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Gujarati
ગુજરાતી Gujrātī
Pronunciation	/ɡudʒ(ə)ˈɾat̪i/
Spoken in	India, Pakistan, United States, UK, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Australia, New Zealand, Mauritius, Fiji, Canada, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Portugal, Panama, Malaysia, Norway
Native speakers	46.5 million  (1997)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Western[2] Gujarati
Writing system	Gujarati script, former use of Devanagari before invention of Gujarati Script, also use of Arabic script by the Ismaili community and other Gujarati communities, mainly in Pakistan.
Official status
Official language in	Gujarat (India)[1][3] Daman and Diu (India) Dadra and Nagar Haveli (India)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	gu
ISO 639-2	guj
ISO 639-3	guj
Distribution of native Guj gujurati speakers in India
This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Gujarati (Gujarati: (ગુજરાતી Gujarātī) is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati (1100–1500 AD) which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages. It is native to the Indian state of Gujarat, where it is the chief language, and to the adjacent union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

There are about 65.5 million speakers of Gujarati worldwide, making it the 26th most spoken native language in the world.^{[citation needed]} Along with Romany and Sindhi, it is among the most western of Indo-Aryan languages. Gujarati was the first language of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the "Father of the Nation of India", and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the "Iron Man of India." Other prominent personalities whose first language is or was Gujarati include Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Morarji Desai, Narsinh Mehta, Dhirubhai Ambani, and J. R. D. Tata. & Muhammad Ali Jinnah the "Father of the Nation of Pakistan"

History[link]

Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi sharing a laugh together in Bombay in 1944, for ill-fated political talks. These two prime political figures of the Indian subcontinent in the 20th century were Gujaratis and thus native speakers of the Gujarati language. For Jinnah, Gujarati did not factor beyond that of a mother tongue. He was neither born nor raised in Gujarat,^[4] and Gujarat did not end up a part of Pakistan, the state he espoused. He went on to advocate for solely Urdu in his politics. For Gandhi, Gujarati served as a medium of literary expression. He helped to inspire a renewal in its literature,^[5] and in 1936 he introduced the current spelling convention at the Gujarati Literary Society's 12th meeting.^[6]

Gujarati (also having been variously spelled as Gujerati, Gujarathi, Guzratee, Guujaratee, Gujrathi, and Gujerathi^[1][7]) is a modern Indo-Aryan language evolved from Sanskrit. The traditional practice is to differentiate the IA languages on the basis of three historical stages^[7]:

1. Old IA (Vedic and Classical Sanskrit)
2. Middle IA (various Prakrits and Apabhramshas)
3. New IA (modern languages such as Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, etc..)

Another view accords successive family, tree splits, in which Gujarati is assumed to have separated from other IA languages in four stages^[8]:

1. IA languages split into Northern, Eastern, and Western divisions based on the innovate characteristics such as plosives becoming voiced in the Northern (Skt. danta "tooth" > Punj. dānd) and dental and retroflex sibilants merging with the palatal in the Eastern (Skt. sandhya "evening" > Beng. śājh).^[9]
2. Western, into Central and Southern.
3. Central, in Gujarati/Rajasthani, Western Hindi, and Punjabi/Lahanda/Sindhi, on the basis of innovation of auxiliary verbs and postpositions in Gujarati/Rajasthani.^[7]
4. Gujarati/Rajasthani into Gujarati and Rajasthani through development of such characteristics as auxiliary ch- and the possessive marker -n- during the 15th century.^[10]

The principal changes from Sanskrit are the following^[8]:

• Phonological
  • Loss of phonemic length for vowels
  • Change of consonant clusters to geminate and then to single consonants (with compensatory vowel length)

• Morphological
  • Reduction in the number of compounds
  • Merger of the dual with plural
  • Replacement of case affixes by postpositions
  • Development of periphrastic tense/voice/mood constructions
• Syntax
  • Split ergativity
  • More complex agreement system

Gujarati is then customarily divided into the following three historical stages^[7]:

Old Gujarātī (જૂની ગુજરાતી; also called ગુજરાતી ભાખા Gujarātī bhākhā or ગુર્જર અપભ્રંશ Gurjar apabhraṃśa, AD 1100 — 1500), the ancestor of modern Gujarati and Rajasthani,^[5] was spoken by the Gurjars, who were residing and ruling in Punjab, Rajputana, central India and various parts of Gujarat at that time.^[15][16] The language was used as literary language as early as 12th century.Texts of this era display characteristic Gujarati features such as direct/oblique noun forms, postpositions, and auxiliary verbs.^[8] It had 3 genders as Gujarati does today, and by around the time of 1300 CE a fairly standardized form of this language emerged. While generally known as Old Gujarati, some scholars prefer the name of Old Western Rajasthani, based on the argument that Gujarati and Rajasthani were not yet distinct at the time. Also factoring into this preference was the belief that modern Rajasthani sporadically expressed a neuter gender, based on the incorrect conclusion that the [ũ] that came to be pronounced in some areas for masculine [o] after a nasal consonant was analogous to Gujarati's neuter [ũ].^[17] A formal grammar of the precursor to this language was written by Jain monk and eminent scholar Hemachandra Suri in the reign of Solanki king Siddharaj Jayasinh of Anhilwara (Patan).

