Dakhni

Infobox Language
name=Dakhni
nativename=
familycolor= Indo-European
pronunciation=
states= South India
region=
rank=
speakers=
fam2=Indo-Aryan
fam3=Central zone
fam4=Western Hindi
fam5=Khariboli
script= Urdu
nation=
agency=

Dakhni, also known as Dakkhani, Deccani (Urdu: دکنی), is a dialect of the Urdu language, was spoken in the Deccan region of southern India, centered on the cities of Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Chennai. There is an extensive literature in this dialect, but it has fallen out of use in recent times.

Overview

Dakhni is spoken in the Deccan plateau of India. Just as Urdu developed in Lucknow, Dakhni developed in South India due to the mixing of various Indian based languages and Persian based languages. The term Dakhni is perhaps an umbrella for a group of dialects spoken by certain communities of Hindus & Muslims in the Deccan region. Thus, Dakhni dialects are an amalgam of Urdu, Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu, Arabic, Persian and Turkish.

Dakhni was the lingua franca of the Muslims of South India, chiefly living in Hyderabad state and further south. Though it is considered as a dialect of Urdu, it constitutes the traits of a different language in its own sense. Deccani was widely spoken across the South Indian peninsula with subtle changes in the dialect as you go down south away from Hyderabad.

Dakhni Urdu mainly spoken by the Muslims living in these areas can also be divided into 2 dialects:

North Dakhni - Spoken in areas of Former Hyderabad State: Mainly Hyderabad City, Telangana Region, Marathwada [Maharashtra] , Hyderabad-Karnataka [Gulbarga, Bidar & Raichur in Present day Karnataka]

South Dakhni - Spoken along Central Karnataka, Bangalore, North Tamil Nadu extending uptil Chennai and Nellore in Andhra Pradesh.

North Dakhni is more refined, rich in vocabulary and is spoken with delicacy and mannerism.

This tongue is used extensively in the spoken form; when it comes to writing and literary work, standard Urdu is used.

Classification

Dakhni is part of the Indo-Aryan grouping of the Indo-European languages.

Geographic distribution

Most speakers of Dakhni live in the Indian region known as the Deccan. They inhabit the regions comprising the erstwhile Muslim kingdoms in South India viz. portions of the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.

Dialects

Dialects of Dakhni include Savji bhasha i.e. the language of the Savji community in the Hubli-Dharwad-Gadag-Bijapur-Belgaum region.

References

* [http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:h7x1YLQyC3AJ:cssaame.com/issues/24_2/guha.doc+Dakhani&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=14&gl=us Dakhani]

ee also

* Hyderabadi Urdu
* Bangalori Urdu

External links

* [http://narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com/2006/12/charming-lingo-of-bhagnagar.html Feature on Dakhni by Narendra Luther]
* [http://bangalorenotes.com/dakhni.htm Article on the history of Dakhni in bangalorenotes.com with good references]