A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| Rājasthānī | |
|---|---|
| Ethnicity | Rajasthanis |
| Geographic distribution | Rajasthan, Malwa (MP) |
Native speakers | 46 million[a][1] (2011 census)[1] |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European |
| Subdivisions | |
 | |
Rajasthani languages are a branch of Western Indo-Aryan languages. It is spoken primarily in the state of Rajasthan and adjacent areas of Haryana, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in India. There are also speakers in the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh. Rajasthani is also spoken to a lesser extent in Nepal where it is spoken by 25,394 people according to the 2011 Census of Nepal.[3]
The term Rajasthani is also used to refer to a literary language mostly based on Marwari.[4]: 441
Geographical distribution
Most of the Rajasthani languages are chiefly spoken in the state of Rajasthan but are also spoken in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab. Rajasthani languages are also spoken in the Bahawalpur and Multan sectors of the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Tharparkar district of Sindh. It merges with Riasti and Saraiki in Bahawalpur and Multan areas, respectively. Many linguists (Shackle, 1976 and Gusain, 2000) agree that it shares many phonological (implosives), morphological (future tense marker and negation) and syntactic features with Riasti and Saraiki. A distribution of the geographical area can be found in 'Linguistic Survey of India' 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.[5] 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[5] situated in the historic Marwar region of western Rajasthan.
Classification
 | This section may be confusing or unclear to readers. In particular, it is unclear which languages are in which subcategories or which subcategories exist. (May 2023) |
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[citation needed]. The main Rajasthani subgroups are:[6]
- Rajasthani
- Western Rajasthani
- Bhilli-Banjara Adivasi
- Northern Rajasthani
- Eastern Rajasthani[8]
Languages and dialects
| Language[10] | ISO 639-3 | Scripts | No. of speakers[citation needed] | Geographical distribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rajasthani | raj | Devanagari; previously Mandya;
Mahajani |
25,810,000[11] | Western and Northern part of Rajasthan |
| Marwari | mwr | Devanagari | 7,832,000 | Marwar region of Western Rajasthan |
| Malvi | mup | Devanagari | 5,213,000 | Malva region of Madhya Pradesh radesh and Rajasthan |
| Mewari | mtr | Devanagari | 4,212,000 | Mewar region of Rajasthan |
| Wagdi | wbr | Devanagari | 3,394,000 | Dungarpur and Banswara districts of Southern Rajasthan |
| Lambadi | lmn | 3,277,000 | Banjaras of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh | |
| Hadauti | hoj | Devanagari | 2,944,000 | Hadoti region of southeastern Rajasthan |
| Nimadi | noe | Devanagari | 2,309,000 | Nimar region of west-central India within the state of Madhya Pradesh |
| Bagri | bgq | Devanagari, | 1,657,000 | Bagar region of Rajasthan, Punjab & Haryana.
In Rajasthan: Nohar-Bhadra, Anupgarh district, Hanumangarh district, Northern & Dungargarh tehsils of Bikaner district and Sri Ganganagar district; Taranagar, Rajgarh, Sardarshahar, Ratangarh, Bhanipura tehsils of Churu district, In Haryana: Sirsa district, Fatehabad district, Hisar district, Bhiwani district, Charkhi-dadri district, In Punjab: Fazilka district & Southern Muktsar district. |
| Ahirani | ahr | Devanagari | 1,636,000 | Khandesh region of north-west Maharashtra and also in Gujarat |
| Dhundhari | dhd | Devanagari | 1,476,000 | Dhundhar region of northeastern Rajasthan Jaipur, Sawai Madhopur, Dausa, Tonk and some parts of Sikar and karauli district |
| Gujari | gju | Takri, Pasto-Arabic, Devanagari | 1,228,000 | Northern parts of India and Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan |
| Dhatki | mki | Devanagri, Mahajani, Arabic | 210,000 | Pakistan and India (Jaisalmer and Barmer districts of Rajasthan and Tharparkar and Umerkot districts of Sindh) |
| Shekhawati | swv | Devanagari | 3,000,000 | the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan which comprises the southern Churu, Jhunjhunu, Neem-Ka-Thana and Sikar districts. |
| Godwari | gdx | Devanagari, Gujarati | 3,000,000 | Pali and Sirohi districts of Rajasthan and Banaskantha district of Gujarat. |
| Bhoyari/Pawari | Devanagari | 15,000-20,000 | Betul, Chhindwara, and Pandhurna districts of Madhya Pradesh, as well as Wardha district of Maharashtra.
It is exclusively spoken by the Pawar Rajputs (Bhoyar Pawar) who have migrated from Rajasthan and Malwa to Satpura and Vidarbha regions. | |
| Sahariya | Devanagari |
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,[12] 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.[13]
In 2003, the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution to insert recognition of Rajasthani into the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India.[14] 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."[15]
All 25 Members of Parliament elected from Rajasthan state,[15] as well as former Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje Scindia,[16] have also voiced support for official recognition of the language.[17]
In 2019 Rajasthan Government included Rajasthani as a language subject in state's open school system.[18]
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[19][20][21]
Grammar
Rajasthani is a head-final, or left-branching language. Adjectives precede nouns, direct objects come before verbs, and there are postpositions. The word order of Rajasthani is SOV, and there are two genders and two numbers.[22] 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 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.[23]
- 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 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. 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.[24]
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.[25]
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).[26] 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.[27]
Vocabulary
Categorisation and sources
These are the three general categories of words in modern Indo-Aryan: tadbhav, tatsam, and loanwords.[28]
Tadbhav
tadbhava, "of the nature of that". Rajasthani 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, everyday, crucial words; part of the spoken vernacular. Below is a table of a few Rajasthani tadbhav words and their Old Indo-Aryan sources:
| Old Indo-Aryan | Rajasthani | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | ahám | hũ | [29] | |
| falls, slips | khasati | khisaknũ | to move | [30] |
| causes to move | arpáyati | ārpanũ | to give | [31] |
| attains to, obtains | prāpnoti | pāvnũ | [32] | |
| tiger | vyāghrá | vāgh | [33] | |
| equal, alike, level | samá | shamũ | right, sound | Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Rajasthani_language|