Saurashtra language
Saurashtra | |
---|---|
ꢱꣃꢬꢵꢰ꣄ꢜ꣄ꢬ ꢩꢵꢰꢵ சௌராட்டிர மொழி సౌరాష్ట్ర భాష सौराष्ट्र भाषा ಸೌರಾಷ್ಟ್ರ ಭಾಷೆ | |
Saurashtra Script | |
Native to | India |
Region | Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka |
Ethnicity | Saurashtrians |
Native speakers | 247,702 (2011 census)[1] |
| |
Dialects |
|
Devanagari script Latin script | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | saz |
Glottolog | saur1248 |
Saurashtra (
Saurashtra, an offshoot of
The language has its own script of the same name, but is also written in the Tamil, Telugu, and Devanagari scripts. The Saurashtra script is of Brahmic origin, although its exact derivation is not known. Unlike most of the surrounding Dravidian languages, Saurashtra is Indo-European. There is some debate amongst speakers of the Saurashtra language as to which script is best suited to the language.[4] Census of India places the language under Gujarati. Official figures show the number of speakers as 247,702 (2011 census).[5]
Classification
Saurashtra belongs to the
Etymology
According to the oral legends of the Saurashtra people, they migrated to South India from the
The name "Saurashtra" itself is from Sanskrit सौराष्ट्र (saurāṣṭra, transl. from Saurashtra), the vṛddhi form of सुराष्ट्र (surāṣṭra, transl. Saurashtra), derived from सु (su, transl. good) + राष्ट्र (rāṣṭra, transl. country, realm). Thus the name literally means "(of/from) a good country."[7]
History
The oldest available inscriptions in Saurashtra are found in
Saurashtra was once commonly spoken in the coastal areas of Mahi and Tapti rivers, which extends throughout the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh and Saurashtra region of southern Gujarat. It was also spoken by the people living along Konkan region, which extends throughout the western coasts of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka.[2]
Saurashtra is a amalgamation of various present day
Geographical distribution
Speakers of the Saurashtra language, known as
Dialects
In the course of migration, Saurashtrians moved in groups and settled in different regions of South India and that caused a slight dialect variation between each group and is noticeable by a Saurashtrian speaker when interacting with another group. Saurashtra language has two dialects, which are broadly similar, with slight variations.
The two dialects are:
However, there are numerous variations and dialects of the Saurashtra language. The different dialects can be based on the location within northern and southern parts of Tamil Nadu. Those are Madurai, Thanjavur, Salem, Tirunelveli and Kanchipuram dialects and Tirupati dialect of Andhra Pradesh.
Phonology
The phoneme inventory of Saurashtra is similar to that of many other Indo-Aryan languages, especially that of the Konkani language. An IPA chart of all contrastive sounds in Saurashtra is provided below.[8]
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | (Alveolo-)
palatal |
Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | plain | m | n̪
|
ɳ | ||||
murmured | mʱ | n̪ʱ | ||||||
Affricate
|
voiceless | p | t̪
|
t͡s | ʈ | t͡ʃ | k | |
aspirated
|
pʰ | t̪ʰ | (tsʰ) | ʈʰ | t͡ʃʰ | kʰ | ||
voiced | b | d̪
|
d͡z | ɖ | d͡ʒ | ɡ | ||
murmured | bʱ | d̪ʱ | d͡zʱ | ɖʱ | d͡ʒʱ | ɡʱ | ||
Fricative
|
s
|
ʃ | h | |||||
Approximant
|
plain | ʋ | l
|
ɭ | j | |||
murmured | ʋʱ | lʱ | ||||||
Flap/Trill
|
plain | r
|
||||||
murmured | rʱ |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i | u | |
Mid | e | ə | o |
Low | a |
Writing system
Saurashtra script
Saurashtra for most of the part had been an oral language lacking any script of its own. Around the 17th to 18th centuries some attempted to write it in Telugu script. Around 19th century a script was invented. There were attempts to revitalize the script in the latter half of the 19th century, ignoring most of the complex conjunct characters.[9]
The Saurashtra script is an abugida, that is, each letter represents a consonant+vowel syllable. There are thirty-four such letters. An unmarked letter represents a syllable with the inherent vowel [a]; letters can be marked with one of eleven vowel diacritics to represent a syllable with a different vowel. Vowel diacritics are attached to the top right corner of a base letter or written alongside it. There are also twelve letters for writing independent vowels (i.e. word-initial vowels). The four vocalic liquid letters r, ru, l and lu behave in the same way as vowels, so are often included in the vowel class.[4]
Early Saurashtra texts use a number of complex conjunct forms for writing consonant clusters. However, when the script was restructured in the 1880s these were abandoned in favour of a virama diacritic, which silences the inherent vowel of the first consonant in a cluster.[4]
The script uses a letter called upakshara, a dependent consonant sign which attaches nasals and liquids to aspirate them. That is, the letter m with upakshara attached represents [mha]. An aspirated nasal or liquid which is followed by a vowel other than [a] is written with the vowel diacritic attached to the upakshara, not to the base letter. Some analyses of the script classify aspirated nasal and liquids as a separate set of single discrete letters divided into two parts.[4]
There is a script-specific set of numbers 0–9, some of which closely resemble Devanagari digits. The widely attested Indic punctuation marks danda and double danda are used to mark the end of a sentence or clause. Latin comma, full stop and question mark symbols are also used.[4]
The letter order of Saurashtra script is similar to other Brahmic scripts. The letters are vowels, consonants, and the compound letters which are formed essentially by adding a vowel sound to a consonant.
