Dhatki language

Dhatki (धाटकी; ڍاٽڪي), also known as Dhatti (धाटी; ڍاٽي) or Thari (थारी; ٿَري), is one of the Rajasthani languages of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.^[2] Dhatki is closely related to Sindhi and Marwari both.

Dhatki
धाटकी ڍاٽڪي Dhatki धाटीڍاٽي Dhatti थारी ٿَري Thari
Native to	Pakistan and India (Marwar region of Rajasthan and Thar region of Sindh)(sociolect)
Ethnicity	Thari
Native speakers	150,000 (2000)^[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Western Rajasthani Marwari Dhatki
Writing system	Devanagari, Mahajani, Arabic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mki
Glottolog	dhat1238
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Speakers

Dhatki/Dhati has two major dialects Jaisalmeri and the other one spoken in tharparker, Jaisalmeri is spoken in western parts of Jaisalmer and Barmer districts & Southern part of Jalore district of Rajasthan, India and other in eastern parts of Sindh, Pakistan. 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:

• The Tharis
• Kunbhar
• Thari Maheshwaris
• Rajputs
• Rajpurohit
• Charan
• Sodha
• Khatri
• Malhi
• Suthar
• Bajeer
• Sonara
• Meghwal
• Behil
• Harijan
• Garasiya

The majority speakers of Dhatki language live in Umerkot District and Tharparkar District in Sindh, Pakistan. 60% of the language's speakers are Muslims, 35% are Hindu and the remaining 5% practice traditional folk religions.

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:

Dhakti consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	(ɳ)^1	(ɲ)^1	(ŋ)^1
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t̪	ʈ	tʃ	k	(q)^1
	voiceless aspirated	pʰ	t̪ʰ	ʈʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ
	voiced	b	d̪	ɖ	dʒ	ɡ
	voiced aspirated	bʱ	d̪ʱ	ɖʱ	dʒʱ	ɡʱ
Implosive	voiced	ɓ	ɗ		ʄ	ɠ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	(ʂ)^1	ʃ	(x)^1
	voiced		z			(ɣ)^1,2		ɦ
Flap	plain		ɾ	(ɽ)^1
	voiced aspirated			(ɽʱ)^1
Approximant		ʋ	l	ɭ	j

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.^[3]

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:

• [tu ki karin piyo?] "What are you doing?", [Hoon Ayye Pano parhan Payo] "I am reading this Page.",
• [tanjo naalo ki aheyy?] "What is your name?",
• [mina roti kharie aheyy] "I have to eat" (Literally translates to "I have to eat roti).
• [tu kith jaeen to?] "where are you going? [Kithe Konhi] "Nowhere.",
• [tu kein aheen?] "How are you?". [Hoon Theek Ahan] "I am Fine",

{Tu Kun aheen?}-"who 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

1. Dhatki at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. "Dhatki".
3. Kachru (2006:20) harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFKachru2006 (help)