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Kutchi
કચ્છી / کچھی Kachhi
Native to	India, Pakistan, Trinidad And Tobago, UK, USA, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Portugal, UAE, Kenya, Tanzania and others.
Native speakers	866,000  (1997)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northwestern Zone Sindhi Kutchi
Writing system	Devanagari script, Gujarati script[dubious – discuss]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kfr
This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Kutchi (also spelt Cutchi, Kutchhi or Kachchhi; Gujarati: કચ્છી, Sindhi: ڪڇي, Hindi: कच्छी , Urdu: کچھی‎) is an Indo-Aryan Language spoken in the Kutch region of the Indian state of Gujarat as well as in the Pakistani province of Sindh.

Closely related languages [edit]

Kachhi is similar to the Sindhi, spoken in neighboring Sindh, Pakistan and parts of India. It has borrowed some vocabulary from Gujarati, because the Kutch District is geographically between Sindh and Gujarat.

Most Kachhis living in India are bilingual or trilingual, due to exposure to closely related neighbouring languages such as Gujarati. Many Pakistanis are also bilingual or trilingual; many residents of Karachi speak Kutchi.^{[citation needed]}

Kutchi is also understood by speakers of the Memoni dialect, spoken by individual belonging to the Memoni ethnicity within Pakistan and India, so much so that they could have an entire conversation with only a few words of difference. The grammatical structure is generally the same and thus, could be understood by most Memons, be they Batwa Memon, Dhoraji Memon, or any other sub-group of Memons.

Common words and phrases [edit]

There are distinct regional accents and variations in grammar. As in many languages spoken along Asian trade routes, there is substantial borrowing from Persian and Arabic—words like "duniya" (world), and "nasib" (fate), are routinely used by many speakers of Kachhi. Many Kachhi speakers also speak Gujarati as a separate language, especially as it is the language in which Kachhi speakers customarily write. Kachhi speakers' Gujarati accent and usage tends towards standard forms that any Gujarati speaker would be able to understand.

The following words are commonly used by Hindu individuals of descending from the Kutch rural area of Gujarat, India, who, especially if in east Africa, reject Kachhi. These are colloquial forms of general Gujarati phrases that are often used in daily conversation in villages, particularly of the Kachhi predominance and are Gujaratisized versions of Kachhi words. An example of such follows:

Haaiya/chhadyo hane (Gujarati Bas chhodo have : now drop it)

Achento/Vineto ( Gujarati - Aavu(n)' chhu(n)' / Jaau(n)' chhu(n)' : I am coming / going)

Kichdi Khaayo taa? (Gujarati - Kichdi khaao chho? : Do you eat Kichdi?)

Writing system [edit]

Kachhi is normally written using a modified version of the Gujarāti script.^{[dubious – discuss]} Many books and magazines are published the language using the modified Gujarāti script, including Vadhod ("Inquiry"). Kachhi is also written in the Devanagari script by some speakers.^{[dubious – discuss]} In earlier times it was written in Khojki script, which is now extinct. Recently, Dr Rajul Shah, an ayurvedic doctor, psychologist and a graphologist has created a script to use for the language. [1][2][3] Many people in the area feel that the Dholavira script is their Kutchi heritage and believe it may have been used to write their language.^{[citation needed]}

There are examples of the Kutchi script in the Kutch Museum that is believed to be now extinct.

Well known Kutchi speakers [edit]

• revolutionary, lawyer, and journalist Pandit Shyamji Krishna Varma
• Father of Kutchi poetry Shri Duleray Karani
• Legendary Bollywood music directors Kalyanji Anandji
• Famous voice over artist of India Harish Bhimani
• Father of Gujarati poetry Pir Sadardin
• Fahmida Mirza, first female Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan.
• Leading industrialist Azim Premji
• music director Viju Shah
• His Highness the Aga Khan
• 36th Mayor of Calgary Naheed Nenshi
• Bollywood director and producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah
• Pakistani Playback singer Khursheed Nurali (Sheerazi)
• Salim Merchant
• Sulaiman Merchant
• Shekhar from the music duo Vishal-Shekhar
• Poet and Song Writer Aly Sunderji
• International pop star Farahri
• Music producers Irfaan & Mehboob Manji
• Peace advocate Aziz Khaki
• Developer of Sonique Al-Riaz Adatia
• Professor Shafique Virani
• Professor Azim Nanji
• Harvard professor Ali Asani
• Member of Parliament Mobina Jaffer
• Founder of Salaam^{[disambiguation needed]} El-Farouk Khaki
• Director Ian Iqbal Rashid
• Member of Provintial Parliament Murad Velshi
• Lawyer Alykhan Velshi
• CNN Broadcaster Ali Velshi
• CTV Broadcaster Omar Sachedina
• TSN^{[disambiguation needed]} Broadcaster Nabil Karim
• Pakistani artist Gulgee
• Sculptor and jewelry designer Amin Gulgee
• President & CEO of Serebra Taleeb Noormohamed
• Host of 1 Girl 5 Gays & MTV host Aliya Jasmine Sovani
• Music composer Amin Bhatia
• Faisal Devji

See also [edit]

• Kutchi Memon
• Memoni language
• Oswal
• Bhatia
• Lohana
• Lohani
• Khojki

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Kutchhi Maadu
• Kutchhi Portal

Kutchi language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

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