Qaydo Cutchijo

82



83



84



85

INTERROGATIONS

86



87

SIMPLE CONVERSATION
IN CUTCHI

Every language has a style of its own. Sindhi language
that originated from the more than ten millenniums
old Indus Cultural Hub of Mohen Jo Daro is the parent
of Cutchi language. Apart from the slight variations
in the intonations and prepositions there is no
appreciable difference between these two languages
in their style, structure or grammar. Memoni, the

language of the Memons who settled in and around
Halaar in Gujarat is also a Sindhi variant like and
closest to Cutchi. Over the centuries Sindhi and
Memon people have migrated to various parts of the
world carrying their respective version of Cutchi or
Sindhi with them, The art, culture and language

88

of their adopted lands have had a strong influence on
the migrant population and their culture and
language. Marriages with the local people who used
different languages has also affected the language.
Today Cutchi in its pure or original form cannot be
heard even in Cutch because of the corruption by
Gujarati, Urdu and Hindi besides English. Despite all
these distortions there had been no serious
impediment in mutual communication among them,
at least in the spoken dialects. The purity of the
language is preserved to some extent in Kerala in
South India and in African countries such as Tanzania
and South Africa where local assimilation is minimal.
This work therefore adopts the version spoken in
these regions, clarified marginally by the correct
Sindhi equivalents gathered from rural Cutch and
Sind.

The following are some of the essential features of
the spoken Cutchi language.

1. The soft sound 'na' (as in 'nation') is rarely used.
The harsher sound of NA (as in 'money' is used
instead.
2. The soft sound 'tha' is slightly stressed as in 'bath'
3. Most words have a nasal ending.

The English (Roman) alphabets do not have any
symbol to correctly represent these phonetic
variations. The best method, therefore, is to listen to
the native speakers either directly or on the radio or
TV, Cutchi or Sindhi.

4. In conversations, the pronouns are mostly omitted.
As the gender of the verb is determined mainly
according to the gender of the subject (noun or
pronoun) care should be exercised to rightly assess
the gender of the subject.

See the examples below.

89



90

.

91



92

More conversation styles and situational examples
are provided extensively in the booklets Teach
Yourself Cutchi. You may pick up the volume in
the language of your choice from the same
bookcase viz. http://anyflip.com/bookcase/mleeu

Copy the link and paste it to your browser.

Letter Writing

Letter writing in Cutchi has been totally forgotten.
It is not known whether there had been any
correspondence or accounting carried out in
Cutchi after the migration from Cutch. In Kerala,
for the past two hundred and odd years Gujarati,
followed by Malayalam and then English were the
media in use. It is also not known whether the
Cutchi language was ever used earlier. If the
members of the community who might have in
their possession some very old records, would be

93

good enough to examine them it would serve as
an addition to our understanding of the history
and culture of our language.

I remember, my father's mother Rabia Bai, having
mentioned to me that, in her life time, she had
received only two letters in Cutchi both written in
Gujarati script and that she had replied to them in
Cutchi in the Arabic-Sindhi script. She had taught
me the book "Noor Namo" (It had a Hindustani
version -not Urdu- by name "Tarteeb-e-Salaat).
printed in Arabic-Sindhi. If my impression is
correct, there must be some copies of Noor Namo
in the collection of books with old timers, and
possibly there will be a copy in some old bureau
of Iqbal Library, Kochi, disguised as a book in
Arabic. The script was of the same print as of
Quraan known as Bombay Print.

A genuine question might arise as to the relevance
of letter writing in Kutchi when there is no script

94

of its own and the spoken language has become
practically localised. I am compelled to recall a
meeting of the All India Kutchi Memon Federation,
sometime in 1994 or thereabout, which I attended.
With exception of one or two delegates every one
spoke in Urdu and others in English. That none
spoke in Cutchi pains me even today. Purposely, I
talked in Cutchi to express my anguish and
concern. In his reply the chairman, Jb.
Haroon Kabli confessed that he did not
understand much of what I said and that it must
be a lesson to him and people like him who had
forgotten their mother tongue. He declared that
the Federation will take up a programme to
rejuvenate the language. But even after a quarter
century, I am afraid, the status -quo- ante
prevails. It is under this background that the work
on this primer was commenced. It was strongly
felt that those who are interested in the Cutchi
language and in employing that language in their

95

personal correspondence should not be denied an
opportunity to do so. This section makes a
beginning in that direction.

