Dhatki language

Dhatki (धक्ती; ڌڪتي), also known as Dhati (धत्ती; ڌتّي) or Thari (थारी; ٿَري), is one of the Rajasthani languages of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.^[3] It is most closely related to Marwari.

Speakers

Dhatki/Dhati is spoken in western parts of Jaisalmer and Barmer districts of Rajasthan in India and eastern parts of Sindh province of Pakistan by about 2,000,000 people in all. Some Dhatki-speaking communities migrated to India in 1947 after the independence and continued to do so in small numbers after that date, but the great majority of Dhatki speakers still reside in Pakistan. Dhatki/Dhati is spoken by these communities:

• Thari Maheshwaris
• Rajputs
• Charan
• Sodha
• Khatri
• Malhi
• Suthar
• Hindu Bajeer
• Sonara
• Meghwal
• Bhil
• Garasiya

The majority speakers of Dhatki language live in Umerkot District and Tharparkar District in Sindh, Pakistan. 80% of the language's speakers are Muslim's, 15% are Hindu and the remaining 5% practice traditional desert religions (often folk variations of Vedic Hinduism).

Phonology

Dhatki has implosive consonants, unlike other closely related Rajasthani languages but like the neighbouring (but more distantly related) Sindhi language. It is likely that these consonants developed in the language from contact with more culturally dominant Sindhi speakers. Aside from this, its phonology is much like other Indo-Aryan languages:

Notes

1. Marginal and non-universal phonemes are in parentheses. /ɽ/ is lateral [ɺ̢] for some speakers (Masica 1991:98).
2. /ɣ/ is post-velar.^[4]

Dhakti has a fairly standard set of vowels for an Indo-Aryan language: [ə aː ɪ iː ʊ (sometimes: u) uː eː oː ɛː ɔː]. The vowel ʊ may be realized as a short u and the vowel ɪ may be realized as a short i. The vowel ɛː is often realized as the diphthong əiː based and context or as an æː based on the speaker's accent. The vowel ɔː is often realized as the diphthong əuː based and context. Nazalized vowels occur word finally in Dhakti, they are: [ĩː ẽː ɛ̃ː ɑ̃ː ɔ̃ː õː ũː].

Samples

A few of the typical sentences in Dhatki are:

• [tũ ki to kəɾẽ] "What are you doing?",
• [tɑd͡ʒo nɑ̃ ki əhɛ] "What is your name?",
• [mɪnɑ ɾoʈi kʰɑɲi əhɛ] "I have to eat" (Literally translates to "I have to eat roti).
• [tũ kɪtʰ pjo d͡ʒɑẽ] "where are you going?
• [tũ kɪẽ əhɪẽ] "How are you?".

Writing System

The language uses two major writing systems. In India, the Devanagari script (which is also used for Marwari, Hindi and many other north Indian languages) is employed; whereas is in Pakistan, the Sindhi script is used. Some mercantile families, particularly on the Indian side of the border use their own scripts, usually variations of the Mahajani script.

References