Vowels
Consonants
Compound letters
Numerals
Devanagari script
Recently, the Saurashtrian community has largely switched to the use of the Devanagari script.[10] The alphabet chart containing vowels, consonants and the compound letters in Devanagari script are as follows:
Loanwords
The language itself is more similar to modern day
English | Saurashtra loanword | Donor-language word |
---|---|---|
"Rasam" (Tamarind extract) | Pilchar | Charu (Telugu) |
Read / Study |
Cheduvi | Chaduvu (Telugu) |
Mirror | Adhham | Adhham (Telugu) |
Flattened rice | Adkul | Atukulu (Telugu) |
Shop | Angadi | Aṅgaḍi ( Kannada )
|
Rangoli | Muggu | Muggulu (Telugu) |
Cloth | Bottal | Batte/Battalu (Kannada/ Telugu) |
Swallowing | Mingi | Miṅgaḍamu (Telugu) |
Jump | Dhungi/Dhumki | Dumuku (Kannada/ Telugu) |
Scratch | Giktha | Gīkuḍu (Telugu) |
Vehicle | Bondi/Bandi | Bandi (Kannada/ Telugu) |
Children | Pillan | Pillalu (Telugu) |
Way | Vaat | Vaat (Gujarati / Marathi ) |
Punch (blow with the fist) | Guddhu | Guddhu (Kannada/ Telugu) |
Sprinkles | Chinkul | Chinukulu (Telugu) |
Drop | Bottu | Bottu (Kannada /Telugu) |
Work | Kaam | Kaam (Gujarati/ Marathi/ Hindi) |
Monkey | Kothi | Kothi (Telugu/ Kannada) |
Milk | Dhoodh | Dūdha (Gujarati) |
Water | Pani | Pāṇī (Gujarati) |
Cow | Gaaye/Goru | Gaay (Gujarati), Gaaye (Hindi/ Marathi) |
Who | Kon | Kōṇ (Marathi/ Gujarati) |
Out | Bharad | Bahāra (Gujarati) |
Come | Aav | Āvō (Gujarati) |
Do | Ker | Karā (Marathi), Kar (Gujarati) |
Go | Jha | Jā'ō (Gujarati) |
Home | Gher | Ghar (Gujarati) |
Rice | Bath | Bhāt (Gujarati, Marathi) |
No | Nokko | Noko (Marathi) |
Sour | Ambad/Ambut | Amlo( Sanskrit ) / Ambot (Konkani)
|
Spicy | Thikke | tīkhaṭ (Marathi), Tīkhu (Gujarati) |
Curry | Amti | Amti (Marathi) |
Fog/Snow | Manchu | Man̄cu (Telugu) |
Literature
The literature of Saurashtra is not as large as the literature of other literary languages such as
Other important literary works in Saurashtra are:
- Bhagavad Gita (Bhagavat Giito) 1953 AD – written by T.R.Padmanabhaiyer
- Tirukkural (Saurashtra Thirukural Payiram—Pitika Pragaranam) 1980 AD – translated by Sankhu Ram[12]
- Mahabharata (Paandavun Khetho) 2013 AD – written by Kasin Anantham[13]
- Silappatikaram 2018 AD – translated by S.D.Gnaneswaran[14]
Besides Tirukkural, Sankhu Ram has done many literary works in Saurashtra like Gnanamritha Geetham, Shiddhashrama Prabhaavam and so on. The first Saurashtra dictionary was brought out by T.M. Rama Rai, the author of Vachana Ramayana, in 1908. It was printed in Saurashtra script and was in the form of slokas. Apart from these he is also credited for Niti Sambu and Natanagopala Nayaki Swami's Kirthanas.[9]
The
See also
- Saraostus
- Saurashtra Kingdom
- Saurashtra (region)
- Saurashtra (state)
- Saurashtra people
- Saurashtra script
- Saurashtra (Unicode block)
- Gujarati languages
References
- ^ "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues – 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ^ a b c d Paul John, Vijaysinh Parmar (2016). "Gujaratis who settled in Madurai centuries ago brought with them a unique language – Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
- ^ a b c d e "Saurashtra". Ethnologue. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
- ^ a b c d e "Script Description [Saurashtra]". ScriptSource. Retrieved 16 April 2018. Material was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.
- ^ "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues – 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ISBN 9781351558242.
- ^ Turner, Ralph Lilley (1969–1985). "súrāṣṭra". A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages. London: Oxford University Press. p. 779.
- ^ Colin Masica, 1993, The Indo-Aryan Languages
- ^ a b R. V, SOWLEE (2003). "The Hindu : Saurashtra dictionary". www.thehindu.com. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
- ^ Venkatesh, Karthik (10 June 2017). "Of little-known Indian languages and scripts". Livemint. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
- ^ ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
- ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
- ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
- ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 25 November 2018.