Sample 1

12/23Panayappalli
Kochi
May 15, 2015

Dear son Subair,

Your mother, Zubaida and I are doing well. Hope that you,
my daughter-in-law Sabeena and grandchildren Neena and
Mansoor are also doing well.

A good proposal has been received for Zubaida. The boy is
school teacher in Ernakulam. They have seen and liked
each other. The parents have also liked her. I am attaching
his photograph. Let me know your opinion and when you
will be able to come. We will fix the date for engagement
on receipt of your reply.

With prayers,
Lovingly
Shafeeq Ahmed

96

97

98

99

NOTE ON CUTCHI GRAMMAR

The true origin of the language is still debated
among the historians. However, it is common to
believe that Cutchi language actually originated as
a dialect of Sindhi language. Within the language
itself, there are currently many different dialects,
some having more influence of one language, and
others having that of others. The language has not
been organized greatly, hence, neither having its
alphabetical system of reading and writing, nor
having its literature and dictionary. This is one of
the reasons the disorientation among the speakers
themselves for deciding which words are better for
what, as there is a wide variety of vocabulary
available.

The Memon community is generally divided into
three major subgroups: Kathiawadi Memons,
Sindhi Memons (who speak the Sindhi language)

100

and Cutchi Memons (who speak Cutchi) The first
category (Memons originating in Kathiawar) are
simply called Memons, and they speak the Memoni
language. These people are Muslims (and mostly
Sunni Hanafi), who migrated from Sindh to
Kathiawar several centuries ago. Sindhi and Cutchi
languages are spoken by both Muslims and non-
Muslims, in contrast to the Memoni language,
which is exclusively spoken by Memons of
Kathiawadi origin, who are almost entirely Muslim.
In stress, intonation, and everyday speech, Cutchi
is very similar to Sindhi, but it borrows extensively
from Gujarati, Hindustani and lately English. Like
most languages of the Indian subcontinent the
sentence structure of Cutchi generally follows
subject–object–verb order. Most nouns have a
grammatical gender, either masculine or feminine
and often have singular and plural forms. There is
no equivalent for the definite article ‘the’, and the

101

indefinite article ‘a’ is further inflected as
masculine or feminine with its object.

The subject pronoun second person(s) ‘You’ is
expressed in two different ways; one is the polite
form ‘aaeen’ (cognate with ‘avheen’ in standard
Sindhi) used for respect generally for a stranger,
elderly and well respected persons including
parents and relatives and the second ‘tu’ (the
same as Tuhu in standard Sindhi) 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. The verbs are generally
conjugated, in form, according to many factors,
including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. It
must also agree with the person, gender, and/or
number of some of its arguments (subject, object,

102

etc.). The verb generally appears at the end of the
sentence.

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 agree to the
noun that follows. The proposition generally
comes after a noun or a verb.

In the past there was some attempt to write the
dialect using Gujrati and in Urdu scripts with little
success. Lately some attempt has been made to
write using Roman script and some regional
languages like Malayalam. An effort was also made
to regenerate the script believed to have been in
use during the Harappan period. But it has still not
become popular nor is it available for general use.

103

E- Books available on this Book Case

Forgotten Cutchi Memon Customs
of Bygone Years
Power Point Presentation
Full volume Flip Book
Teach Yourself Cutchi in
English, Malayalam, Hindi
Cutchi Memon Digest
Volumes I to IV
Special Features :
I: January 2015 : Introductory Issue
II. February 2015 : Earthquakes in Cutch
III March 2015 : Legal Issues - Waqf
IV April 2015 : Special Kochi Edition
Woman in MSME: She Climbs to Conquer

Master Volume and individual Volumes I to IV

104

Two Miraculous Drops
Fiction based on life experience on Polio
Eradication Campaigns in Uttar Pradesh

I’m Sheela
Real Story as autobiography of a street dog
Single volumes in English
Individual Parts 1 to3 in Malayalam

105