Gujarati language

Lore & Background

Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat and spoken predominantly by the Gujarati people. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Indian Union and serves as the official language of Gujarat, as well as the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. As of 2011, it ranked as the sixth most widely spoken language in India by native speakers, with 55.5 million speakers, representing about 4.5% of the total Indian population. Globally, it was the 26th most widely spoken language by native speakers as of 2007. Along with Meitei, it holds third place among the fastest-growing languages in India, following Hindi and Kashmiri, according to the 2011 census. Outside Gujarat, it is spoken by migrants in South Asia, notably in Mumbai and Karachi, and by a large diaspora in North America, Europe, Southeast Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. In the United Kingdom, Gujarati is the fourth most commonly spoken language in London. Historically, the language descended from Old Gujarati, which itself evolved from Prakrit and was spoken by the Gujjars, who resided and ruled in Gujarat, Punjab, Rajputana, and central India. A formal grammar of its precursor, Gurjar Apabhraṃśa, was written by the Jain monk Acharya Hemachandra Suri during the reign of Chaulukya king Jayasimha Siddharaja. The transition from Old to Middle Gujarati involved major phonological changes, including the development of i and u to ə in open syllables and the shift of diphthongs to ɛ and ɔ. Defining characteristics include a split ergativity syntax, a complex agreement system, and the development of periphrastic tense, voice, and mood constructions.

Reader's Guide

Gujarati holds significance as a major language of India and the global Gujarati diaspora. Outside India, Gujarati is widely spoken in Pakistan (especially Karachi), the United Kingdom (where it is the fourth most common language in London), North America (fastest-growing Indian language in the US and Canada), and Southeast Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, South Africa). The diaspora includes communities in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and Middle Eastern countries such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Mahatma Gandhi's use of Gujarati for literary expression helped inspire a renewal in its literature. The language is offered as a GCSE subject in the UK, and a study found that only 19% of Gujarati parents felt children would be better off with English, indicating strong language preservation efforts. Non-Gujarati residents of Gujarat, including Kutchis and Parsis, also speak it.

Did You Know?

• Along with Meitei, Gujarati holds third place among the fastest-growing languages of India, following Hindi and Kashmiri.
• Gujarati is the fourth most commonly spoken language in London, UK.

Historical Lineage & Linguistic Evolution

Gujarati traces its roots back to Sanskrit, passing through the Middle Indo-Aryan stage of Prakrits and Apabhramshas before crystallizing into a modern New Indo-Aryan language. During the Old stage, the language already displayed hallmark features like direct and oblique noun forms, postpositions, and auxiliary verbs, and it maintained three grammatical genders. The Middle period marked Gujarati's definitive split from Rajasthani, introducing the phonemes ɛ and ɔ, the auxiliary stem ch-, and the possessive marker -n-. In the Modern era, the most visible shift was the dropping of the final schwa, giving the language its characteristic consonant-final words, while a new plural suffix -o emerged. Across all stages, broader Indo-Aryan trends—such as the reduction of geminate consonants, the loss of final vowels, and the coalescence of adjacent vowels into diphthongs—shaped Gujarati's sound system alongside these distinctive innovations.

Demographic Weight & Rapid Growth

With approximately 55.5 million native speakers—roughly 4.5 percent of India's total population—it ranks as the sixth most widely spoken language in the nation. Gujarati holds constitutional recognition as one of India's twenty-two scheduled languages and serves as the official language of the state of Gujarat, the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu. This rapid expansion underscores the language's vitality and the expanding communities that carry it forward, both within the subcontinent and well beyond its borders.

A Global Tongue – The Diaspora Footprint

Well beyond the borders of Gujarat, Gujarati has established a remarkable global presence through centuries of migration. Within South Asia, significant communities in Mumbai and Karachi keep the language alive in everyday use. In North America, Gujarati has become one of the fastest-growing Indian languages in both the United States and Canada, with particularly strong concentrations in New Jersey and New York City. Across the Atlantic, Gujarati speakers form the second-largest South Asian speech community in Britain, and the language ranks as the fourth most commonly spoken in London. In East and Southern Africa, Gujarati is widely heard in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and South Africa, a legacy of historic trade and settlement. Smaller but notable communities also maintain the language in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and Gulf states including Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. This scattered yet resilient diaspora has turned Gujarati into a truly transcontinental language, spoken on every inhabited continent.

Old Gujarati & the Rajasthani Debate

The earliest documented phase of Gujarati, spanning roughly the twelfth to fifteenth centuries, was spoken by the Gujjars, a people who held political authority across Gujarat, Punjab, Rajputana, and parts of central India. Literary texts from this era already exhibit the direct/oblique noun system, postpositions, and auxiliary verbs that define the modern language, and the three-gender structure persisted. Yet the very name of this stage remains contested. Many scholars favor the label Old Western Rajasthani, arguing that Gujarati and Rajasthani had not yet diverged into separate languages. This position was reinforced by an earlier, now-discredited observation that certain Rajasthani dialects appeared to express a neuter gender—a misreading of the nasalized [ũ] sound that developed in some regions from masculine [o] after a nasal consonant, which was incorrectly likened to Gujarati's genuine neuter [ũ]. A formal grammar of the precursor stage, Gurjar Apabhraṃśa, was composed by the Jain scholar Acharya Hemachandra Suri during the reign of the Chaulukya king Jayasimha Siddharaja of Anhilwara (Patan), providing a crucial window into the language's formative period.