pandhurna and Wardha districts.) *** Dhundhari ****Jaipuri ****Nagarchol *** Harauti *** Nimadi


Languages and dialects


Official status

George Abraham Grierson (1908) was the first scholar who gave the designation 'Rajasthani' to the language, which was earlier known through its various dialects. India's National Academy of Literature, the
Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of the Indian government. Its off ...
, and University Grants Commission recognize Rajasthani as a distinct language, and it is taught as such in Bikaner's Maharaja Ganga Singh University, Jaipur's University of Rajasthan, Jodhpur's Jai Narain Vyas University, Kota's Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University and Udaipur's Mohanlal Sukhadia University. The state Board of Secondary Education included Rajasthani in its course of studies, and it has been an optional subject since 1973. National recognition has lagged, however. In 2003, the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution to insert recognition of Rajasthani into the Eighth Schedule of the
Constitution of India The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India, legal document of India, and the longest written national constitution in the world. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures ...
. In May 2015, a senior member of the pressure group Rajasthani Bhasha Manyata Samiti said at a New Delhi press conference: "Twelve years have passed, but there has absolutely been no forward movement."
Press Trust of India The Press Trust of India Ltd., commonly known as PTI, is the largest news agency in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi and is a nonprofit cooperative among more than 450 Indian newspapers. It has over 500 full-time employees , including abo ...
,
Sit-in for constitutional recognition of Rajasthani planned
, 4 May 2015, ''
The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. Owned by The Times Group, ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961 and it is sold in all major cities in India. As of 2012, it is the world's secon ...
''. Accessed 22 April 2016.
All 25 Members of Parliament elected from Rajasthan state, as well as former Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje Scindia,Press Trust of India,
Vasundhara Raje flags off ‘Rajasthani language rath yatra’
, 26 July 2015, ''The Economic Times''. Accessed 22 April 2016
have also voiced support for official recognition of the language. In 2019 Rajasthan Government included Rajasthani as a language subject in state's open school system. A committee was formed by the Government in March 2023 to make Rajasthani an official language of the state after huge protests by the youths of Rajasthani Yuva Samiti.


Grammar

Rajasthani is a head-final, or left- branching language.
Adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...
s precede
noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
s,
direct object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
s come before
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
s, and there are
postposition Adpositions are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositions (which precede their complemen ...
s. The
word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how languages employ different orders. Correlatio ...
of Rajasthani is SOV, and there are two genders and two
numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
. There are no definite or
indefinite article In grammar, an article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the ...
s. A verb is expressed with its verbal root followed by
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
es 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.
Causative In linguistics, a causative (abbreviated ) is a valency-increasing operationPayne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 173–186. that indicates that a subject either ...
s (up to double) and passives have a morphological basis. It shares a 50%-65% lexical similarity with Hindi (this is based on a Swadesh 210 word list comparison). It has many cognate words with Hindi. Notable phonetic correspondences include /s/ in Hindi with /h/ in Rajasthani. For example /sona/ 'gold' (Hindi) and /hono/ 'gold' (Marwari). /h/ sometimes elides. There are also a variety of vowel changes. Most of the pronouns and interrogatives are, however, distinct from those of Hindi. *Use of retroflex consonants The phonetic characteristics of Vedic Sanskrit, surviving in Rajasthani language, is the series of "retroflex" or "cerebral" consonants, ṭ (ट), ṭh (ठ), ḍ (ड), ḍh (ढ), and ṇ (ण). These to the Indians and Rajasthani are quite different from the "dentals", t (त), th (थ), d (द), dh (ध), n (न) etc. though many Europeans find them hard to distinguish without practice as they are not common in European languages. The consonant ḷ(ळ) is frequently used in Rajasthani, which also occurs in vedic and some prakrits, is pronounced by placing the tongue on the top of the hard palate and flapping it forward. In common with most other
Indo-Iranian languages The Indo-Iranian languages (also known as Indo-Iranic languages or collectively the Aryan languages) constitute the largest branch of the Indo-European language family. They include over 300 languages, spoken by around 1.7 billion speakers ...
, the basic sentence typology is subject–object–verb. On a lexical level, Rajasthani has perhaps a 50 to 65 percent overlap with Hindi, based on a comparison of a 210-word
Swadesh list A Swadesh list () is a compilation of cultural universal, tentatively universal concepts for the purposes of lexicostatistics. That is, a Swadesh list is a list of forms and concepts which all languages, without exception, have terms for, such as ...
. Most pronouns and interrogative words differ from Hindi, but the language does have several regular correspondences with, and phonetic transformations from, Hindi. The /s/ in Hindi is often realized as /h/ in Rajasthani – for example, the word 'gold' is /sona/ (सोना) in Hindi and /hono/ (होनो) in the Marwari dialect of Rajasthani. Furthermore, there are a number of vowel substitutions, and the Hindi /l/ sound (ल) is often realized in Rajasthani as a retroflex lateral /ɭ/ (ळ).


