The grammar of the Gujarati language is the study of the

word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...

, case marking, verb conjugation, and other morphological and

syntactic In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency) ...

structures of the

Gujarati language Gujarati (; gu, ગુજરાતી, Gujarātī, translit-std=ISO, label=Gujarati script, ) is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat and spoken predominantly by the Gujarati people. Gujarati is descended from Old G ...

, an Indo-Aryan language native to the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

n state of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

and spoken by the

Gujarati people The Gujarati people or Gujaratis, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who reside in or can trace their ancestry or heritage to the present-day western Indian state of Gujarat. They primarily speak Gujarati, an Indo-Aryan language. While ...

. This page overviews the grammar of standard Gujarati, and is written in a

romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...

(see '' Gujarati script#Romanization''). Hovering the mouse cursor over forms will reveal the appropriate

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

translation Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

Nominals

Nouns

Gujarati has three

genders Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures us ...

, two numbers, and three

case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component * Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books * Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to ca ...

s (

nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Eng ...

oblique Oblique may refer to: * an alternative name for the character usually called a slash (punctuation) ( / ) *Oblique angle, in geometry *Oblique triangle, in geometry * Oblique lattice, in geometry * Oblique leaf base, a characteristic shape of the b ...

/ vocative, and to a certain extent,

locative In grammar, the locative case ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...

). Nouns may be divided into

declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and ...

al subtypes: marked nouns displaying characteristic

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...

termination Termination may refer to: Science *Termination (geomorphology), the period of time of relatively rapid change from cold, glacial conditions to warm interglacial condition *Termination factor, in genetics, part of the process of transcribing RNA ...

s, and unmarked nouns which do not. These are the paradigms for the termination — Two things must be noted about the locative case and its limited nature. First, it only exists as a case for masculines and neuters, which is why the corresponding feminine cell has been left blanked out. Rather, for marked feminine and unmarked nouns the locative is a ''

postposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

'', which are explained on later in the article. Second, there is no distinction of gender. Furthermore, there also exists in Gujarati a

plural The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...

marker -''ઓ'' (''o''). Unlike the

English plural English nouns are inflected for grammatical number, meaning that, if they are of the countable type, they generally have different forms for singular and plural. This article discusses the variety of ways in which English plural nouns are formed ...

it is not mandatory, and may be left unexpressed if plurality is already expressed in some other way: by explicit numbering,

agreement Agreement may refer to: Agreements between people and organizations * Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law * Trade agreement, between countries * Consensus, a decision-making process * Contract, enforceable in a court of law ** Meeting ...

, or the above declensional system (as is the case with nominative marked masculines and neuters). And yet despite the declensional system, ''ઓ'' (''o'') often gets tacked onto nominative marked masculine and neuter plurals anyway. This redundancy is called the ''double plural''. Historically, the origin of this suffix is murky, but it is certainly morphological rather than lexical. It is new (18th century) and it is not attested in

Old Gujarati Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

, Middle Gujarati, and

Old Western Rajasthani Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

. It may simply be the case that it spread from an unrepresented

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

. Thus combining both the declensional and plural suffixes, the following table outlines all possible Gujarati noun terminations — The next table, of noun declensions, shows the above suffix paradigms in action. Words: ''છોકરો (chhokro)'' " boy", ''ડાઘો (ḍāgho)'' "

stain A stain is a discoloration that can be clearly distinguished from the surface, material, or medium it is found upon. They are caused by the chemical or physical interaction of two dissimilar materials. Accidental staining may make materials ap ...

", ''મહિનો (mahino)'' " month", ''કચરો (kacro)'' " rubbish", ''છોકરું (chhokrũ)'' "

child A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person young ...

", ''કારખાનું (kārkhānũ)'' "

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...

", ''બારણું (bārṇũ)'' "

door A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security b ...

", ''અંધારું (andhārũ)'' " dark", ''છોકરી (chhokrī)'' "

girl A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a ''woman''. However, the term ''girl'' is also used for other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.c ...

", ''ટોપી (ṭopī)'' "

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

", ''બાટલી (bāṭlī)'' "

bottle A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal s ...

