Gujarati is an Indic language spoken by approximately 44,000,000 people, primarily in the state of Gujarat on the western coast of India but also by sizeable communities elsewhere in South Asia and worldwide.
Until recently, one problem with learning Gujarati has been a shortage of good instructional materials. Most of the Gujarati texts published in India are linguistically quite naive - they amount to little more than a collection of example sentences in Gujarati and English, with little or no analysis of the underlying grammatical rules of the language. Fortunately, two textbooks were published in 1995 by Jagdish Dave and Rachel Dwyer which may help fill this gap. A child growing up in a Gujarati emigrant home needs contact with a wide variety of Gujarati speakers and encouragement that the tongue of the homeland is relevant, fun and worth learning.
That said, here are some Gujarati language resources:
Textbooks
Jagdish C. Dave, Colloquial Gujarati (Routledge Trade, 1995, ISBN 0415091969)
Apparently a straightforward modern introduction to the language. The first few lessons use Romanized transcriptions after which the book relies on the Gujarati script. Accompanying tapes are also available.
Rachel Dwyer, Gujarati: A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself, 1995, ISBN 0844237752)
Another straightforward modern introduction to Gujarati, also with tapes available.
H.M. Lambert, Gujarati Language Course (Cambridge U. Press, 1971)
Unfortunately Lambert uses Romanized transcriptions throughout, except for a separate section on the Gujarati script. On the plus side, one can get tapes for it from the language lab at the University of Texas at Austin.
Usha Nair, An Intensive Course in Gujarati (Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, 1991)
A fat volume of exercises with little or no grammatical analysis. Uses Gujarati script and devanagari (not roman) transcription throughout, together with English translations. Probably quite useful in the context for which it was intended, teaching Gujarati to secondary school teachers already familiar with one or more North Indian languages, but probably not very useful for solo study or for non-Indian students.
Dictionaries
Desai & Mehta, The Student's Modern Dictionary
Two short volumes, one Gujarati-English and one English-Gujarati. Rather limited, but serviceable enough once you allow for its quirks.
P.G. Deshpande, Gujarati-English Dictionary and English-Gujarati Dictionary (Navjivan Trust)
The best one. Available in various editions, some of which may be more complete than others.
Gujarati resources online
» Gujarati language movies
» Gujarat state page
» Maps of Gujarat
General language resources
» Ethnologue language catalog: Gujarati (Basic statistics estimating the number of Gujarati speakers worldwide.)
» Gujarati Language Resources on the Web from The Mumbai Pages (Mostly, but not strictly, links to fonts and software.)
» Linguaguide: Gujarati
» Yamada Language Center: Gujarati
Instruction and instructional materials
» Less Commonly Taught Languages database
» Gujarati courses at the University of Pennsylvania: Regular course description / Summer course description / Faculty / Language learning tips
» A Pedagogic Grammar of the Gujarati Language: Includes twelve lessons and nine readings introducing the writing system, phonology and basic grammar.
» Ukindia "Learn to Read Gujarati" page
Online newspapers and magazines
» Akilaa
» Chitralekha
» Gujaraat Samaachaar
» Jayhind
» Mumbai Samachar
» Rediff.com: Gujarati Edition
» Sambhaav
» Sandesh
Online services
» Online Devanagari/Gujarati transliteration tool(A web interface to the ITRANS program.)
Script
» Gujarati script
» Romanization of Gujarati Characters per the UPenn Library
Software
» Gujarati instructional software: Akshar Animations, Gujarati Master, Worldlanguage.com and
Gujarati Software Digest
Miscellaneous
» Audio greeting in Gujarati carried by the Voyager spacecraft |