Major works were written in various genres, for the most part in verse form, such as^[18]:

• rāsa, predominantly didactic narrative, of which the earliest known is Śālibhadrasūri's Bhārateśvarabāhubali (1185).
• phāgu, in which spring time is celebrated, of which the earliest is Jinapadmasūri's Sirithūlibadda (ca. 1335). The most famous is the Vasantavilāsa, of unknown scholarship, which is undeterminedly dated to somewhere in 14th or 15th century, or possibly earlier.
• bārmāsī, describing natural beauty during each of the twelve months.
• ākhyāna, in which different sections are each in a single metre.

Narsinh Mehta (c. 1414 — 1480) is traditionally viewed as the father of modern Gujarati poetry. By virtue of its early age and good editing, an important prose work is the 14th-century commentary of Taruṇaprabha, the Ṣaḍāvaśyakabālabodhavr̥tti.^[18]

Middle Gujarati (AD 1500 — 1800), split off from Rajasthani, and developed the phonemes ɛ and ɔ, the auxiliary stem ch-, and the possessive marker -n-.^[19] Major phonological changes characteristic of the transition between Old and Middle Gujarati are^[18]:

• i, u develop to ə in open syllables
• diphthongs əi, əu change to ɛ and ɔ in initial syllables and to e and o elsewhere
• əũ develops to ɔ̃ in initial syllables and to ű in final syllables

These developments would have grammatical consequences. For example, Old Gujarati's instrumental-locative singular in -i was leveled and eliminated, having become the same as Old Gujarati's nominative/accusative singular in -ə.^[18]

Modern Gujarati (AD 1800 — ). A major phonological change was the deletion of final ə's, such that the modern language has consonant-final words. Grammatically, a new plural marker of -o developed.^[18] In literature, the third quarter of the 19th century saw a series of milestones for Gujarati, which previously had had verse as its dominant mode of literary composition.^[20]

• 1840s, personal diary composition; Nityanondh, Durgaram Mahetaji.
• 1851, first essay; Maniaḷī Maḷvāthi thātā Lābh, Narmadashankar Lalshankar Dave.
• 1866, first novel; Karaṇ Ghelo, Nandashankar Mehta.
• 1866, first autobiography; Mārī Hakīkat, Narmadashankar Lalshankar Dave.

Demographics and distribution[link]

Map of Gujarat

Gujarati has achieved high linguistic prominence in many urban districts worldwide, notably in India Square in Jersey City, New Jersey, in the New York City Metropolitan Area, USA.

Of the approximately 46 million speakers of Gujarati in 1997, roughly 45.5 million resided in India, 150,000 in Uganda, 250,000 in Tanzania, 50,000 in Kenya and roughly 100,000 in Pakistan.^[1] There are now 65.5 million Gujarati speakers.^{[citation needed]}

There is a large Gujarati community in Mumbai, India (2.1 million). A considerable Gujarati-speaking population, approaching one million, exists in North America, most particularly in the New York City Metropolitan Area and in the Greater Toronto Area (both of which have over 100,000 speakers), but also throughout the major metropolitan areas of the United States and Canada. The United Kingdom has 300,000 speakers, many of them situated in the London areas of Wembley, Harrow, Newham and Redbridge, and in Leicester, Coventry, Bradford and the former mill towns of Lancashire. A portion of these numbers consists of East African Gujaratis who, under increasing discrimination and policies of Africanisation in their newly independent resident countries (especially Uganda, where Idi Amin expelled 50,000 Asians), were left with uncertain futures and citizenships. Most, with British passports, settled in the UK.^[5][21]

Indeed, due to the large Gujarati diaspora in the UK, Gujarati is offered as a GCSE subject for students in the United Kingdom.

Besides being spoken by the Gujarati people, non-Gujarati residents of and migrants to the state of Gujarat also count as speakers, among them the Kutchis (as a literary language),^[5] the Parsis (adopted as a mother tongue), and Hindu Sindhi refugees from Pakistan.

Official status[link]

Gujarati is one of the twenty-two official languages and fourteen regional languages of India. It is officially recognized in the state of Gujarat, India.

Dialects[link]

A book extract written in Parsi Gujarati, in or before 1892. It is about Englishmen who speak French.^[22]

The accepted standard dialect is the speech of the area from Baroda to Ahmedabad and north.^[18] Ethnologue lists the following dialects and subdivisions.^[1]

• Standard Gujarati
  • Nagari
  • Bombay Gujarati
  • Patnuli
  • Vadodari
  • Amdavadi
• Gamthi
  • Gramya
  • Surti
  • Anavla
  • Bhathla
  • Machi
  • Eastern Broach Gujarati
  • Charotari
  • Patidari
  • pathani
  • Patani
• Parsi
• Kathiyawadi
  • Jhalawadi
  • Sorathi
  • Holadi
  • Gohilwadi
  • Bhavnagari
  • Mer
• Kharva
• Khakari
• Tarimukhi
  • Ghisadi
  • Ghanchi

Major dialects[link]

In A simplified grammar of the Gujarati language (1892) by William Tisdall, major dialects of Gujarati are mentioned. These are explained below.

Hindu Gujarati[link]

Hindu Gujarati, which is the one adopted by the Government as the standard, is taught in schools.

Parsi Gujarati[link]

Parsi Gujarati, the language as spoken and written by the Parsis. This differs from ordinary Gujarati in that it admits pure Persian words in considerable numbers, especially in connection with religious matters, besides a host of Arabic and other words taken from the Persian language, and that its grammar is in a very unfixed and irregular manner.

Muslim Gujarati[link]

Like Parsi Gujarati, employs a great number of words borrowed from the Hindustani (and through it from Persian and Arabic).