", ''વીજળી (vījḷī)'' "

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describe ...

", ''વિચાર (vichār)'' "

thought In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, an ...

", ''રાજા (rājā)'' "

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

", ''ધોબી (dhobī)'' " washerman", ''બરફ (baraf)'' " ice", ''ઘર (ghar)'' "

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air cond ...

", ''બહેન (bahen)'' " sister", ''મેદાન (medān)'' " field", ''પાણી (pāṇī)'' "

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...

", ''બાબત (bābat)'' "

matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic part ...

", ''નિશાળ (niśāl)'' "

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes co ...

", ''ભાષા (bhāṣā)'' "

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

", ''ભક્તિ (bhakti)'' " devotion". *The last entry of each gender category is a

mass noun In linguistics, a mass noun, uncountable noun, non-count noun, uncount noun, or just uncountable, is a noun with the syntactic property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete elemen ...

. *Some

count noun In linguistics, a count noun (also countable noun) is a noun that can be modified by a quantity and that occurs in both singular and plural forms, and that can co-occur with quantificational determiners like ''every'', ''each'', ''several'', e ...

s are averse to taking the plural marker: ''bhāg'' " portion(s), ''dā̃t'' "

tooth A tooth ( : teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, ...

(/teeth)", ''pag'' "

foot The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg mad ...

(/feet)", ''caṇā'' "

chick pea The chickpea or chick pea (''Cicer arietinum'') is an annual legume of the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. Its different types are variously known as gram" or Bengal gram, garbanzo or garbanzo bean, or Egyptian pea. Chickpea seeds are ...

s", etc. *Regarding nouns that terminate in ''ī'': **Rather than marking femininity, ''ī'' can sometimes denote vocation or attribute, most often in indicating (male) persons: ''ādmī'' "man" (lit. "of '' Ādam''"), ''baṅgāḷī'' "

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

", ''śāstrī'' "scholar" (lit. "

scripture Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual pra ...

-ist"), ''hāthī'' "

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantida ...

" (lit. "

hand A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the koala (which has two opposable thumbs on each "h ...

-y"), ''ṭapālī'' "

postman A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier (in American English), sometimes colloquially known as a postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), is an employee of a post ...

". **Some ''male'' relations end in ''āī'': ''bhāī'' "

brother A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-famili ...

", ''jamāī'' "

daughter A daughter is a female offspring; a girl or a woman in relation to her parents. Daughterhood is the state of being someone's daughter. The male counterpart is a son. Analogously the name is used in several areas to show relations between groups ...

husband A husband is a male in a marital relationship, who may also be referred to as a spouse. The rights and obligations of a husband regarding his spouse and others, and his status in the community and in law, vary between societies and cultures ...

", ''vevāī'' "child's father-in-law". **Some derive from neuter Sanskrit ''-iyam'', ''-ījam'', etc.: ''pāṇī'' "water", ''marī'' "

black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in dia ...

", ''bī'' "

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosper ...

". *Many feminine Sanskrit

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because ...

s end in ''ā''. i.e. ''bhāṣā'' "language", ''āśā'' "hope", ''icchā'' "intention". *Many Sanskrit loanwords orthographically end in ''i'', though in Gujarati there is now no phonetic difference between ''i'' and ''ī'', so those words could just as well be held as marked feminines. *In the end, unmarked nouns probably outnumber marked ones, though many marked nouns are highly frequent. Marked or not, the bases of the gender of nouns are these — *# Biological: animates. Thus a ''chokrī'' "girl" is feminine, a ''baḷad'' "bull" is masculine, etc. *# Perceived: animates. Some animals have the propensity to be addressed and cast as being of one gender over the others, across the board, regardless of the biological gender of the specific organism being referred to. Thus spiders are masculine: ''karoḷiyo'', cats feminine: ''bilāṛī'', and rabbits neuter: ''saslũ''. These three can be cast into other genders if such specificity is desired, but as explained that would be deviation from the default rather than a scenario of three equally valid choices. *# Size. An object can come in differently gender-marked versions, based on size. Masculine is big, getting smaller down through neuter and then feminine; neuter can sometimes be

pejorative A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...

