A part of the Indo-European language family, Gujarati is one of the 22 official languages and 14 regional languages of India. Unlike most other Indian languages, Gujarati is considered relatively young, given that its origins can be traced to as late as the 12th century A.D.
Formal Gujarati grammar was introduced by Hemchandracharya, a Jain Monk and an eminent scholar. However, this was frowned upon as ‘Apabrahmsa’ grammar – a corrupt version of the formal languages of the time. Similar to other Nagari writing systems, the Gujarati script is in abugida, which is a variant of the Devanagari script.
The earliest literature of the language survives only in oral tradition and can be traced back to the Krishna devotee and great egalitarian Narasinh Mehta, in the 17th century. Gujarati poets also flourished massively during the Bhakti Movement in Hinduism.
Today, spoken Gujarati borrows considerable vocabulary from Persian, owing to the five centuries that Gujarat was under Muslim rule. These words are mostly used in reference to worldly or secular matters. Other elements of the language reflect the influence of the native tribes of specific regions. Whilst there are many dialects of Gujarati that are spoken, the standard accepted is the one spoken in the area between Baroda and Ahmadabad and further north.
There are about 46.1 million speakers of Gujarati worldwide, making it the 26th most spoken native language in the world. It is also the most western of Indo-Aryan languages, along with Sindhi and Romany. It was also the mother tongue or first language spoken by many eminent political figures such as Mohandas K. Gandhi, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Sardar Valabhbhai Patel.
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