Dhatki language

Dhatki (धाटकी; ڍاٽڪي), also known as Dhatti (धाटी; ڍاٽي), Thari (थारी; ٿَري), is a Indo-Aryan Language of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in Tharparkar and Umerkot districts of Sindh and in Barmer district of Rajasthan.

Dhatki
धाटकीڍاٽڪي Dhatki धाटीڍاٽي Dhatti थारी ٿَري Thari
The word Dhatki written in the Sindhi alphabet (top) and the Devanagari script (bottom)
Native to	India and Pakistan (Jaisalmer and Barmer districts of Rajasthan and Tharparkar and Umerkot districts of Sindh)
Ethnicity	Tharis
Native speakers	210,000 (2018)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Western Sindhic or Rajasthani Dhatki
Writing system	Devanagari, Mahajani, Arabic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mki
Glottolog	dhat1238
Dhatki language map in blue
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Speakers

Dhatki/Dhatti is considered either related to Sindhi, or Rajasthani (Marwari).^[2] Dhatki dialects are divided into two groups Western Dhatki and Eastern Dhatki. Western Dhatki is spoken in Tharparkar, Pakistan while Eastern Dhatki is spoken along Indo-Pakistan border in Jaisalmer and Barmer districts of India. Dhatki dialects and their names are based on the regions in Tharpakar which Include: Muhrano and Samroti etc.^[3]

Speakers of Dhatki are ethnically Rajasthanis, Sindhis and Gujaratis, Dhatki language unite these people as a mother tongue under one umbrella. 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.^[2] Dhatki/Dhati is spoken by these communities:

• The Tharis
• Pushkarna Brahmins
• Kunbhar
• Maheshwaris
• Rajputs
• Rajpurohit
• Charan
• Sodha
• Khatri
• Malhi
• Suthar
• Bajeer
• Sonara
• Meghwal
• Bheel
• Harijan
• Garasiya
• Manganiar

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	ɳ1	(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	ʂ1	ʃ	x1
	voiced		z			(ɣ)1,2		ɦ
Flap	plain		ɾ	ɽ1
	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.^[4]

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 karen to?] "What are you doing?", [Hoon Ayye page parhan bio] "I am reading this Page.",
• [tahajo naalo ki aheyy?] "What is your name?",
• [mina roti khani 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?"

English	Dhatki	Sindhi	Marwari
I	Hu(n)	Ma(n)/Aao(n)	Mai(n)
You (informal)	Tu(n)	Tu(n)	Tu
My	Mahyo/Mahajo	Munjo	Mahro
Your	Tahyo/Tahajo	Tunjo	Tharo
What	Ki	Chha	Kaain
Name	Naam	Nav/Nalo	Naam
To look	Jovan/Disan	Disan	Jovan
Go	Ja	Wanj	Jawo

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 (26th ed., 2023)
2. "Linguistic Survey of India". dsal.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 15 June 2023. To sum up, we have in Southwest Marwar-Mallani and in the Thar or Dhat of Thar and Parkar and of Jaisalmer a number of forms of speech, all mixtures of Marwari and Sindhi in varying proportions. They may be considered either as dialects of Sindhi, or as dialects of Marwari.
3. Laghari, Inayat Hussain (December 2005). "Dhataki (Thari) language is sub dialect of Sindhi language". ResearchGate.
4. Kachru, Yamuna (2006). Hindi. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 20. ISBN 90-272-3812-X.