. Hence, ''camco'' "big spoon" and ''camcī'' "small spoon", and ''vāṛko'' "big bowl" and ''vāṛkī'' "small bowl". The same can apply to animates (animals) that fall under the second rule just above. One would think ''saslo'' to be "male rabbit", but it's more so "big rabbit". *# For the rest there is no logic to gender, which must simply be memorized by the learner. ''irādo'' "intention (m)", ''māthũ'' "head (n)", and ''mahenat'' "effort (f)" are neither animates possessing biological gender nor a part of a set of differently-sized variants; their gender is essentially inexplicable.

Adjectives

Adjective In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ...

s may be divided into declinable and indeclinable categories. Declinables are marked, taking the appropriate declensional termination for the noun they qualify. One difference from nouns however is that adjectives do not take the plural marker ''-o''. Neut. nom. sg. (''-ũ'') is the

citation form In morphology and lexicography, a lemma (plural ''lemmas'' or ''lemmata'') is the canonical form, dictionary form, or citation form of a set of word forms. In English, for example, ''break'', ''breaks'', ''broke'', ''broken'' and ''breaking'' ...

. Indeclinable adjectives are completely invariable. All adjectives can be used either attributively, predicatively, or substantively. *Examples of declinable adjectives: ''moṭũ'' "big", ''nānũ'' "small", ''jāṛũ'' "fat", ''sārũ'' "good", ''kāḷũ'' "black", ''ṭhaṇḍũ'' "cold", ''gā̃ṛũ'' "crazy". *Examples of indeclinable adjectives: ''kharāb'' "bad", ''sāf'' "clean", ''bhārī'' "heavy", ''sundar'' "beautiful", ''kaṭhaṇ'' "hard", ''lāl'' "red".

Comparatives and superlatives

Comparisons are made by using "than" (the

''thī''; see below) or "instead of" (''nā kartā̃''), and "more" (''vadhu'', ''vadhāre'', etc.) or "less" (''ochũ''). The word for "more" is optional, while "less" is required, denoting that in the absence of either it's "more" than will be inferred. In the absence of an object of comparison ("more" of course is now no longer optional):

Superlative Comparison is a feature in the morphology or syntax of some languages whereby adjectives and adverbs are inflected to indicate the relative degree of the property they define exhibited by the word or phrase they modify or describe. In languages ...

s are made through comparisons with "all" (''sau''). Or by leading with ''mā̃'' "in" postpositioned to the same adjective.

Postpositions

The sparse Gujarati case system serves as a springboard for Gujarati's grammatically functional

s, which parallel

preposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

s. It is their use with a noun or verb that is what necessitates the noun or verb taking the oblique case. There are six, one-

syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological ...

primary postpositions. Orthographically, they are bound to the words they postposition. *''નું (nũ)'' –

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can a ...

marker; variably declinable in the manner of an adjective. X ''નો(no)/નું(nũ)/ની(nī)/ના(nā)/નાં(nā̃)/ને(ne)'' Y has the sense "X's Y", with ''નો(no)/નું(nũ)/ની(nī)/ના(nā)/નાં(nā̃)/ને(ne)'' agreeing with Y. *''એ (e)'' – ergative marker; applied to subjects of transitive

perfective The perfective aspect ( abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the i ...

verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...

s. *''ને (ne)'' – marks the indirect

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ...

(hence named "

dative In grammar, the dative case ( abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob ...

marker"), ''or'', if

definite In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical ...

, the direct object. *''થી (thī)'' – has a very wide range of uses and meanings: **"from"; ''બરોડાથી (Baroṛāthī)'' "from

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...

". **"from, of"; ''તારાથી ડરવું (tārāthī ḍarvũ)'' "to fear of you, to fear you". **"since"; ''બુધવારથી (budhvārthī)'' "since Wednesday". **"by, with";

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...

marker. **"by, with, -ly";

adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...

ial marker. **"than"; for

comparative general linguistics, the comparative is a syntactic construction that serves to express a comparison between two (or more) entities or groups of entities in quality or degree - see also comparison (grammar) for an overview of comparison, as well ...

s. *''એ (e)'' – a general

, specifying senses such as "at", "during", etc. It is also used

ially. As detailed previously, for the masculine and neuter genders it is a

termination, however to marked feminine and unmarked nouns it is a postpositional addition. *''પર (par)'' – "on". *''માં (mā̃)'' – "in". Postpositions can postposition other postpositions. For example, ''થી (thī)'' (as "from") suffixing the two specific locatives can help to specify what type of "from" is meant (''પરથી (parthī)'' "from off of", ''માંથી (mā̃thī)'' "from out of"). Beyond this are a slew of compound postpositions, composed of the genitive primary postposition ''નું (nũ)'' plus an adverb. *''નાં અંગે (nā aṅge)'' "with regard to, about"; ''ની અંદર (nī andar)'' "inside"; ''ની આગળ (nī āgaḷ)'' "in front (of)"; ''ની ઉપર (nī upar)'' "on top (of), above"; ''ના કરતાં (nā kartā̃)'' "rather than"; ''ને કારણે (ne kāraṇe)'' "because of"; ''ની જોડે (nī joḍe)'' "with"; ''ની તરફ (nī taraph)'' "towards"; ''ની તરીકે (nī tarīke)'' "as, in the character of"; ''ને દરમિયાન (ne darmiyān)'' "during"; ''ની નજીક (nī najīk)'' "near, close to"; etc. The genitive bit is often optionally omissible with nouns, though not with pronouns (specifically, not with first and second person genitive pronouns, because, as will be seen, they have no outward, distinct, separable ''નું (nũ)'').

Pronouns

Personal

Gujarati has

personal pronoun Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...

s for the first and second persons, while its third person system uses

demonstrative Demonstratives ( abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular fram ...

bases, categorized deictically as proximate and distal. The language has a

T–V distinction The T–V distinction is the contextual use of different pronouns that exists in some languages and serves to convey formality or familiarity. Its name comes from the Latin pronouns '' tu'' and '' vos''. The distinction takes a number of forms ...

in ''તું (tũ)'' and ''તમે (tame)''. The latter "formal" form is also grammatically plural. A similar distinction also exists when referring to someone in the third person. Rare among modern

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, P ...

, Gujarati has

inclusive and exclusive we In linguistics, clusivity is a grammatical distinction between ''inclusive'' and ''exclusive'' first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called ''inclusive " we"'' and ''exclusive "we"''. Inclusive "we" specifically includes the addressee ...

, ''આપણે (āpṇe)'' and ''અમે (ame)''. * ''તેઓ (teo)'' and its derivatives are quite rarely spoken and only very formally. More so it's ''તે લોકો (te loko)'' (lit. those people). The same goes for ''આઓ (āo)'' and ''જેઓ (jeo)'' and their derivatives. * ''લોકો (loko)'' can be used to emphasize plurality elsewhere: ''આપણે લોકો (āpṇe loko)'', ''અમે લોકો (ame loko)'', ''તમે લોકો (tame loko)''. * The initial ''ત (t)'' in distal forms is mostly dropped in speech; ''એ (e)'', ''એનું (ɛnũ)'', ''એમનું (ɛmnũ)'', etc. * Second person formal ''આપ (āp)'' is borrowed from

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

and might be used in rare, ultra-formal occasions (i.e. addressing a crowd). * The system is regular for the remaining three postpositions (''માં (mā̃)'', ''પર (par)'', ''થી (thī)''), which suffix to an obliqued genitive base (invariably to ''આ (ā)''): ''મારા (mārā)'', ''આપણા (āpṇā)'', ''અમારા (amārā)'', ''તારા (tārā)'', ''તમારા (tamārā)'', ''આના (ānā)'', ''આઓના (āonā)'', ''આમના (āmnā)'', ''તેના (tɛnā)'', ''તેઓના (teonā)'', ''તેમના (tɛmnā)'', ''જેના (jɛnā)'', ''જેઓના (jeonā)'', ''જેમના (jɛmnā)'', ''કોના (kɔnā)'', ''શેના (śɛnā)''. For inanimates with ''માં (mā̃)'', the genitive bit gets omitted: ''આમાં (āmā̃)'', ''એમાં (emā̃)'', ''જેમાં (jemā̃)'', ''શેમાં (śemā̃)''. *''અમે (ame)'', ''અમને (amne)'', ''તમે (tame)'', ''તમને (tamne)'', ''તેણે (tɛṇe)'', ''તેમણે (tɛmṇe)'', ''તેને (tɛne)'', ''તેમને (tɛmne)'', ''જેણે (jɛṇe)'', ''જેમણે (jɛmṇe)'', ''જેને (jɛne)'' also occur with murmured vowels. *In speech ''શું(śũ)'' is most often not variable with regards to gender and number. It does have the oblique ''શે (śɛ)'', and although ''શા (śā)'' exists, it is rarely heard outside the phrase ''શા માટે (śā māṭē)'', meaning why (lit. for what reason). *In speech, all words beginning with a ''શ (ś)'' are often heard as if only with a ''સ (s)''. Many speakers consider the ''શ (ś)'' to sound pedantic, however in writing, ''સું (śũ)'' and all other correspondingly spelled forms appear uneducated or rural. *In speech, all words containing an ''એ (ɛ)'' are also heard as if with and ''e''. There would be no corresponding Gujarati spelling difference. *In speech, ''આપણે (āpṇe)'' and all other forms are often pronounced as ''āpre'', ''āprũ'', etc. There would be no corresponding Gujarati spelling difference.

Derivates

*There is a form ''કયું (kayũ)'' which means "which?". *''કેમ (kɛm)'' doesn't mean "how" as would be expected; rather it means "why". It does however mean "how" in the greeting ''કેમ છો (kɛm cho)'' "how are you?". It may also mean "how" when in reference to a spoken ''જેમ (jɛm)'', ''તેમ (tɛm)'', or ''આમ (ām)'' by means of parallel structure. "How" is usually expressed in these ways: ''કેવી રીતે (kevī rīte)'' (lit. "in what kind of way"), ''કયી રીતે (kayī rīte)'' (lit. "in which way"), and ''કેમનું (kɛmnũ)''. *There are several other ways to say "now" in Gujarati: ''હમણાં (hamaṇā̃)'', ''અબઘડી (abghaḍī)'', ''હવે (have)'', and ''અટાણે (aṭāṇē)''. *''અત્રે/અત્ર (atre/atra)'', ''તત્રે/તત્ર (tatre/tatra)'', and ''યત્રે/યત્ર (yatre/yatra)'' may also be used to mean "here", "there" and "where", although their usage is far less common than the ones above. These are Sanskrit loanwords while the above are Sanskrit descendants. *Just as in the pronouns where ''તે (te)'' becomes ''એ (e)'' colloquially, the words ''તેટલું (teṭlũ)'', ''તેવડું (tevṛũ)'', ''તેવું (tevũ)'', and ''તેમ (tɛm)'' also often lose their initial ''ત (t)'' when spoken and even written. *''ક્યારે (kyāre)'', ''જ્યારે (jyāre)'', ''ત્યારે (tyāre)'', ''અત્યારે (atyāre)'' are composed of the

ial locative postpostion ''એ (e)'' and the bases ''ક્યાર (kyār)'', ''જ્યાર (jyār)'', ''ત્યાર (tyār)'', ''અત્યાર (atyār)''. *People often use ''કેવું (kevũ)'' to ask about or ascertain a noun's gender. For example, ''બિલાડી કેવી (bilāḍī kēvī)'', would indicate that the noun ''બિલાડી (bilāḍī)'', "cat", is feminine. *When appending postpositions such as (''માં (mā̃)'', ''થી (thī)'', ''નું (nũ)'', etc.), they are attached to the oblique forms ''ક્યાર (kyār)'', ''કેટલા (keṭlā)'', ''કેવડા (kevṛā)'', ''કેવા (kevā)'', etc. resulting in ''ક્યારથી (kyārthī)'', ''કેટલામાં (keṭlāmā̃)'', etc.

Verbs

Overview

The Gujarati

al system is largely structured around a combination of aspect and tense/ mood. Like the nominal system, the Gujarati verb involves successive layers of (inflectional) elements after the lexical base. Gujarati has 2 aspects:

and

imperfective The imperfective (abbreviated or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a ge ...

