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Spoken (along with Hindi) in Gujarāt, a state in western
India.
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Derived from
Sanskrit.
- An Indo-European language, of the
Indo-Aryan family, spoken by about 46 million people 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.
- A considerable population of Gujarati speakers exists in North
America and the United Kingdom as well. In the United Kingdom,
Leicester (Midlands) and Wembley (North London) are two areas popular
with Gujaratis. The two most common surnames among Gujarati speakers
are Shah and Patel; the latter surname has gained an alternate meaning
in the United States, as many bearers of the name own and operate
mostly small and medium-sized motels throughout the country; indeed,
some estimates suggest that more than half of all such establishments
in America not affiliated with major chains are owned and/or managed
by Gujaratis, many of them surnamed Patel.
- The history of the language can be traced back to 12th c. 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 Patan. This was called Apabhransa grammar,
signifying a language which is a corrupted form of languages like
Sanskrit and Ardha-magadhi. The earliest literature in the language
survives in oral tradition and can be traced to two stalwarts, the
Krishna devotee and great egalitarian Narasinh Mehta (later a source
of inspiration to Mahatma Gandhi) dated to be in the 17th century. The
story of Narasinh Mehta himself was composed as a long narrative
ballad by Premananda, accorded the title "maha-kavi" or great poet by
modern historians of the language. His date is perhaps late 17th
century. Other than this a large number of poets flourished during
what is now characterised as the bhakti or devotional movement in
Hinduism, a movement of the masses to liberate the religion from
entrenched priesthood.
- Modern exploration into Gujarat and its language is credited to
British administrator Alexander Kinloch Forbes. During the nineteenth
century at a time when the British rule was more consolidatory and
progressive this gentleman explored much of the previous thousand
years of the history of the land and compiled a large number of
manuscripts. The learned body devoted to Gujarati language is named
after him, Farbas Gujarati Sabha with headquarters in Mumbai.
- The Gujarati spoken today takes considerable vocabulary from
Persian due to the more than five centuries of the rule of Sultan
kings who were Muslim. These words occur mostly in reference to
worldly and secular matters. The other elements of the language
however draw quite a lot on the native tribes of the specific region,
as listed above under Dialects.
- It is written in Gujarati script, an abugida very similar to
Devanagari (the script used for
Sanskrit and
Hindi), but without the
line at the top of the letters.
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