Diasporic dialects of Gujarati[link]

Words used by the native languages of areas where the Gujarati people have become a diaspora community, such as East Africa (Swahili) which they migrated to, have become loanwords in local dialects of Gujarati.^[23]

Closely related languages[link]

Kutchi, also known as Khojki, is often referred to as a dialect of Gujarati, but most linguists consider it closer to Sindhi. In addition, a mixture between Sindhi, Gujarati, and Kutchi called Memoni is related to Gujarati, albeit distantly.^{[citation needed]}

Phonology[link]

Writing system[link]

Similar to other Nāgarī writing systems, the Gujarati script is an abugida. It is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. It is a variant of Devanāgarī script differentiated by the loss of the characteristic horizontal line running above the letters and by a small number of modifications in the remaining characters.

Gujarati and closely related languages, including Kutchi, can be written in the Arabic or Persian scripts. This is traditionally done by many in Gujarat's Kutch district.

Vocabulary[link]

Categorisation and sources[link]

These are the three general categories of words in modern Indo-Aryan: tatsam, tadbhav, and loanwords.^[24]

Tadbhav[link]

તદ્ભવ્ tadbhav, "of the nature of that". Gujarati 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 Gujarati tadbhav words and their Old Indo-Aryan sources:

Tatsam[link]

તત્સમ્ tatsam, "same as that". While Sanskrit eventually stopped being spoken vernacularly, in that it changed into Middle Indo-Aryan, it was nonetheless standardized 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 recognizable 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. પ્રસારણ prasāraṇ means "spreading", but now it's used for "broadcasting". In addition to this are neologisms, often being calques. An example is telephone, which is Greek for "far talk", translated as દુરભાષ durbhāṣ. Though most people just use ફોન 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, tatsams and their derived tadbhavs can also co-exist in a language; sometimes of no consequence: dharma-dharam, other times with differences in meaning, with the former holding a "higher" one:

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, and English, with trace elements of Portuguese and Turkish. While the phenomenon of English loanwords is relatively new, Perso-Arabic has a longer history behind it. Both English and Perso-Arabic influences are quite nation-wide 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's being used in, bringing to mind tadbhav.

Perso-Arabic[link]

India was ruled for many a century by Persian-speaking Muslims. 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 indigenized. 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 Gujarati-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 karvũ, a few words have made a complete transition of verbification: kabūlvũ - to admit (fault), kharīdvũ - to buy, kharǎcvũ - to spend (money), gujarvũ - 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, so it should be noted 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 Gujarati and corresponds to j or jh. In contrast to modern Persian, the pronunciation of these loans into Gujarati and other Indo-Aryan languages, as well as that of Indian-recited Persian, seems to be in line with Persian spoken in Afghanistan and Central Asia, perhaps 500 years ago.^[33]

Lastly, Persian, being part of the Indo-Iranian language family as Sanskrit and Gujarati are, met up in some instances with its cognates^[54]:

Zoroastrian Persian refugees known as Parsis also speak an accordingly Persianized form of Gujarati.^[55]

English[link]

śrī sarasvatī fruṭ jyuś sɛnṭar - "Shri Saraswati Fruit Juice Centre". Note that "Fruit Juice Centre" is in English. A gujarati alternative would be phaḷnā rasno kendra. It (kendra in particular) would however sound quite pedantic and out of place.

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 colonialism, and then streaming in on the basis of continued Anglosphere dominance in the post-colonial period. Besides the category of new ideas is the category of English words that already have Gujarati counterparts which end up replaced or existed alongside with. 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.^[56] See Hinglish, Code-switching.

In matters of sound, English alveolar consonants map as retroflexes rather than dentals. Two new characters were created in Gujarati to represent English /æ/'s and /ɔ/'s. Levels of Gujarati-ization in sound vary. Some words don't 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 loanwards are a relatively new phenomenon, they adhere to English grammar, as tatsam words adhere to Sanskrit. Though that isn't to say that the most basic changes have been underway: many English words are pluralized with Gujarati o over English "s". Also, with Gujarati having 3 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 NRIs) for those family friends and elders that aren't actually uncles and aunts but are of the age.

Portuguese[link]

The smaller foothold the Portuguese had in wider India had linguistic effects. Gujarati 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 in India and Sri Lanka). Comparatively, the impact of Portuguese has been greater on coastal languages^[57] and their loans tend to be closer to the Portuguese originals.^[58] The source dialect of these loans imparts an earlier pronunciation of ch as an affricate instead of the current standard of [ʃ].^[33]

¹ "Lengthen".

² Common occupational surname.

³ "Master".

Loans into English[link]

Bungalow—

Coolie—

Tank—

Grammar[link]

Gujarati is a head-final, or left-branching language. Adjectives precede nouns, direct objects come before verbs, and there are postpositions. The word order of Gujarati is SOV, and there are three genders and two numbers. 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 morphological basis'.^[62]

Sample text[link]

Gujarati sample (Sign about Gandhi's hut)

Gujarati script —

ગાંધીજીની ઝૂંપડી-કરાડી

જગ પ્રસિદ્ધ દાંડી કૂચ પછી ગાંધીજીએ અહીં આંબાના વૃક્ષ નીચે ખજૂરી નાં છટિયાંની એક ઝૂંપડીમાં તા.૧૪-૪-૧૯૩૦ થી તા.૪-૫-૧૯૩૦ સુધી નિવાસ કર્યો હતો. દાંડીમાં છઠ્ઠી એપ્રિલે શરૂ કરેલી નિમક કાનૂન (મીઠાના સત્યાગ્રહ) ભંગની લડતને તેમણે અહીંથી વેગ આપી દેશ વ્યાપી બનાવી હતી. અહીંથી જ તેમણે ધરાસણાના મીઠાના અગરો તરફ કૂચ કરવાનો પોતાનો સંકલ્પ બ્રિટિશ વાઈસરૉયને પત્ર લખીને જણાવ્યો હતો.

