Forum Pakistan

It belongs to the *Indo-Aryan group of the IndoEuropean family of languages and is the official language of the state of Gujarat (West India). About 42.35 million (1987) Gujarati speakers also live in Pakistan. Bhili and Kandeshi, spoken in the areas of Rajasthan and Maharashtra which border on Gujarat, may be regarded as dialect forms of Gujarati. The Gujarati language began to evolve in the twelfth century on the basis of two Late Middle Indian languages, Gurjara and Nagara Apabhransha. OriginalIy Gujarati had close affinity with Rajasthani dialects.

Towards the middle of the fourteenth century the two forms of the language were finalIy differentiated. The history of Gujarati proper dates back to the fifteenth century. The present-day literary standard language began to evolve in the second half of the nineteenth century. The structure of Gujarati is intermediate between Hindi and Marathi, but differs from both languages.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. V. Savelyeva, 'The Gujarati Language', Moscow, 1965 (in Russian); G. Cardona, 'A Gujarati Reference Grammar', Philadelphia, 1965; H.M. Lambert, 'Gujarati Language Course', Cambridge, 1971; N.B. Divetiya, 'Gujarati Bhasa ane Sahitya', Mumbai, 1964; K.K. Shastry, 'Gujarati l-»akaran Sastra', Mumbai, 1963.