Shekhawati - Shekhawati Dialect

Shekhawati Dialect

Shekhawati is a dialect of the Rajasthani language and is spoken by about three million speakers in the Churu, Jhunjhunu, and Sikar districts of Rajasthan. Even though it is a very important dialect from the grammatical and literary points of view, very little work is carried out on it. In 2001 A descriptive compendium of the grammar of Shekhawati has been published. Shekhawati, like the Bagri dialect of Ganganagar and Hanumangarh districts, has a parallel lexicon which make it very rich from the lexicographical point of view. Word order is typically SOV and there is an existence of implosives. The presence of high tone at suprasegmental level classify it with other dialects of Rajasthani. It has contributed a lot to the development of Rajasthani language and linguistics.

Some samples in Shekhawati are:

• Kai Hoyo? कै होयो? = What happened ?
• The Kai kar rieya ho? थे कै कर रिया हो?= What are you doing ?
• Ma Thane ghano samman desyu. मैं थाने घणो सम्मान देस्यु = I will give you great respect.
• The sidh ja riya ho? थे सिद्ध जा रिया हो?= Where are you going?
• The ke kha rahiya ho? थे के खा रहिया हो ? = What are you eating?