LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 26:2 February 2026
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A Descriptive Analysis of the Morphosyntactic Features of Dhundhari: Structure, Agreement and Order

Rijushna Gogoi &
Dhanapati Shougrakpam

Abstract

This study is an attempt to find out key morphosyntactic features of Dhundhari, focusing on the major morphological, verbal, agreement, and typological description of the language by following Payne's idea of Morphosyntax (1997). Findings show that Dhundhari has the dominant SOV order, reflecting a head final structure. The structure of the words combines both agglutinating and fusional features. The language has two genders, two numbers, and three persons. Gender differentiation is also possible in terms of [-animate] objects. Case markers are also inflectional markers and except for the nominative case, other case markers are overtly marked. Tense, aspect and mood are distinctly visible, and it plays an important role in understanding the nature of an action. Aspect and mood are also distinguished in the verb forms. Using examples and structural description of the language, this study highlights the regional morphosyntactic features of Dhundhari while placing it within the larger Indo-Aryan group of languages. Further theoretical and comparative research on Rajasthani variations is made possible by the findings, which further advance descriptive Indo-Aryan linguistics.

Keywords:Dhundhari; morphosyntactic features; tense-aspect-mood; descriptive study

Introduction

Morphosyntax is one of the core areas of Linguistics that studies the interface between morphology and syntax. It shows how grammatical meaning is examined through word formation and structural analysis. Morphosyntactic features include several grammatical features including tense and aspect, number, gender and person, case markers, argument structures etc., which are all seen by syntactic relations or inflections Dhundhari. This study seeks to investigate how Dhundhari's morphosyntactic elements are realized and how they influence word order, meaning, and sentence structure.

Dhundhari [d??nd?a?i], also known as Jaipuri, is one of the major Central Indo-Aryan languages spoken in Rajasthan. It comes under Rajasthani subgroups. The language is spoken in Jaipur, Tonk, Dudu, Sawai Madhopur, Dausa, and a few parts of Ajmer. One of the oldest groups of people to live in Rajasthan were the Dhundhari native speakers. There are 1.8 million people in the speech community, according to the 2011 Census. “It is the second widely spoken variety of Rajasthani group of languages after Marwari” (Gogoi & Shougrakpam, 2025: 199). According to the locals, the term Dhundhari is derived from the name of a mountain known as Dhundhakriti; whereas another opinion holds that the name ‘Dhundhari’ has come from the Dhund river that flows across the region. Grierson (1908) has mentioned several other names of Dhundhari that includes Dhundhari- Jaipuri, Dhundhali, Dhundhahdi, Jhadshahiboli and Kai-kui boli, and it is alternatively termed as ‘Dhundhari’ by the natives of Rajasthan. “Alternative names for Dhundari include Dhundari-Marwari, Dhundhali, Dhundhahdi, Jhadshahi boli, Kai-kui boli, and Jaipuri” (Benjamin et.el, 2012).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Rijushna Gogoi
Research Scholar
Department of Linguistics
Central University of Rajasthan
rijushnagogoi99@gmail.com
&
Dhanapati Shougrakpam
Assistant Professor
Department of Linguistics
Central University of Rajasthan
dhanapati@curaj.ac.in

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