Phonology

Rajasthani has 11 vowels and 38 consonants. The Rajasthani language Bagri has developed three lexical tones: low, mid and high.


Morphology

Rajasthani has two numbers and two genders with three cases. Postpositions are of two categories, inflexional and derivational. Derivational postpositions are mostly omitted in actual discourse.


Syntax

*Rajasthani belongs to the languages that mix three types of case marking systems: nominative – accusative: transitive (A) and intransitive (S) subjects have similar case marking, different from that of transitive object (O); absolutive-ergative (S and O have similar marking, different from A), tripartite (A, S and O have different case marking). There is a general tendency existing in the languages with split nominal systems: the split is usually conditioned by the referents of the core NPs, the probability of ergative marking increasing from left to right in the following nominal hierarchy: first person pronouns – second person pronouns – demonstratives and third person pronouns – proper nouns – common nouns (human – animate – inanimate). Rajasthani split case marking system partially follows this hierarchy:first and second person pronouns have similar A and S marking, the other pronouns and singular nouns are showing attrition of A/S opposition. * Agreement: 1. Rajasthani combines accusative/tripartite marking in nominal system with consistently ergative verbal concord: the verb agrees with both marked and unmarked O in number and gender (but not in person — contrast Braj). Another peculiar feature of Rajasthani is the split in verbal concord when the participial component of a predicate agrees with O-NP while the auxiliary verb might agree with A-NP. 2. Stative participle from transitive verbs may agree with the Agent. 3. Honorific agreement of feminine noun implies masculine plural form both in its modifiers and in the verb. *In Hindi and Punjabi only a few combinations of transitive verbs with their direct objects may form past participles modifying the Agent: one can say in Hindi:'Hindī sīkhā ādmī' – 'a man who has learned Hindi' or 'sāṛī bādhī aurāt' – 'a woman in sari', but *'kitāb paṛhā ādmī 'a man who has read a book' is impossible. Semantic features of verbs whose perfective participles may be used as modifiers are described in (Dashchenko 1987). Rajasthani seems to have less constrains on this usage, compare bad in Hindi but normal in Rajasthani. *Rajasthani has retained an important feature of ergative syntax lost by the other representatives of Modern Western New Indo-Aryan (NIA), namely, the free omission of Agent NP from the perfective transitive clause. *Rajasthani is the only Western NIA language where the reflexes of Old Indo-Aryan synthetic passive have penetrated into the perfective domain. *Rajasthani as well as the other NIA languages shows deviations from Baker's 'mirror principle', that requires the strict pairing of morphological and syntactic operations (Baker 1988). The general rule is that the 'second causative' formation implies a mediator in the argument structure. However, some factors block addition of an extra agent into the causative construction. *In the typical Indo-Aryan relative-correlative construction the modifying clause is usually marked by a member of the "J" set of relative pronouns, adverbs and other words, while the correlative in the main clause is identical with the remote demonstrative (except in Sindhi and in Dakhini). Gujarati and Marathi frequently delete the preposed "J" element. In Rajasthani the relative pronoun or adverb may also be deleted from the subordinate clause but – as distinct from the neighbouring NIA – relative pronoun or adverb may be used instead of correlative. *Relative pronoun 'jakau' may be used not only in relative/correlative constructions, but also in complex sentences with "cause/effect" relations.


Vocabulary


Categorisation and sources

These are the three general categories of words in modern Indo-Aryan: ''tadbhav'', ''tatsam'', and loanwords.


