Rajasthani language

Rajasthani (Devanagari: राजस्थानी) refers to a group of Indo-Aryan languages spoken in the states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh in India. It is also spoken in parts of the neighbouring provinces of Sindh and Punjab in Pakistan. The Rajasthani linguistic sphere is usually sectioned into four major language groups: Rajasthani, Marwari, Malvi, and Nimadi. Each of these languages contains numerous dialects. Rajasthani is one of the two major language strains descended from Old Gujarati, AKA Maru-Gujar or Maruwani, the other being modern Gujarati.

History

Old Gujarati or Maru-Gurjar or Maruwani or Gujjar Bhakha (1100 AD–1500 AD), ancestor of Gujarati and Rajasthani, was spoken by the Gurjars in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Texts of this era display characteristic Gujarati features such as direct/oblique noun forms, post-positions, and auxiliary verbs. It had three genders as Gujarati does today, By around 1300 CE a fairly standardised 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 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]. 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).