તા.૪થી મે ૧૯૩૦ની રાતના બાર વાગ્યા પછી આ સ્થળેથી બ્રિટિશ સરકારે તેમની ધરપકડ કરી હતી.

Devanagari script -

गांधीजीनी झूंपडी-कराडी

जग प्रसिद्ध दांडी कूच पछी गांधीजीए अहीं आंबाना वृक्ष नीचे खजूरीनां छटियांनी एक झूंपडीमां ता.१४-४-१९३०थी ता.४-५-१९३० सुधी निवास कर्यो हतो. दांडीमां छठ्ठी एप्रिले शरू करेली निमक कानून भंगनी लडतने तेमणे अहींथी वेग आपी देश व्यापी बनावी हती. अहींथीज तेमणे धरासणाना मीठाना अगरो तरफ कूच करवानो पोतानो संकल्प ब्रिटिश वाईसरॉयने पत्र लखीने जणाव्यो हतो.

ता.४थी मे १९३०नी रातना बार वाग्या पछी आ स्थळेथी ब्रिटिश सरकारे तेमनी धरपकड करी हती.

Transliteration —

gāndhījīnī jhū̃pṛī-Karāṛī

jag prasiddh dāṇḍī kūc pachī gāndhījīe ahī̃ āmbānā vr̥kṣ nīce khajūrīnā̃ chaṭiyā̃nī ek jhū̃pṛīmā̃ tā.14-4-1930thī tā.4-5-1930 sudhī nivās karyo hato. dāṇḍīmā̃ chaṭhṭhī eprile śarū karelī nimak kānūn bhaṅgnī laṛatne temṇe ahī̃thī veg āpī deś vyāpī banāvī hatī. ahī̃thīj temṇe dharāsaṇānā mīṭhānā agaro taraph kūc karvāno potāno saṅkalp briṭiś vāīsarôyne patra lakhīne jaṇāvyo hato.

tā.4thī me 1930nī rātnā bār vāgyā pachī ā sthaḷethī briṭiś sarkāre temnī dharpakaṛ karī hatī.

Transcription (IPA) —

ɡɑn̪d̪ʱid͡ʒini d͡ʒʱũpɽi-kəɾɑɽi

d͡ʒəɡ pɾəsɪd̪d̪ʱ ɖɑɳɖi kut͡ʃ pət͡ʃʰi ɡɑn̪d̪ʱid͡ʒie ə̤ȷ̃ ɑmbɑnɑ ʋɾʊkʃ nit͡ʃe kʰəd͡ʒuɾnɑ̃ t͡ʃʰəʈijɑ̃ni ek d͡ʒʱũpɽimɑ̃ t̪ɑ _________t̪ʰi t̪ɑ._______ sud̪ʱi niʋɑs kəɾjot̪o. ɖɑɳɖimɑ̃ t͡ʃʰəʈʰʈʰi epɾile ʃəɾu kəɾeli nimək kɑnun bʱəŋɡni ləɽət̪ne t̪ɛmɳe ə̤ȷ̃t̪ʰi ʋeɡ ɑpi deʃ ʋjɑpi bənɑʋit̪i. ə̤ȷ̃t̪ʰid͡ʒ t̪ɛmɳe d̪ʱəɾɑsəɽ̃ɑnɑ miʈʰɑnɑ əɡəɾo t̪əɾəf kut͡ʃ kəɾʋɑno pot̪ɑno səŋkəlp bɾiʈiʃ ʋɑjsəɾɔjne pət̪ɾə ləkʰine d͡ʒəɽ̃ɑʋjot̪o.

t̪ɑ.__t̪ʰi me ____ni ɾɑt̪nɑ bɑɾ ʋɑɡjɑ pət͡ʃʰi ɑ st̪ʰəɭet̪ʰi bɾiʈiʃ səɾkɑɾe t̪ɛmni d̪ʱəɾpəkəɽ kəɾit̪i.

Simple gloss —

gandhiji's hut-karadi

world famous dandi march after gandhiji here mango's tree under palm date's bark's one hut-in date.14-4-1930-from date.4-5-1930 until residence done was. dandi-in sixth april-at started done salt law break's fight(-to) he here-from speed gave country wide made was. here-from he dharasana's salt's mounds towards march doing's self's resolve british viceroy-to letter written-having notified was.

date.4-from may 1930's night's twelve struck after this place-at-from british government his arrest done was.