Tadbhav

''tadbhava'', "of the nature of that". Rajasthani is a modern Indo-Aryan language descended from
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
(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, everyday, crucial words; part of the spoken vernacular. Below is a table of a few Rajasthani ''tadbhav'' words and their Old Indo-Aryan sources:


Tatsam

''tatsama'', "same as that". While Sanskrit eventually stopped being spoken vernacularly, in that it changed into Middle Indo-Aryan, it was nonetheless standardised 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 recognisable by their Sanskrit inflections and markings; they are thus often treated as a separate grammatical category unto themselves. Many old tatsam words have changed their meanings or have had their meanings adopted for modern times. ''prasāraṇ'' means "spreading", but now it is used for "broadcasting". In addition to this are
neologism In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...
s, often being
calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...
s. An example is ''telephone'', which is
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
for "far talk", translated as ''durbhāṣ''. Most people, though, just use ''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, ''tatsam''s and their derived ''tadbhav''s can also co-exist in a language; sometimes of no consequence and at other times with differences in meaning: 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 Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
, and English, with trace elements of Portuguese and Turkish. While the phenomenon of English
loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
s is relatively new, Perso-Arabic has a longer history behind it. Both English and Perso-Arabic influences are quite nationwide phenomena, 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 is being used in, bringing to mind ''tadbhav''.


Perso-Arabic

India was ruled for many centuries by Persian-speaking
Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
, amongst the most notable being the
Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi was a Medieval India, late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries.
, and the
Mughal dynasty The Mughal dynasty () or the House of Babur (), was a Central Asian dynasty of Turco-Mongol tradition, Turco-Mongol origin that ruled large parts of the Indian subcontinent from the early 16th to the 19th century. The dynasty was a cadet branch ...
. As a consequence Indian languages were 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 indigenised. 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 Rajasthani-ized. ''dāvo'' – claim, ''fāydo'' – benefit, ''natījo'' – result, and ''hamlo'' – attack, all carry Gujarati's masculine gender marker, ''o''. ''khānũ'' – compartment, has the neuter ''ũ''. Aside from easy slotting with the auxiliary ''karnũ'', a few words have made a complete transition of verbification: ''kabūlnũ'' – to admit (fault), ''kharīdnũ'' – to buy, ''kharǎcnũ'' – to spend (money), ''gujarnũ'' – to pass. The last three are definite part and parcel. Below is a table displaying a number of these loans. Currently some of the etymologies are being referenced to an Urdu
dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...
so that Gujarati's singular masculine ''o'' corresponds to Urdu ''ā'', neuter ''ũ'' groups into ''ā'' as Urdu has no neuter gender, and Urdu's Persian ''z'' is not upheld in Rajasthani and corresponds to ''j'' or ''jh''. In contrast to modern Persian, the pronunciation of these loans into Rajasthani and other Indo-Aryan languages, as well as that of Indian-recited Persian, seems to be in line with Persian spoken in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
and
Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
, perhaps 500 years ago. Lastly, Persian, being part of the Indo-Iranian language family as Sanskrit and Rajasthani are, met up in some instances with its cognates:
Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...
Persian
refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...
s known as
Parsis The Parsis or Parsees () are a Zoroastrian ethnic group in the Indian subcontinent. They are descended from Persian refugees who migrated to the Indian subcontinent during and after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, w ...
also speak an accordingly Persianized form of Gujarati.


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 colonial rule, and then streaming in on the basis of continued
Anglophone The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the largest language ...
dominance in the
Republic of India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area; the most populous country since 2023; and, since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy. Bounded by ...
. Besides the category of new ideas is the category of English words that already have Rajasthani counterparts which end up replaced or existed alongside. 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. ''See Hinglish, Code-switching''. In matters of sound, English alveolar consonant, alveolar consonants map as Retroflex consonant, retroflexes rather than Dental consonant, dentals. Two new characters were created in Rajasthani to represent English /æ/'s and /ɔ/'s. Levels of Rajasthani-ization in sound vary. Some words do not 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 loanwords are a relatively new phenomenon, they adhere to English grammar, as ''tatsam'' words adhere to Sanskrit. That is not to say that the most basic changes have been underway: many English words are pluralised with Rajasthani ''o'' over English "s". Also, with Rajasthani having three 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. *1 These English forms are often used (prominently by Indian diaspora, NRIs) for those family friends and elders that are not actually uncles and aunts but are of the age.


