Gujari language

Gujari
Gojri, Gurjari, Gujjari
  • گُوجَری
  • गुर्जरी
Gurjari written in Takri, Perso-Arabic script (middle) and Devanagari (bottom)
Native toIndia, Pakistan, Afghanistan
Native speakers
1-2 million (2021)[1]
Takri, Perso-Arabic script, Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3gju
Glottologguja1253

Gujari (also spelt Gojri, Gujri, or Gojari; گُوجَری) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by most of the Gujjars in the northern parts of India and Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan. It is a member of the Rajasthani group of languages.[2][3]

In India, the language is spoken by 1.3 million people (as of 2011) in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, with ethnic Gujjars elsewhere having shifted to the regional languages instead. In Pakistan, there are an estimated 400,000 speakers (as of 2018) in Azad Kashmir, in Gilgit-Baltistan (Diamer and Gilgit districts), in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (the Hazara region, and northwest up to Chitral District), and in Rawalpindi District in northern Punjab. The population in Afghanistan is scattered, and numbers at 15,000 (according to a 2015 estimate).[4]

The government of the erstwhile Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir had recognized Gujari by including it in the sixth schedule of the state constitution.[5]

  1. ^ Gujari at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Gojri And Its Relationship With Rajasthani, Etc.
  3. ^ Dr. R.P. Khatana. "Gujari Language and Identity in Jammu and Kashmir". Kashmir News Network: Language Section (koshur.org). Retrieved 31 May 2007.
  4. ^ Gujari at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
  5. ^ In Jammu and Kashmir, Gujari is written right-to-left in an extension of the Persian alphabet, which is itself an extension of the Arabic alphabet. Gujari is associated with the Nastaʿlīq style of Persian calligraphy - http://jktribals.page.tl/Gojri-Language.htm Archived 26 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, http://www.merinews.com/article/writers-in-jk-seek-constitutional-safeguards-for-gojri/129813.shtml Archived 26 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine