Saurashtra
A language of India
| Population | 310,000 (1997). Districts listed each have communities of at least 5,000. |
| Region | Tamil Nadu, Madurai, Thanjavur, Dindugul Quaid-E. Milleth, Ramanathapuram, Chengai-Annai, Salem, Tiruchchirappalli, Tirunelveli, North Arcot districts, Madras, Deccan, Madurai, Thanjavur, Salem cities; Karnataka; Andhra Pradesh. |
| Alternate names | Patnuli, Saurashtri, Sourashtra, Sowrashtra |
| Dialects | Southern Saurashtra, Northern Saurashtra. Indo-Aryan elements reveal Gujarati [guj] relationship; some structure from Dravidian, lexicon from Telugu [tel] and Tamil [tam]. An Indo-European island surrounded by Dravidian languages. The 3 main populations in Salem, Thanjavur, and Madurai cities had between 67% and 97% inherent intelligibility among themselves. Lexical similarity: 77%–96% between all varieties. The 3 main populations: 84%–96%. Southern dialects have 83% or higher lexical similarity with Thanjavur variety. |
| Classification | Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Central zone, Gujarati |
| Language use | Vigorous. Home, prayer. Most also use Tamil. |
| Language development | Radio programs. Dictionary. NT: 2001. |
| Writing system | Devanagari script. Saurashtra script, used for centuries. A modern version developed in the late 1800s. Tamil script. Telugu script. |
| Comments | The nonweavers are generally better educated. System of exogamous clans. Traditionally silk weavers 40%–70%; commerce; professions. Hindu (Brahmin). |
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