Portuguese

The smaller foothold the Portuguese had in wider India had linguistic effects due to extensive trade. Rajasthani 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, Portuguese-based creole languages in India and Sri Lanka''). Comparatively, the impact of Portuguese has been greater on coastal languages and their loans tend to be closer to the Portuguese originals. The source dialect of these loans imparts an earlier pronunciation of ''ch'' as an affricate instead of the current standard of . :1 "To stretch (out)". :2 Common occupational surname. :3 "Master".


Loans into English

''Bungalow''— ''Coolie''— ''Tank (disambiguation), Tank''—


Writing system

In India, Rajasthani is written in the Devanagari script, an abugida which is written from left to right. Earlier, the Mahajani script, or Modiya, was used to write Rajasthani. The script is also called as Maru Gurjari in a few records. In Pakistan, where Rajasthani is considered a minor language, a variant of the Sindhi language#Writing system, Sindhi script is used to write Rajasthani dialects. The letter 'ळ'(ɭ) is specially used in Rajasthani script. 'ल'(l) and 'ळ'(ɭ) have different sounds. The use of both has different meanings, like कालौ (black color) and काळौ (insane). In Rajasthani language, there are sounds of palatal 'श'(sh) and nasal 'ष'(sh), but in Rajasthani script only dental 'स'(s) is used for them. Similarly, in Rajasthani script, there is no independent sign for 'ज्ञ'(gya), instead 'ग्य'(Gya) is written in its place. In Rajasthani script, there is no sound of the conjuncts, for example, instead of the conjunct letter 'क्ष'(ksh), 'च'(Ch), 'क'(ka) or 'ख'(kha) is written, like लखण (Lakhan) of लक्षमण (Lakshan), लिछमण (Lichhman) of लक्ष्‍मण (Lakshman) and राकस (Rakas) of राक्षस (Rakshas). In Rajasthani script, there is no separate symbol for the sound of 'ऋ'(Ri), instead 'रि'(Ri) is written instead of it, like रितु (Ritu) (season) instead of ऋतु (Ritu). In Rajasthani, there is no use of ligatures and ref. The whole of ref 'र्' (r) becomes 'र' (ra), for example, instead of 'धर्म' (dharm), 'धरम'(dharam), instead of 'वक्त'(vakt) (time), 'वगत'(vagat) or 'वखत'(vakhat) are written. Single quotation mark (') is also used to denote continuation sound like देख'र(dekha'r) हरे'क (hare'k)(every) etc. अे (e) and अै (ai) are written instead of ए(e) and ऐ (ai) like 'अेक'(ek)(one) in place of 'एक'(ek).


Writing styles

Old literary Rajasthani had two types of writing styles.


Dingal

A literary style of writing prose and poetry in Maru-Bhasa language. It is presented same in written and spoken form. Kushallabh's 'Pingali Shiromani', Giridhar Charan's 'Sagat Singh Raso' dedicated to Maharana Pratap's younger brother Shakti Singh has been written in Dingal language. It was also used in composition of Suryamal Misharan and Baankidas. Dingal is literary genre of Charans and is written as couplets, songs and poems.


Pingal

It was used for writing poem only by Bhats. It is an amalgamation of Brij Bhasha and Rajasthani languages.