, each having overt morphological correlates. These are

participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...

forms, inflecting for gender, number, and case by way of a vowel termination, like adjectives. The perfective forms from the verb stem, followed by ''-ય(y)-'', capped off by the agreement vowel and the

forms with ''-ત(t)-''. Derived from ''હોવું (hɔvũ)'' "to be" are five copula forms:

present The present (or here'' and ''now) is the time that is associated with the events perceived directly and in the first time, not as a recollection (perceived more than once) or a speculation (predicted, hypothesis, uncertain). It is a period of ...

subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality s ...

past The past is the set of all events that occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience ...

, contrafactual (

aka Aka, AKA or a.k.a. may refer to: * "Also known as", used to introduce an alternative name Languages * Aka language (Sudan) * Aka language, in the Central African Republic * Hruso language, in India, also referred to as Aka * a prefix in the n ...

"past conditional"), and presumptive. Used both in basic predicative/existential sentences and as verbal auxiliaries to aspectual forms, these constitute the basis of tense and mood. Non-aspectual forms include the

infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is de ...

, the imperative, and the agentive. Mentioned morphological conditions such the subjunctive, contrafactual, etc. are applicable to both copula roots for auxiliary usage with aspectual forms ''and'' to non-copula roots directly for often unspecified (non-aspectual)

finite Finite is the opposite of infinite. It may refer to: * Finite number (disambiguation) * Finite set, a set whose cardinality (number of elements) is some natural number * Finite verb, a verb form that has a subject, usually being inflected or marke ...

forms.

Finite verb Traditionally, a finite verb (from la, fīnītus, past participle of to put an end to, bound, limit) is the form "to which number and person appertain", in other words, those inflected for number and person. Verbs were originally said to be ''fin ...

is with the nominative subject, except in the '' transitive perfective'', where it is with the

direct object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include b ...

, with the erstwhile subject taking the ergative construction ''-એ(e)'' (see

postpositions Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

above). The perfective aspect thus displays

split ergativity In linguistic typology, split ergativity is a feature of certain languages where some constructions use ergative syntax and morphology, but other constructions show another pattern, usually nominative–accusative. The conditions in which ergat ...

. The infinitive's agreement is also with its direct object, if paired with one. Tabled just below on the left are the paradigms for the major gender and number agreement termination (GN), nominative case. Oblique paradigms differ from those introduced in #Nouns, being either thoroughly ''-આ(ā)'' or ''આં(ā̃)''. Locative ''-એ(e)'' is found in attributive adjectival function only in fixed expressions. To the right are the paradigms for the person and number agreement termination (PN), used by the subjunctive and future. Yellow fields: -''એ (e)'' following C, ''ઉ (u)'', ''ઊ (ū)''; -''ઈ (ī)'' following ''ઓ (o)'', ''ઓ (ɔ)''; -''ય (y)'' following ''આ (ā)''.

Forms

The example verb is intransitive ''hālvũ'' "to shake", with various sample

inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and ...

s. Much of the below chart information derives from . Notes *The negation particles are ''na'' and ''nahi'' with the former standing before the copula (or if no copula, the aspectual form) and the latter generally after. A negation particle ''combines'' with present ''ch-''PN however for the invariable ''nathī''. An alternative to the past ''na hat''-GN is ''nahot''-GN. : *Gujarati retains an aspectually unmarked form (*-PN) in the function of the Present Imperfective, although a marked form () replaces it in the negative. *Gujarati does not distinguish between habitual and

continuous Continuity or continuous may refer to: Mathematics * Continuity (mathematics), the opposing concept to discreteness; common examples include ** Continuous probability distribution or random variable in probability and statistics ** Continuous g ...

