Gujarati

Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat and spoken predominantly by the Gujarati people. The Gujarati language is more than 700 years old and is spoken by more than 55 million people worldwide. As of 2011, Gujarati is the 6th most widely spoken language in India by number of native speakers, spoken by 55.5 million speakers which amounts to about 4.5% of the total Indian population. Outside of Gujarat, Gujarati is spoken in many other parts of the Indian states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, and also in Bangladesh, Fiji, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Oman, Pakistan, Réunion, Singapore, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, United Kingdom, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Gujarati Script

The Gujarati script was adapted from the Devanāgarī script to write the Gujarati language. The earliest known document in the Gujarati script is a manuscript dating from 1592, and the script first appeared in print in a 1797 advertisement. Until the 19th century it was used mainly for writing letters and keeping accounts, while the Devanāgarī script was used for literature and academic writings.

Notable Features

• The Gujarati script is also known as the śarāphi (banker's), vāṇiāśāi (merchant's) or mahājani (trader's) script.
• Gujarati is a syllabic alphabet in that consonants all have an inherent vowel.
• Vowels can be written as independent letters, or by using a variety of diacritical marks which are written above, below, before or after the consonant they belong to.
• Used to write: Gujarati and Kutchi

Gujarati alphabet

Gujarati numbers (ગુજરાતી આંકડાઓ)

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