Kutchi language
| Kutchi | |
|---|---|
| કચ્છી / ڪڇي/ کچھی | |
| Native to | India, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, USA, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Portugal, UAE, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania. |
| Ethnicity | Kutchi |
|
Native speakers
|
873,000 (2001) |
| Khojiki script, Devanagari script, Gujarati script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | kach1277 |
Kutchi (/ˈkʌtʃiː/) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Kutch region of the Indian state of Gujarat as well as in the Pakistani province of Sindh. The name of the language is also transliterated as Kutchhi, Kachchi, Kachhi or Cutchi.
Kutchi is a language spoken in parts of India and Pakistan. It has borrowed some vocabulary from Gujarati. Most Kutchis living in India are bilingual or trilingual, due to exposure to closely related neighbouring languages such as Gujarati. Many Pakistanis are also bilingual or trilingual; many residents of Karachi speak Kutchi. It is a unique language in itself especially in the way it is spoken and has many common words from Marwari (Rajasthan) as well. It is spoken by the Kutchi people specifically, these are the Rajputs Jadeja, Bhanushalis, Lohanas, Brahmins (Rajgor Gnayathy : Bhuj), Megvals, Visa Oswal and Dasa Osval (Oshwal) Jains, followers of satpanth, Bhatias, Rabaris and various Muslim communities in the region, including the Muslim Kutchi Khatris, the Muslim Khojas and Kutchi Memons. Kutchi is often thought to be a mixture of Sindhi, Gujarati, and Rajasthani.
By way of emigration during the British reign many members of Kutchi communities left India / Pakistan and settled in regions of East Africa such as Kenya, Uganda, Zaire/Congo, Tanzania, and even far south as South Africa. The landing point of entry into Africa was in Zanzibar which was a trading post of goods between Indian and East Africa in the early 1900s.
There are distinct regional accents and variations in grammar. As in many languages spoken along Asian trade routes, there is substantial borrowing from Persian and Arabic—words like "duniya" (world), and "nasib" (fate), are routinely used by many speakers of Kutchi. Many Kutchi speakers also speak Gujarati as a separate language, especially as it is the language in which Kutchi speakers customarily write. Kutchi speakers' Gujarati accent and usage tends towards standard forms that any Gujarati speaker would be able to understand.
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Wikipedia