. *When GN = ''ī'' then ''y'' is ''omitted''. ''hālyo'', but ''hālī''. *Some roots show vowel alternation: **''ā/a'' : ''jā/ja'' "go", ''thā/tha'' "become, occur". **''e/ɛ/a/ø'' : ''le/lɛ/la/l'' "take", ''de/dɛ/da/d'' "give". **''o/u'' : ''jo/ju'' "see, look, watch", ''dho/dhu'' "wash". **''ɔ/a/ø'' : ''hɔ/ha/h'' "be". *In northern and central Gujarat, roots in ''-ā'' regularly have ''-a-'' before ''-īś-'' of future forms. *Certain verb forms show

suppletion In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is traditionally understood as the use of one word as the inflected form of another word when the two words are not cognate. For those learning a language, suppletive forms will be seen as "irregular" or even ...

in their perfective roots: ''ga-'' (''jā'' "go"), ''kī-'' (''kar'' "do" n some dialects, ''dī-'' (''jo'' "see, look, watch" n some dialects. *Instead of the general affix ''-y-'' in their perfectives a few vowel-terminating roots take ''dh'' and ''s-''terminating roots ''ṭh''. **''dh'' : ''khā-dh-'' (''khā'' "eat"), ''dī-dh-'' (''de'' "give"), ''pī-dh-'' (''pī'' "drink"), ''lī-dh-'' (''le'' "take"), ''bī-dh-'' (''bī'' "fear"), ''kī-dh-'' (''kahe'' "say" n addition to ''kah-y-'', ''kī-dh-'' (''kar'' "do" n addition to ''kar-y-''. **''ṭh'' : ''nā-ṭh-'' (''nās'' "flee"), ''pɛ-ṭh-'' (''pɛs'' "enter"), ''bɛ-ṭh-'' (''bɛs'' "sit"), ''dī-ṭh-'' (''jo'' "see, look, watch" n addition to ''jo-y-''. **''t'' : ''sū-t-'' (''sū'' "sleep"). *The ''ha'' in the past auxiliary ''ha''-''t''-GN is omitted in speech after aspectual forms and negative ''na''. *Flexible order: ''hālto nathī'' ←→ ''nathī hālto''. *The future imperative is politer than the imperative, and using the future tense (questioningly: "will you...?") is politer still.

Causatives

Gujarati

causative In linguistics, a causative ( abbreviated ) is a valency-increasing operationPayne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 173–186. that indicates that a subject either ...

s are morphologically contrastive. Verbs can be causativized up to two times, to a double causative.

Single

Causatives are made by two main schemes involving alteration of the root. *Lengthening of final vowel; shortening of a preceding vowel (if ''ū'' is the only vowel, then → ''o''). *Final ''ṭ'' → ''ḍ''. ''or'' *Suffix ''v'' if ending in vowel or ''h''. *Shortening of vowel(s). *Suffix: ''āv'', ''āḍ'', ''v'', ''vḍāv'', or ''eḍ''. *Sometimes nasalisation (''anusvāra''). If the causativization is of a transitive, then the secondary agent, whom the subject "causes to" or "gets to" do whatever, is marked by the postposition ''nī pāse''.

Double

Furthermore, that causative can be causativized again, for a double causative ("to cause to cause... "), with a possible tertiary agent. *''ḍāv'' suffixed to 1st causative suffix of ''āv''. *''āv'' suffixed to 1st causative suffixes of ''āḍ'' and ''eḍ''. *Beyond this are irregular forms that must be memorized.

Passives

The passive has both

periphrastic In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one in ...

and morphological means of expression. The former has ''-mā̃ āvvũ'' postpositioned to infinitive; the latter has ''ā'' added to root, with certain phonological processes as work as well: if the root vowel is ''ā'' then it becomes ''a'' (''See Gujarati phonology#ɑ-reduction'') and if the root ends in a vowel then ''h'' or ''v'' is suffixed. Thus ''lakhvũ'' "to write" → ''lakhvāmā āvvũ'', ''lakhāvũ'' "to be written". The post-position ''thī'' marks the agent, As in other New Indo-Aryan languages, formation of passives is not restricted to transitive verbs and has a restricted domain of usage except in special registers. Both intransitive and transitive may be grammatically passivized to show capacity, in place of compounding with the modal ''śakvũ'' "to be able". Lastly, intransitives often have a passive sense, or convey unintentional action.

Sample text

References

Bibliography

*. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gujarati Grammar Gujarati language Indo-Aryan grammars