Transliteration and detailed gloss —

gāndhījī-n-ī	jhū̃pṛ-ī-Ø	Karāṛī
gandhiji–GEN–FEM	hut–FEM–SG	karadi

jag	prasiddh	dāṇḍī	kūc	pachī	gāndhījī-e	ahī̃	āmb-ā-Ø-n-ā	vṛkṣ	nīce
world	famous	dandi	march	after	gandhiji–ERG	here	mango–MASC.OBL–SG–GEN–MASC.OBL	tree	under

khajūr-ī-Ø-n-ā̃	chaṭiy-ā̃-n-ī	ek	jhū̃pṛ-ī-Ø-mā̃	tā.	14 4 1930thī	tā.	4 5 1930	sudhī
palmdate–FEM–SG–GEN–NEUT.OBL	bark–NEUT.PL.OBL–GEN–FEM.OBL	one	hut–FEM–SG–in	date	14 4 1930–from	date		until

nivās	kar-y-o	ha-t-o	.	dāṇḍī-mā̃	chaṭhṭhī	epril-e	śarū	kar-el-ī	nimak
residence.MASC.SG.OBJ.NOM	do–PERF–MASC.SG	be–PAST–MASC.SG		dandi–in	sixth	April–at	started	do–PAST.PTCP–FEM	salt

kānūn	bhaṅg-n-ī	laṛat-Ø-ne	te-m-ṇe	ahī̃-thī	veg	āp-ī	deś	vyāpī
law	break–GEN–FEM.OBL	fight.FEM.OBJ–SG–ACC	3.DIST–HONORIFIC–ERG	here–from	speed–OBJ	give–CONJUNCTIVE	country	wide

ban-āv-Ø-ī	ha-t-ī	.	ahī̃-thī-j	te-m-ṇe	dharāsaṇā-n-ā
become–CAUS–PERF–FEM	be–PAST–FEM		here–from–INTENSIFIER	3.DIST–HONORIFIC–ERG	dharasana–GEN–MASC.PL

mīṭh-ā-n-ā	agar-o	taraph	kūc	kar-v-ā-n-o	potā-n-o
salt–NEUT.SG.OBL–GEN–MASC.PL	mound.MASC–PL	towards	march.MASC.SG	do–INF–OBL–GEN–MASC.SG	REFL–GEN–MASC.SG

saṅkalp	briṭiś	vāīsarôy-Ø-ne	patra	lakh-īne	jaṇ-āv-y-o	ha-t-o	.	tā.
resolve.MASC.SG.OBJ.ACC	British	viceroy.OBJ–SG–DAT	letter	write–CONJUNCTIVE	know–CAUS–PERF–MASC.SG	be–PAST–MASC.SG		date

4-thī	me	1930-n-ī	rāt-Ø-n-ā	bār	vāg-y-ā	pachī	ā	sthaḷ-e-thī	briṭiś
4-th	may	1930–GEN–FEM.OBL	night.FEM–SG–GEN–MASC.OBL	twelve	strike–PERF–OBL	after	3.PROX	place–at–from	British

sarkār-e	te-m-n-ī	dharpakaṛ	kar-Ø-ī	ha-t-ī	.
government–ERG	3.DIST–HONORIFIC–GEN–FEM	arrest.FEM.SG.OBJ.ACC	do–PERF–FEM	be–PAST–FEM

Translation (by Wikipedia) —

Gandhiji's hut-Karadi

After the world-famous Dandi March Gandhiji resided here in a date palm bark hut underneath a/the mango tree, from 14-4-1930 to 4-5-1930. From here he gave speed to and spread country-wide the anti-Salt Law struggle, started in Dandi on April the 6th. From here, writing in a letter, he notified the British Viceroy of his resolve of marching towards the salt mounds of Dharasana.

The British government arrested him at this location, after twelve o'clock on the night of the 4 May 1930.

Translation (provided at location) —

Gandhiji's hut-Karadi

Here under the mango tree in the hut made of palm leaves (khajoori) Gandhiji stayed from 14-4-1930 to 4-5-1930 after the world famous Dandi march. From here he gave impetus to the civil disobedience movement for breaking the salt act started on April 6 at Dandi and turned it into a nationwide movement. It was also from this place that he wrote a letter to the British viceroy expressing his firm resolve to march to the salt works at Dharasana.

This is the place from where he was arrested by the British government after midnight on May 4, 1930.

Influence on other languages[link]

As well as words taken by other languages, Gujarati may have exterted a large influence on Saurashtra, since it is the region of which they are named from and are speculated to have migrated from is a Gujarati speaking area; early Sinhala and Divehi speakers may have migrated from Gujarat; this is supported by a Gujarati contribution in their genetics.

Gujarati also has similarities to Konkani.

Bibliography[link]

This article's further reading may not follow Wikipedia's content policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive, less relevant or many publications with the same point of view; or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations. (February 2010)

Dictionaries[link]

• Belsare, M.B. (1904) An etymological Gujarati-English Dictionary.
• Deshpande, P.G. (1974) Gujarati-English Dictionary. Ahmadabad: University Granth Nirman Board.
• Deshpande, P.G. (1982) Modern English-Gujarati Dictionary. Bombay: Oxford University Press.
• Deshpande, P.G. & Parnwell, E.C. (1977) Oxford Picture Dictionary. English-Gujarati. Oxford University Press.
• Deshpande, P.G. (1988) Universal English-Gujarati Dictionary. Bombay: Oxford University Press.
• Mehta, B.N. & Mehta, B.B. (1925) The Modern Gujarati-English Dictionary.
• Platts, J.T. (1884), A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English, London: W. H. Allen & Co, http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/platts/ .
• Suthar, B. (2003) Gujarati-English Learner's Dictionary (1 Mb)
• Turner, Ralph Lilley (1966), A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, London: Oxford University Press, http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/soas/ .

Grammars[link]

• Cardona, George (1965), A Gujarati Reference Grammar, University of Pennsylvania Press .
• Taylor, G.P. (1908), The Student's Gujarati Grammar, New Delhi: Asian Educational Services .
• Tisdall, W.S. (1892), A Simplified Grammar of the Gujarati Language, http://www.archive.org/details/simplifiedgramma00tisdiala .

