LWM 385: Shekhawati

Shekhawati

Lakhan Gusain
Centre of Rajasthani Studies, Purabsar

Shekhawati is a dialect of Rajasthani language of Indo-Aryan family and is spoken by about three million speakers in Churu, Jhunjhunu and Sikar districts of Rajasthan. Though a very important dialect from the grammatical and literary points of view, yet very little work is carried out on it.

This grammar describes basic information on the phonology, morphology, syntax of the language. In addition there is a short text with interlinear tranlation. The introduction remarks outline a geographic and sociolinguistic sketch of the Shekhawati and its speakers, linguistic relations with other dialects of Rajasthani. The chapter on phonology includes vowels, consonants, diphthongs and suprasegmentals. The murmur vowels are highlighted. Retroflexion is an important feature. The chapter on morphology describes nominal and verbal morphology. There are two numbers, two genders, and three cases. Nouns are declined to their final segments. Case marking is postpositional. The third person pronouns are distinguished on the proximity/remoteness dimension in each gender. Adjectives either end in /-o/ or not. There are three tenses and four moods. Intransitive verbs can be passivised. The chapter on syntax describes sentence types, word order, coordination, subordination, and particles. Free and interlinear translations are used in the chapter of sample text.

ISBN 9783895863998. Languages of the World/Materials 385. 88pp. 2001.