Art. XXVIII.—Note on the principal Rājasthānī Dialects

Extract

There are many closely related dialects spoken in Rājputānā. No less than fifteen variations of the local speech have been counted in the Jaipur State alone. Omitting minor local variations, I have a list of sixteen real dialects spoken over the area in which Rājasthānī is a vernacular. An examination of them shows that they fall into four main groups, which may be called Mēwātī, Mālwī, Jaipurī, and Mārwārī. These may be considered as the four main dialects of the Rājasthānī language. I propose in this note to show the principal grammatical forms of these four, and to show their connection with the border languages, Western Hindī and Gujarātī. It may be taken as a general statement that Rājasthānī is a language intermediate between these two, and partaking of the characteristics of both. On the whole it is nearer Gujarātī than Western Hindī.