Courses[link]

• Dave, Jagdish (1995), Colloquial Gujarati (2004 ed.), Routledge, ISBN 0-415-09196-9 .
• Gujarati Literary Academy UK (1985), Text Books 1 to 5 (1985 ed.), Navabharat Sahitya Mandir Mumbai .
• Dwyer, Rachel (1995), Teach Yourself Gujarati, London: Hodder and Stoughton, http://www.racheldwyer.com/publications.html .
• Lambert, H.M. (1971), Gujarati Language Course, Cambridge University Press .

Phonology[link]

• Dave, T.N. (1931), "Notes on Gujarati Phonology", Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 6 (3): 673–678, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1356-1898%281931%296%3A3%3C673%3ANOGP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W .
• Firth, J.R. (1957), "Phonetic Observations on Gujarati", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 20 (1): 231–241, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0041-977X%281957%2920%3A1%2F3%3C231%3APOOG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P .
• Mistry, P.J. (1997), "Gujarati Phonology", in Kaye, A.S, Phonologies of Asia and Africa, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns .
• Pandit, P.B. (1961), "Historical Phonology of Gujarati Vowels", Language 37 (1): 54–66, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-8507%28196101%2F03%2937%3A1%3C54%3AHPOGV%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R .
• Turner, Ralph Lilley (1921), "Gujarati Phonology", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society: 505–544 .
• Turner, Ralph Lilley (1915), "Indo-Aryan Nasals in Gujarati", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society: 1033–1038 .

Overviews[link]

• Cardona, George; Suthar, Babu (2003), "Gujarati", in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh, The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5, http://books.google.com/books?id=jPR2OlbTbdkC&pg=PA659&dq=indo-aryan+languages .
• Dalby, Andrew (1998), "Gujarati", Dictionary of languages: the definitive reference to more than 400 languages, New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-11568-7 .
• Mistry, P.J. (2003), "Gujarati", in Frawley, William, International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, 2 (2nd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press .
• Mistry, P.J. (2001), "Gujarati", in Garry, Jane; Rubino, Carl, An encyclopedia of the world's major languages, past and present, New England Publishing Associates .

Old Gujarati[link]

• Bender, E. (1992) The Salibhadra-Dhanna-Carita: A Work in Old Gujarati Critically Edited and Translated, with a Grammatical Analysis and Glossary. American Oriental Society: New Haven, Conn. ISBN 0-940490-73-0
• Brown, W.N. (1938), "An Old Gujarati Text of the Kalaka Story", Journal of the American Oriental Society 58 (1): 5–29, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0279%28193803%2958%3A1%3C5%3AAOGTOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6 .
• Dave, T.N. (1935) A Study of the Gujarati Language in the XVth Century. The Royal Asiatic Society. ISBN 0-947593-30-6
• Tessitori, L.P. (1914–1916) "Notes on the Grammar of Old Western Rajasthani." Indian Antiquary. 43-45.

Other[link]

• Gajendragadkar, S.N. (1972), Parsi Gujarati, Bombay: University of Bombay .
• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005), "Gujarati", Ethnologue: Languages of the World (15th ed.), Dallas: SIL International, http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=guj .
• Masica, Colin (1991), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2, http://books.google.com/books?id=J3RSHWePhXwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=indo-aryan+languages .
• Mistry, P.J. (1996), "Gujarati Writing", in Daniels; Bright, The World's Writing Systems, Oxford University Press .

External links[link]

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Gujarati

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gujarati

Gujarati language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Gujarati Online Dictionary & Language Resources
• Gujarati phrasebook at Wikitravel
• UCLA Language Materials Project: Gujarati
• Gujarati Wiktionary
• Gujarati to Hindi Translator (Online)
• Origin of Gujarati Language(in Gujarati)
• Gujarati Video
• Bharatiya Bhasha Jyoti: Gujarati —a textbook for learning Gujarati through Hindi from the Central Institute of Indian Languages.

References[link]

v t e Official languages of India Union-level Hindi English State-level Assamese Bengali Bodo Chhattisgarhi Dogri English Garo Gujarati Hindi Kannada Kashmiri Khasi Kokborok Konkani Maithili Malayalam Manipuri Marathi Mizo Nepali Oriya Punjabi Rajasthani Sanskrit Santali Sindhi Telugu Tamil Urdu

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2008)

Dr Meena Shah (Born in 1954) is an Indian healthcare consultant. A doctor by profession, she is the founder of Medico-Media - India's largest Health & Media company. Her Motto is "Health by Choice, not by Chance". Since 1992,she is an active proponent of proactive and holistic healthcare among individuals, women and children focussed on physical, mental, emotional and social well being. She inspires a healthy lifestyle; improving capabilities and productivity by small and specific lifestyle changes.

Life[link]

Born into a business family, Dr Meena Shah finished her M.B.B.S and specialized in pediatrics. In 1977, she relocated to Zambia, where she served as a doctor in the Copper Mines Hospital in Kitwe. In 1978, she served in the children's cancer ward in Plymouth, UK and eventually settled in Ahmedabad, Gujarat - India, in 1980. From 1980 to 1992, she had a private practice as a pediatrician and was a visiting doctor in numerous hospitals such as Civil Hospital, V.S Hospital, Rajasthan hospital and more. Trained in pre-natal care, she started the first Prenatal and childbirth training classes in Ahmedabad. Since 1982, over 3000 women have benefited from her training. She created "Creation" - a pregnancy care, exercise and childbirth video especially for the Indian audience in partnership with Cadilla. She also began healthy cooking classes - "Eat-Fit" to teach healthy cooking without sacrificing taste. This led to her creating numerous low calorie recipes for "Sweet & Low" low calorie sweetener, Amul dairy and others. Since 1992, she has used all her experiences and training to promote healthcare for people (Individuals, women and children) from all strata in the society via organized seminars, books, articles, videos, TV and other media.

