Luwati language
Lawati | |
---|---|
Lawatiyya | |
Muscat and other cities)[1] | |
Ethnicity | Al-Lawatia |
Native speakers | 8,900 (2020)[1] |
None (words transcribed into Arabic or Persian alphabets) | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | luv |
Glottolog | luwa1238 |
ELP | Luwati |
Luwati (Al-Lawatia,
Geographic distribution and status
The Luwati language is superficially similar to
Originating from the Pakistani province of Sindh,[4] the Luwati language has had a presence in Oman for nearly four centuries.[5] The language and people were first mentioned historically by the Omani historian Ibn Ruzayq. The Lawatiya appeared to have settled in Oman in waves of immigration from Sindh between 1780 and 1880 bringing the language with them.[5] A number of historians assign an Arab pedigree to the Luwatis. The Luwati speakers inhabited the Arabian Peninsula until their displacement during the 8th century C.E. Others assert that the Luwati speakers originate in Hydrabad. The Luwatis entered Muscat as prosperous merchants and insularized themselves, for the most part, in Sūr al-Luwātiyya in Muttrah, preserving their language.[6]
Luwati is a minority language found in Oman specifically in the capital of
Phonology
Luwati phonology is simpler than that of Sindhi, having lost the breathy-voiced consonants and simplified the vowel system. All of the implosives, however, are retained.[7]
Vowels
Front | Near-front
|
Central | Near-back
|
Back | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Close | i | ɪ | ʊ | u | |
Close-mid | e | ɘ | o | ||
Mid | ə | ||||
Open-mid | ɛ | ||||
Open | a |
Consonants
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n
|
ɲ | ŋ | ||||||
Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t̪
|
ʈ | t͡ʃ | k | q | |||
aspirated | pʰ | t̪ʰ | ʈʰ | t͡ʃʰ | kʰ | |||||
voiced | b | d̪
|
ɖ | d͡ʒ | ɡ | |||||
implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ʄ | ɠ | ||||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | x | ħ | h | |||
voiced | z | ɣ | ʕ | |||||||
Semivowel | j | w | ||||||||
Liquid | lateral | l
|
||||||||
trill | r
|
Some consonants are restricted to borrowings, especially from Arabic and Persian, /x, ɣ, q, ħ, ʕ, z/.
Writing system
Luwati no longer has a writing system and is only a spoken language.[3] Its script was used by Nizari Ismailis in Punjab, Sindh, and Gujarat to produce a religious corpus.[8]
References
- ^ a b c Lawati at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Valeri, M. "Identity Politics and Nation-Building under Sultan Qaboos". Sectarian Politics in the Persian Golf. 179.
- ^ a b c Al Jahdhami, S. "Minority Languages in Oman". Journal of the Association for Anglo-American Studies. 4: 105–112.
- ^ a b Asani, A. "The Khojkī Script: A Legacy of Ismaili Islam in the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 3: 439–449.
- ^ S2CID 163083793.
- – via JSTOR.
- ^ Salman, Amel; Kharusi, Nafla S. (2012). "The Sound System of Lawatiyya". Journal of Academic and Applied Studies. 2 (5): 36-44.
- – via JSTOR.