GUJARATI and RAJASTHANI LANGUAGES, two members of the western subgroup of the intermediate group of Indo-Aryan languages (q.v.). (See HINDUSTANI.) The two lan guages are closely connected and might almost be termed co-dia lects of the same form of speech. Together they occupy an al most square block of country, some 400m. broad, reaching from near Agra and Delhi on the river Jumna to the Arabian sea. Gu jarati (properly Gujarati) is spoken in Gujarat, the northern maritime province of the Bombay Presidency, and also in Baroda and the native States adjoining. Rajasthani (properly Rdjas thdni from "Rdjasthdn," the native name for •Rajputana) is spoken in Rajputana and the adjoining parts of Central India.
Gujarati is an intermediate language derived from a mixture of the forms of Saurastri and Sauraseni, in which the latter predominated. On the other hand, on the east and north-east it has Rajasthani, into which it merges so gradually and imperceptibly that at the conventional border-line, in the State of Palanpur, the inhabitants of Rajputana say that the local dialect is a form of Gujarati, while the inhabitants of Gu jarat say that it is Rajasthani.
Language.—Gujarati has no important local dialects, but there is considerable variation in the speeches of different classes of the community. Parsees and Muslims (when the latter use the language—as a rule the Gujarat Muslims speak Hindustani) have some striking peculiarities of pronunciation, the most notice able of which is the disregard by the latter of the distinction be tween cerebral and dental letters. The uneducated Hindus do not pronounce the language in the same way as their betters, and this difference is accentuated in northern Gujarat, where the lower classes substitute e for i, c for k, ch for kit, s for c and ch, h for s, and drop h as readily as any cockney. There is also (as in the case of the Muslims) a tendency to confuse cerebral and dental consonants, to substitute r for d and 1, to double medial conso nants, and to pronounce the letter a as d, something like the a in "all." The Bhils of the hills east of Gujarat also speak a rude Gujarati, with special dialectic peculiarities of their own, further mixed with corruptions of Marathi idioms in Nimar and Khan desh, where we have almost a new language.
Rajasthani has numerous dialects, each State claiming one or more of its own. All Rajasthani dialects can, however, be easily classed in four well-defined groups, a north-eastern, a southern, a western and an east-central. The north-eastern (Mewati) is that form of Rajasthani which is merging into the Western Hindi of the Midland. It is a mixed form of speech. Similarly, the southern (Malvi) is much mixed with the neighbouring Bundeli form of Western Hindi. The western (Marwari) spoken in Mar war and its neighbourhood, and the east-central (Jaipuri) spoken in Jaipur and its neighbourhood, may be taken as the typical Rajasthani dialects.
(Abbreviations :—Skr. =Sanskrit. Pr. = Prakrit. Ap. = Apa G.=Gujarati. R.=Rajasthani. H.=Hindostani.) Vocabulary.—The vocabulary of both Gujarati and Rajasthani is very free from tatsama words. The great mass of both vocab ularies is tadbhava (see INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES). Gujarati has perhaps more tatsasna words than Rajasthani, but their employ ment is not excessive. On the other hand, Parsees and Muslims employ Persian and Arabic words with great freedom ; while, ow ing to its maritime connections, the language has also borrowed occasional words from other parts of Asia and from Europe. This is specially marked in the strange dialect of the Kathiawar boat men who travel all over the world as lascars on the great steam ships: Their language is a mixture of Hindustani and Gujarati with a heterogeneous vocabulary.
Phonetics.—With a few exceptions, the sound-system of the two languages is the same as that of Sanskrit (q.v.). The sibilants s and are colloquially pronounced h (as in several outer lan guages), especially in the north. An original aspirate is, however, often dropped. Standard G. is fond of pronouncing an h where it is not written, as in ame, we, pronounced ahme. In other respects both G. and R. closely, agree in their phonetical systems with the Apabhramsa form of Sauraseni Prakrit from which the Midland language is derived.
Declension.—Gujarati retains the neuter gender of Sanskrit and Prakrit. Moreover, the neuter gender is often employed to indicate living beings of which the sex is uncertain. In R. there are only sporadic instances of the neuter, which grow more and more rare as we approach the Midland. Nouns in both G. and R. may be weak or strong. Long forms corresponding to the Eastern Hindi ghorawa, a horse, are not much used, but we frequently meet another long form made by suffixing a pleonastic termina tion in R., where it is used contemptuously. In G. and R. this termination in -a has survived, but for all nouns as the case sign of the agent and locative cases. The general oblique case is the same as the nominative, except in the case of strong masculine and neuter nouns in o and it respectively. This -a-termination is char acteristic of the outer band of languages, and is derived from the Apabhramsa genitive form in -aha.