In 2000, she partnered with the Municipal Corporation of Ahmedabad and Johnson & Johnson to train the Nurses of public hospitals in effective care of pregnant women and infant care.

In 2010, She founded Namaste Life Healthcare foundation for prevention of chronic lifestyle diseases. Under the Aegis of Namaste Life, she conducted numerous workshops for school children and teachers to promote healthy lifestyle and positive attitude. In Ahmedabad, she conducted a series of 25 programs in 25 municipal schools of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

She is a regular guest speaker on TV channel TV9 as well

Achievements[link]

• Conducted over 2500 workshops for Government, Non-Government & Educational Institutes to promote preventative health care that includes fitness, nutrition, stress management, yoga, Blood Pressure care, Diabetes care, Heart care and occupational tailored to specific audiences

• Participated & coordinated more than 1500 TV shows on Health (ON Zee TV, E TV, and Doordarshan)

• Produced more than 50 VCDs & CD Roms for preventative health care, knee care, heart care and more

• Written hundreds of articles on healthcare, pregnancy care and child care in various publications

• Trained thousands of women in prenatal classes

• Works actively with pharmaceutical companies for health promotion and communication

• Conducted stress management seminars for over 20,000 displaced people in the aftermath of the earthquake in Gujarat in 2001

• Recipient of Award for Best Documentary on pregnancy “Matrutva Na Marge” by Government of Gujarat

• Set up Non Profit foundation Namaste Life Healthcare Foundation in 2010 for prevention and management of chronic lifestyle diseases and health and wellness for all. Namaste Life conducted over 200 workshops in the first year

References[link]

• Health Seminar for Gujarat Legislators Republished from Asian Age newspaper

• Antenatal and Postnatal training for Municipal Nurses

External links[link]

• www.medico-media.net
• www.DrMeenaShah.com

Russell Peters
Russell Peters in 2009
Birth name	Russell Dominic Peters
Born	(1970-09-29) September 29, 1970 (age 41) Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Medium	Stand-up, Television, Film, Radio
Nationality	Canadian
Years active	1989–present
Genres	Satire, Improvisational comedy, Black comedy
Subject(s)	Racism, Race relations, Stereotypes, Multiculturalism, Indian culture
Influences	George Carlin,[1] Steve Martin, Cheech and Chong,[2] Don Rickles,[3] Eddie Murphy
Spouse	Monica Diaz (2010–2012) 1 child
Website	RussellPeters.com

Russell Dominic Peters (born September 29, 1970)^[4] is a Canadian comedian, actor and disc jockey. He began performing in Toronto in 1989 and has been nominated for four Gemini Awards.

Early life[link]

Russell Peters was born in Brampton, Ontario, Canada to Eric and Maureen Peters. His family is of Anglo-Indian ancestry and is Catholic.^[4] His father was born in Bombay, Maharashtra, India, and worked as a federal meat inspector; he is regularly mentioned and featured in his comedy work.^[5] His mother was born in Calcutta, West Bengal, India. He has an older brother named Clayton who was born in Calcutta.^[6] Russell attended Chinguacousy Secondary School for grades 9–10, and North Peel Secondary School for grades 11–12 in Brampton.^[7][8][9]

Career[link]

Peters began performing in Toronto in 1989. Peters' popularity extends to several countries. He has since also performed in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Afghanistan, Sweden, South Africa, India, the Caribbean, Philippines, Vietnam, mainland China, Canada, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, France, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Norway, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Trinidad among other places.

Peters attribute performance he did on the Canadian TV comedy series Comedy Now! that was uploaded onto YouTube and became viral.^[10] While the initial video upload featured his performance in its 45 minute entirety, subsequent videos uploaded by other YouTube users were snippets of that performance, chopped into each of the cultural groups he targeted. According to Peters, those snippets made their way to those specified cultural groups, and were well received by them.^[11]

Notable performances[link]

In Canada, Peters became the first comedian to sell out Toronto's Air Canada Centre,^[12] with more than 16,000 tickets in two days for the single show. He ended up selling over 30,000 tickets nationally over the two-day sales period. A total of over 60,000 tickets were sold across six cities.^{[citation needed]} His show in Sydney, Australia on 15 May 2010 had an audience of 13,880, making it the largest stand-up comedy show in Australian history.^[13] He broke a UK comedy sales record at London's O2 Arena when he sold over 16,000 tickets to his show on 2009.^[14]

He hosted the Canada Day Comedy Festival 2006. Peters participated in a USO tour of Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Africa and Greenland in November 2007 with Wilmer Valderrama and Mayra Veronica.^[15]. Peters also currently produces and stars on the radio situation comedy series, Monsoon House, on CBC Radio One.

Peters was the host of the 2008 Juno Awards televised ceremonies in Calgary on April 6, 2008,^[16] for which he won a Gemini Award for "Best Performance or Host in a Variety Program or Series". The 2008 awards broadcast received the second-highest ratings ever for the program. He was asked to host the Juno Awards for a second year in a row. The 2009 Juno Awards took place in Vancouver on March 29, 2009.