Literature


Prominent linguists

Linguists and their work and year: [Note: Works concerned only with linguistics, not with literature] *Ram Karan Asopa: Dingal Sabdkosh (Dingal Dictionary) :Rajasthani and Marwari, 1890–1920 *George Macalister: Dhundhari and Shekhawati, 1892 *L. P. Tessitori: Rajasthani and Marwari, 1914–16 *George Abraham Grierson: Almost all the dialects of Rajasthani, 1920 *Kan Singh Parihar: English language, English,
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
, Hindi, Marwari, Rajasthani, 1940 *Saubhagya Singh Shekhawat Rajasthani, Rajasthani Shabd-Kosh part I Sanshodhan Parivardhan, 1945–present *Suniti Kumar Chatterjee: Rajasthani, 1948–49 *Sita Ram Lalas: Rajasthani language, 1950–1970 *W.S. Allen: Harauti dialect, Harauti and Rajasthani, 1955–60 *Narottam Das Swami: Rajasthani and Marwari, 1960 *K. C. Agrawal: Shekhawati, 1964 *John D. Smith: Rajasthani, 1970–present *J. C. Sharma: Gade lohar, Bagri or Bhili language, Bhili, Gujari language, Gojri, 1970–present *Kali Charan Bahl: Rajasthani, 1971–1989 *Christopher Shackle: Bagri and Saraiki language, Saraiki, 1976 *David Magier: Marwari, 1983 *Peter E. Hook: Rajasthani and Marwari, 1986 *Lakhan Gusain: all the dialects of Rajasthani, 1990–present *Liudmila Khokhlova: Rajasthani and Marwari, 1990–present *Anvita Abbi: Bagri, 1993 *Maxwell P Philips: Bhili, 2000–present. *Gopal Parihar: Bagri, 2004–present *Amitabh V. Dwivedi: Hadoti, 2015 *Gulab Chand: Hadoti, 2018


Sample text

The following is a sample text in High Hindi, of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (by the United Nations): ;Rajasthani in Devanagari Script : : ;Hindi in Devanagari Script : ;;Transliteration (ISO 15919, ISO) ;Gloss (word-to-word):Article 1 (one) ''–'' All humans birth from independent and dignity and rights in equal are. They logic and conscience from endowed are and they fraternity in the spirit of each other towards work should. ;Translation (grammatical):Article 1 ''–'' All humans are born independent and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with logic and conscience and they should work towards each other in the spirit of fraternity.


Media

First newspaper published in Rajasthani was Rajputana Gazette published from Ajmer in 1885. First film made in Rajasthani was Nazrana in 1942. Stage app is first OTT platform in Rajasthani and Haryanvi and Gangaur TV is the first TV channel in Rajasthani. All India Radio air and publish news in Rajasthani language.


Language movement

A movement is ongoing in Rajasthan since independence of India to include Rajasthani language in the 8th schedule of the Indian constitution and making it the official language of the state of Rajasthan. In recent years the movement is getting rooted among the youths.


Challenges and Preservation Efforts

The Rajasthani language faces several issues, including: ;1. Lack of Official Recognition: Despite being widely spoken, Rajasthani lacks official status in India. It is often classified under Hindi in government documents and the census, which undermines its distinct identity. This also means it is not listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, depriving it of the support and promotion that other scheduled languages receive. ;2. Standardization Challenges: Rajasthani comprises numerous dialects, such as Marwari, Mewari, Shekhawati, and Hadoti, among others. The lack of a standardized form makes it difficult to unify and promote the language effectively and can lead to fragmentation in efforts to preserve and promote the language. ;3. Educational Neglect: Rajasthani is not widely taught in schools. The educational system predominantly uses Hindi or English, leading to a decline in the younger generation's proficiency in their native tongue. This lack of formal education and institutional support further contributes to the erosion of the language. ;4. Media Representation: There is limited representation of Rajasthani in mainstream media, including television, radio, and print. This lack of visibility reduces the language's presence in everyday life and its prestige among speakers. ;5. Literary Development: Although Rajasthani has a rich literary tradition, contemporary literary output and publishing are limited. This affects the development and modernization of the language and hinders efforts to preserve its cultural heritage. ;6. Economic and Social Pressures: Urbanization and migration often lead speakers to prioritize learning Hindi or English for better economic and social opportunities. This shift can lead to a decrease in the use of Rajasthani in daily life and a decline in language transmission to future generations. ;7. Linguistic Erosion: As younger generations shift to Hindi or English, the transmission of Rajasthani to future generations is at risk, potentially leading to language erosion. In many families, younger generations are not learning Rajasthani at home, often due to the preference for more dominant languages. Addressing these issues requires concerted efforts from the government, educational institutions, and cultural organizations to promote and preserve the Rajasthani language. Efforts to improve official recognition, standardize the language, enhance its presence in education and media, and support its literary and cultural development are crucial for its preservation and promotion.


Notes


References


Sources

* *. *.


External links


Mahajani script
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajasthani Language Rajasthani language, Languages of Rajasthan Languages of India Rajasthani literature Languages written in Devanagari Languages listed as Hindi dialects in latest census Western Indo-Aryan languages Indo-Aryan languages