In G. the nominative and oblique plural for all nouns are formed by adding o to the oblique form singular, but in the neu ter strong forms the oblique singular is nasalized. The real plural is the same in form as the oblique singular in the case of mas culines, and as a nasalized oblique singular in the case of neuter strong forms, and the added o is a further plural termination, making a double plural, which is often dropped. In R. the nomi native plural of masculine nouns is the same in form as the oblique case singular, and the oblique plural ends in a. The fem inine has a both in the nominative and in the oblique plural.
The general oblique case can be employed for any case except the nominative, but, in order to define the meaning, it is customary to add postpositions.
Strong adjectives agree with the nouns they qualify in gender, number and case. Weak adjectives are immutable.
Pronouns closely agree with those found in Hindustani.
Conjugation.—The old present has survived as in Hindustani and other Indian languages. The derivation of the G. i plural is unknown. The imperative closely follows but as usual has no termination in the second person singular.
In R. the future may be formed by adding go (cf. Hindustani ga), to or la to the old present. The go and In agree in gender and number with the subject, but lã is immutable. Another form of the future has s or h for its characteristic letter, and is the only one employed in G.
In G. the infinitive is simply the neuter of the future passive participle. The participles are employed to form finite tenses. If the verb is transitive the passive meaning of the past participle comes into force. The subject is put into the case of the agent, and the participle inflects to agree with the object, or, if there is no object, is employed impersonally in the neuter (in G.) or in the masculine (in R.). In Hindustani, if the object is expressed in the dative, the participle is also employed impersonally, in the masculine; in G. and R., even if the object is in the dative, the past participle agrees with it. The idiom of R. is exactly the same, except that the masculine must be used where G. has the neuter. The future passive participle is construed in much the same way, but the subject may be put into the dative.
G. also forms a past participle in elo (calelo), one of the many survivals of the outer language.
The usual verbs substantive are as follows : G. chi, R. his or cliu, I am, which are conjugated regularly as old presents, and G. Kato, R. ho or cho, was, which is a past participle, like the Hindu stani (q.v.) tho. The use of this base is one of the outer band sur vivals. Using these as auxiliaries the finite verb makes a whole series of periphrastic tenses. A present definite is formed by con jugating the old present tense (not the present participle) with the present tense of the verb substantive. In G. and R., however, the imperfect is formed with the present participle as in H. So, as in H., we have a perfect and a pluperfect. The R. periphrastic tenses are made on the same principles. With the genitive of the G. future passive participle, we have a kind of gerundive. The same series of derivative verbs occurs in G. and R. as in H. Thus, we have a potential passive (a simple passive in G.) formed by adding a to the base, and a causal by adding av or ad. A new passive may be formed in G. from the causal. Several verbs have irregular past participles. The compound verbs are numerous.
An important side of Gujarati literature is its bardic chronicles. Modern Gujarati literature mostly consists of translations or imitations of English works. An investigation of the Rajputana Bardic Chronicles was undertaken by L. P. Tessitori under the auspices of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, but was brought to an abrupt conclusion by the death of the writer after he had pub lished some contributions to the Journal of the Society.
ix. of the Linguistic Survey of India con tains a full and complete account of Gujarati and Rajasthani, includ ing their various dialectic forms.
For Rajasthani, see S. H. Kellogg, Grammar of the Hindi Language (2nd ed., 1893). In this are described several dialects of Rajasthani. See also Ram Karn Sarnia, Marwari V yakarana (Jodhpur, 19o') (a Marwari grammar written in that language), and G. Macalister, Speci mens of the Dialects spoken in the State of Jaipur (contains specimens, vocabularies and grammars) (Allahabad, 1898) . See also "Notes on the Grammar of the Old Western Rajasthani" by L. P. Tessitori in Indian Antiquary, 1914-15 (vols. xliii.–xiv.) For Gujarati, there are numerous grammars, amongst which we may note W. St. C. Tisdall, Simplified Grammar of the Gujarati Language (5892) and (the most complete) G. P. Taylor, The Student's Gujarati Grammar (2nd ed., Bombay, Igo8). As for dictionaries, the most authoritative is the Narma-ko.l of Narmada Sankar (Bhaunagar and Surat, 1873), in Gujarati throughout. For English readers we may mention Shahpurji Edalji's (2nd ed., Bombay, 1868), the introduction to which contains an account of Gujarati literature by J. Glasgow, Belsare's (Ahmedabad, 1895), and Karbhari's (Ahmedabad, 1899)