Publications[link]

His comedy special Russell Peters: Outsourced, aired on Comedy Central on August 16, 2006. The DVD version features his uncensored performance. The DVD has been popular, especially in Canada, selling over 100,000 copies. Outsourced remained on the National DVD Chart over one and a half years after release. Peters released a second DVD/CD combo Russell Peters: Red, White, and Brown in Canada in September 2008 and in the US on January 27, 2009. The DVD/CD was recorded on February 2, 2008, at The WAMU Theatre at Madison Square Garden. Peters and his brother, Clayton Peters, who is also his manager, self-produced and financed Red, White and Brown. In May 2011, Peters released Russell Peters: The Green Card Tour a live performance recorded in front of a total audience of 30,000 over a two-night performance at O2 Arena in London, England.^[17]

On October 26, 2010, Peters released his autobiography, Call me Russell, co - written with his brother Clayton and Dannis Koromilas.

Earnings[link]

According to Forbes.com, Peters earned an estimated $15 million between June 2009 and June 2010, continuing his run as one of the highest-paid comedians after earning an estimated $5 million in the prior year's report. He was ranked as the 7th highest paid comedian by Forbes.^[18][19]

Comedic style[link]

Russell Peters' stand-up performances are mostly made up of observational comedy where he uses humour to highlight racial, ethnic, class and cultural stereotypes. He often refers his own life experiences growing up in an Indian family and impersonates various English accents of different groups in his act to poke fun at each group. As Peters told an audience in San Francisco, "I don't make the stereotypes, I just see them."^[20] Russell Peters uses his minority status to allow him to poke fun at different races in his performance, but according to an interview done for The National, he does not intend to put down or offend different races and cultures, but instead tries to raise them up through humour.^[21]

Peters' is widely known for his comedy punchlines "Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad" in which he tells a joke about his childhood with a traditional Indian father who would use corporal punishment and “Be a man!" while imitating an Asian trying to get him to pay more for an item at a shop.^[22]

Personal life[link]

Peters proposed to girlfriend Monica Diaz on July 10, 2010, at the Los Angeles International Airport. He announced the engagement via Twitter.^[23][24] The couple married on August 20, 2010 at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. The wedding was attended by about 20 guests, including an Elvis impersonator. Peters and Diaz had their first child, a girl, who was due to be born on February 23, 2011. When announcing the pregnancy, Peters told The Canadian Press, "Did I get married because she was knocked up? I would say that expedited it." His daughter was born two and a half months early (on December 14, 2010), but was healthy as Peters stated on his Twitter. She was given the name Crystianna Marie Peters.

Peters lives in Los Angeles and owns two homes there. He also owns homes in Las Vegas and Vaughan, Ontario.^[25]

Filmography[link]

Television and film appearances[link]

Peters has appeared in a few films, most recently in the 2011 Canadian-Punjabi movie titled Speedy Singhs alongside Camilla Belle, Anupham Kher, and Vinay Virmani. He has also appeared in Senior Skip Day starring Larry Miller, Tara Reid, and Gary Lundy. Besides this, he has also had short appearances in the 1994 film Boozecan as Snake's Friend, the 1999 film Tiger Claws III as Detective Elliott, the 2004 film My Baby's Daddy as the obstetrician, the 2006 film Quarter Life Crisis as Dilip Kumar, the 2007 film The Take as Dr. Sharma, and the 2008 film Senior Skip Day as Uncle Todd.

Peters starred in a Christmas special,A Russell Peters Christmas aired in Canada on 1 December, 2011. Guests included Michael Bublé, Pamela Anderson, Jon Lovitz among others.^[27]

He also acted in Duncan Jones's movie Source Code as Max, an amateur comedian with a bad attitude, and is scheduled to star as "Pervius" in National Lampoon's The Legend of Awesomest Maximus.^[28]

Acting roles – television

• "Comics Without Borders" (2008)
• Russell Peters: Red, White and Brown (2008)
• Senior Skip Day/High School's Day Off (Australia title) (2008)- Uncle Todd
• Bob's Burgers - "Moody Foodie" (Season 2, Episode 7) - Tran

Appearances on television

• "A Russell Peters Christmas" - Himself (1 December 2011)
• "Lopez Tonight" - Himself (2010)
• "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" – Himself (2009)
• "The 9th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards" (2008)- Himself (Winner – Best Large Venue Stand-up)
• "CBC News: The Hour" .... Himself – Episode dated 18 September 2008 (2008) TV episode .... Himself
• "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" – Himself – Episode dated 15 February 2008 (2008)
• "Def Comedy Jam" – Episode #8.4 (2008) TV episode – Himself/Comedian
• "Pulse: The Desi Beat" – Episode #1.9 (2007) TV episode – Himself
• "Video on Trial" – Episode #3.3 (2007) TV episode – Himself
• "Comics Unleashed" – Episode #1.6 (2009) TV episode- Himself
• The 4th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards (2039) – Himself
• The 5th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards (2004) – Nominee (Male Stand-up)
• MTV Cribs (Where he featured on two different episodes)
• "8 out of 10 Cats" (Season 12, Episode 9)

Self

• Heckler (2007)
• Let's All Hate Toronto (2007)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Russell Peters (26 July 2011). Call Me Russell. Random House Digital, Inc.. ISBN 978-0-385-66965-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=Man0-BpnFjkC&pg=PP1. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Russell Peters

• Russell named first Toronto ambassador