JATAKI, in Baluchistan, a language spoken by the Rind, Talpur, Murree, Chandia, Jemali, and Laghari ; they speak either Jataki or the hill tongue of the Baluchi. The Jataki is also called Siraiki, from Siro or Upper Sind, where it is commonly spoken by the people ; but also Baluchi from its being used by several of the Baluch clans settled in the low country. The word Jataki, spelt with the cerebral t, and the peculiar Sind j or dj, is an adjective formed .by the proper noun Jat, the name of a people. The author of the Dabistan applies the term ' Jat dialect' to the language in which Nanak Shah composed his works. The Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Asiatic Society, 1849, contains a short Grammar, which serves as a specimen of the Jataki tongue. It is extensively used through out the province of Sind, and is spoken by pro bably one-fourth of the inhabitants. It abounds in varieties of dialects, and contains little or no original literature, except a few poetical pieces, and short tracts on, religious subjects. The
Langba or Sindi bards seem to prefer it to their own language, and man well-educated natives, especially Baluchi, have s died it critically, and composed works in it. ' ke celebrated Arabic ' hymn, generally known by the name of Dua Suryani, the Syriac or Syrian prayer, from which language it was borrowed by Ali, or, as is more generally believed, by Ibn Abbas, has been translated into Jataki, and is learned by heart as a talisman against accidents and misfortunes The Jataki dialect is usually written in the Nas talik, and sometimes in the Nashki character. In the former, the system of denoting the cerebral and other letters which do not belong to the Arabic alphabet, is the same as in Urdu.