The Kutchi language is one of the oldest languages of India. The language bears it’s existence from the Indus Valley, the oldest human civilizations of Mohenjo-Daro, Dholavira and Harappa and there is enough evidence of the language being spoken since then. In the olden days, Kutch was a great State of Sindh.

 

Present Day..

Kutchi is included in the list of languages spoken in India.It is estimated that in India alone, there are 8,73,000 people who speak Kutchi. Kutchi is also spoken in the Sindh province of Pakistan and has a lot in common with the Sindhi language. Since Kutch is a part of modern-day Gujarat, the education imparted in primary schools across Kutch is usually in the Gujarati language. A major reason for this is because the Kutchi language does not have its own script.This also makes most Kutchis living in India, bilingual or trilingual.

The language is also spoken outside Kutch, in places such as Mumbai. Predominantly, people hailing from Abdasa, Mandvi and Bhuj speak kutchi. The kind of kutchi spoken by people from Bhachau and Rapar is slightly different than the others. The reason being their spoken kutchi has a heavy influence of the Gujarati language.The Kutchi language is often misunderstood as a dialect but it has been given the status of one of the official languages of India.

By way of emigration during the British reign many members of the Kutchi community left India / Pakistan and settled in regions ofEast Africa such as Kenya, Uganda, Zaire/Congo, Tanzania, and even far south as South Africa. Kutchis have also settled in Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, United States, Malawi, Mozambique, Portugal, United Arab Emirates and Oman. This has taken the fascinating language of Indo-Aryan origin to a lot many people who further nurtured more nativespeakers of the language.

 

What makes the Kutchi language so fascinating and different from others is the usage of “single letter words”. While one must take the effort of using more than two letters to form certain words in other languages, the kutchi language offers its speaker the usage of “single letters” to form words and convey themselves impeccably! These words are usually used to describe money, relationships, names of animals and birds.

 

It is believed that the kutchi script has gone through various phases like Dholavira lipi(script) to Sanskrit lipi(fully developed and rich) to Devnagari lipi (part of Sanskrit lipi ) to Khojki lipi (for a short time in history) to Devnagari lipi and Gujarati lipi (both subsets or derived from Sanskrit lipi) as currently.But it seems the Dholavira script and Sanskrit (devanagari) script could possibly be the true scripts of Kutchi Language.

 

 

Below is an example of the kutchi language in the Devnagri lipi. This is found on the tomb stones at the Bada Baghchatris ; the royal cenotaphs of the rulers of Jaisalmer. The chhatris were built in mid-1700s.

 

Several scholars and afficionado of the language have made attempts to revive it by working on the lost script. One such attempt has been made by Dr. Rajul Shah, an ayurvedic doctor, psychologist and a graphologistfrom Ahmedabad. Till she developed the script, India had 26 recognised scripts of writing. Dr. Shah developed the 27th script, the kutchi script.

Dr. Rajul Shah displaying a sample of the Dholavira Kutchi lipi developed by her.

Below are some examples of kutchi words for our readers who may not speak the kutchi language.

Gujarati / Kutchi / English (in the order)

૧. ગાય–ગોં – cow

૨. ભેંસ–મે – buffalo

૩. બકરી–પોં – goat

૪. દીકરી–ધી – daughter

૫. ભાઇ–ભા – brother

૬. પિતાજી–પે – father

૭. પુત્રવધૂ–નોં – daughter in law

૮, ત્રણ–ત્રે – three

૯. નવ–નૉ – nine

૧૦. દસ–ડૉ – ten

૧૧. વીસ–વી – twenty

૧૨. ત્રીસ–ત્રી – thirty

૧૩. ટાઢ–સી – cold

૧૪. વરસાદ–મીં – rain

૧૬. ડર, બીક–ધ્રા – fear

૧૮. બેસ–વૅ – sit

૧૯. કેમ–કીં – why?

૨૦. મારી–મું – my

૨૧. તેમ–તીં – like that

૨૨. એમ–ઈં – like this

૨૩. જેમ–જીં – like

૨૪. કહે–ચૉ – says

૨૫. કહું ~ ચાં – I say

 

It is upon us bhatia samaaj to discover and use words from the kutchi language in our daily vocabulary. This will not only help keep the native kutchi language speaking culture alive but also help grow the range of our beautiful mother tongue! The whole purpose of this article is to encourage the usage of kutchi language at home.