Memon language
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The Memon language, sometimes called Memoni is the language of Memons historically associated with Kathiawar, in West India, a Memon subgroup. Many Memons have settled in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan since the independence in 1947.
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Language
Kathiawadi Memons speak an unwritten language called Memoni, a mixture of Sindhi and Kutchi[citation needed] that belongs to the Indic (North-Western Zone) family of languages. While the Sindhi and Kutchi languages are spoken by both Muslims and non-Muslims, the Memon language (also called Memoni) refers exclusively to the vernacular of the Kathiawadi Memons who are Sunni Hanafi Muslims that migrated from Sindh to the neighbouring regions of Kutch and Kathiawar in Gujarat several centuries ago. In stress, intonation, and everyday speech, Memoni is very similar to Sindhi, but it borrowes extensively from Gujarati, Hindustani and lately English. Like most languages of the Indian subcontinent the sentence structure of Memoni generally follows subject -> object -> verb order.[1] In Pakistan, Memoni has adopted many Urdu words and phrases.
Nouns
The most nouns has a grammatical gender, either masculine or feminine and often have singular and plural forms. The Memons borrow vast majorities of the nouns from Hindustani (mixture of Urdu & Hindi) languages and lately extensive use of English vocabulary.
Example
| English | Memoni | Sindhi | Kutchi | Gujarati | Hindi/Urdu | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vegetables | bakaala (m)s/p | bhaji | saag bhaji ( bhakalo ) | Sabji | sabzi(f) sabzia | |
| bed | Palang (m) | Handh | Khatlo/Palang | Khatlo | chaarpaee (f) | |
| mirror | aariso (m) aarisa (p) | aarsi | aariso | aarisa (m) | aaena (m) | ? |
| door | dervajo (m) dervajaa (p) | darwazo | darvajo | darwazo | dervaza (m) dervazey (p) | |
| man | maru (m) maruu (p) | maanhu | maru | manas/purush | admi (m) admion (p) | |
| boy | chhokro (m) chokraa (p) | chhokro (m) chokraa (p) | chhokro | choro/chokra | larka (m) larkay (p) | |
| girl | chhokree (f) chokriun (p) | chhokree (f) chokriun (p) | chhokree | chokri (f) chokriun | lerki (f) lerkiain (p) | |
| woman also wife | byree (f) byreeun (p) | mayee (f) mayuun (p) | bairi | bairi/patni/wavh | aurat (f) aurtein (p) |
Articles and determine
The is no equivalency for the definite article ‘the’ and indefinite article ‘a’ is further inflected with masculine or feminine with its object.
Pronouns
The subject pronouns second person(s) ‘You’ is expressed two different ways; one is the polite form ‘aaen’ used for respect generally for a stranger, elderly and well respected persons including parents and relatives and the second ‘tu’ is informal and used among close friends and when addressing subordinates. The object, possessive and reflexive pronouns are often inflected for masculine and feminine and must agree with its object.
See Urdu Pronouns
Example
| English | Memoni | Sindhi | Kutchi | Gujrati |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | aaun | aaun | aaun | hoN |
| We | asaan | asaan/paan | asaan/paan | ha.may |
| You (polite) singular or
plural |
aaen | tawhan/awheen | aaen | te.may |
| you (informal or intimate) | tu | tu/tun | tu | tu |
In most Indic languages the third person such as, he, she, it and they and the demonstrative pronouns this, these, that, those same pronouns are used and they are divided into two categories; one for a near object or person and the other for a far object or person.
Example 2
| English | Memoni | Sindhi | Kutchi | Gujrati |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| She, He, it, they, this, these (near) | ee | hee | hee | aa |
| She, He, it, they, that, those (far) | ou | hou | hoo | pela |
No significant differences are among the object, possessive and reflexive pronouns. In addition these pronouns are further inflected for masculine and feminine and must agree to the object (noun, pronouns, adjective and adverbs).
Verbs
The verbs generally conjugated (in form, according to many factors, including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. It also agree with the person, gender, and/or number of some of its arguments (subject, object, etc.). The verb generally appears at the end of the sentence.
Adjectives
Like English, the position of the adjectives nearly always appears immediately before the noun and they are modified and often inflected for masculine and feminine and must be agree to the noun that follows. The proposition generally comes after a noun or a verb.
Script
In the past there was some attempt to write the Memoni dialect using Gujrati and later in Urdu script with little success. Lately some attempt has been made to write Memoni using Roman script.
See also
References
External links
Reference: Origin of Memoni Language a Memoni Language Project by Siddique Katiya
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