It Is Unique Official at 23:34, 18 August 2025

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{{Short description|Argot of the Hijra people}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Hijra Farsi
| state = [[India]], [[Pakistan]]
| speakers = unknown
| date = 2017
| familycolor = Indo-European
| fam2 = [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]]
| fam3 = [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]]
| script =
| iso3 = none
| glotto = none
| altname = Koti Farsi
}}

'''Hijra Farsi''' is a [[Cant (language)|secret language]] spoken by South-Asian [[Hijra (South Asia)|Hijra]] and [[Kothi (gender)|Kothi]] (also Koti) communities. Hijras are a marginalized [[transgender]] community that lives in sequestered groups in many cities of India and Pakistan. The language, also known as ''Koti Farsi'', is spoken by the Hijra community throughout Pakistan and North India. Despite what its name suggests, the language is based on [[Indo-Aryan languages|local languages]] rather than [[Persian language|Farsi]].<ref name=Hall2001>{{cite web|url=http://www.stanford.edu/dept/linguistics/colloq/prev/2001/2001feb09.html|title=Stanford Linguistics Colloquium|work=stanford.edu|accessdate=16 February 2016}}</ref> The sentence structure is similar to [[Indo-Aryan languages|local languages]], but noticeable distinctions exist.<ref name="SheerazAfsar2011">Sheeraz, Muhammad, and Ayaz Afsar. "Farsi: An Invisible But Loaded Weapon for the Emerging Hijraism in Pakistan." Kashmir Journal of Language Research 14, no. 2 (2011).</ref> Hijra Farsi is mainly spoken by Muslim Hijras; Hindu Hijras speak the [[Gupti language]] and its regional dialects.<ref>{{cite news |title=Queer language|url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/queer-language/article5407840.ece |date=30 November 2013|newspaper=The Hindu |department=City: World |agency=TNN |access-date=27 January 2020}}</ref>

Even though the language is not actually based on Persian (Farsi), the hijras consider the language to be related to the language of the [[Mughal Empire]], which they associate with the origin of Hijra identity. Hijra Farsi is most similar to local languages, but is not intelligible to speakers of local languages due to distinctive intonation and a large amount of distinctive vocabulary.<ref name=Hall2001/>

== History ==
Hijra Farsi has no documented history, but linguist and anthropologist [[Kira Hall]] has found indications of its existence from the early 1800s. Hijras enjoyed a high status during the Mughal empire, which may be the reason why the language is named after 'Farsi' despite its dissimilarity with Persian. With the fall of the Mughal empire and start of British colonial rule, eunuchs were pushed into a more marginalized position. Colonial laws criminalized their choice of dress, as well as the public dancing they regularly engaged in. The crackdown caused hijras to become protective of their language, which then evolved into a survival tool.<ref name="qz">{{Cite web|url=https://qz.com/india/662917/the-secret-language-of-south-asias-transgender-community/|title=The secret language of South Asia's transgender community|last=Rehman|first=Zehra|website=Quartz India|date=15 April 2016 |language=en|access-date=2019-01-26}}</ref>

That the language is still in use may have to do with the fact that the community continues to be persecuted in independent India. "Seventy-four percent of the Hijra community has suffered violence and harassment,” says Simran Shaikh, who works with Alliance India, an NGO that works on AIDS prevention.<ref name="toi">{{Cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Hijra-Farsi-Secret-language-knits-community/articleshow/23618092.cms|title=Hijra Farsi: Secret language knits community - Times of India|website=The Times of India|date=7 October 2013 |access-date=2019-01-26}}</ref>

== Community-building tool ==
Hijra Farsi began and has continued as a learned, as opposed to a mother, tongue. The language is introduced to newcomers when they enter the hijra community, together with the group’s alternative family structure, cultural norms, and other traditions. Having a language that creates a sense of a community is a necessity for hijras, who typically give up a great deal when they join the community. Hijras see the language as something that is truly theirs, and speak about it with pride.<ref name="qz"/>

== Examples ==
The following examples are adapted from Awan & Sheeraz (2011), who researched Hijra Farsi in the communities within [[Dera Ghazi Khan]] and [[Rawalpindi]]. Note that the transcriptions are taken directly from the text, which does not specify a distinction between [[retroflex plosive|retroflex]] and [[dental plosive|dental]] plosives, nor does it consistently mark a distinction between /ɐ/ and /a/. They do, however, mention that /ɽ/ is a very common sound used in Hijra Farsi, especially compared to its frequency in other languages in contact.<ref name=awan-sheeraz>{{cite journal|last1=Awan|last2=Sheeraz|first1=Muhammad Safeer|first2=Muhammad|title=Queer but Language: A Sociolinguistic Study of Farsi|journal=International Journal of Humanities and Social Science|volume=1|number=10|year=2011|page=127-135}} {{predatory}}</ref>

=== Nouns ===
{|class="wikitable"
! English !! Gender{{ref|gender}}!! Hijra Farsi (sg) !! Hijra Farsi (pl) !! Punjabi !! Saraiki/Sindhi
|-
! face
|M || khombaɽ || khomaɽ|| monh || munh
|-
! nose
|M || nakɽa || nakɽey|| nak || nak
|-
! eye
|F || chamɽri || chamɽian|| akh || akh
|-
! tummy
|M || dhhambɽa || dhamɽey|| rowspan="2" | tidh || rowspan="2" | dhidh
|-
! tummy
|F || dambɽi || dambɽian
|-
! moustache
|M || choochkey || choochkey || muchh || muchh
|-
! pubic
|M || reskey || reskey|| chuan || bood
|-
! tooth
|M || nejma || nejme|| dand || dand
|-
! skin
|F || chamki || chamkian|| chum || chum
|-
! breast
|M || chhalka || chhalkey|| than || thanɽ
|-
! Neovagina (''sic'')
| F || chapti || chaptian|| n/a || n/a
|-
! penis
|M || leekaɽ || leekaɽ|| laoɽa || lun
|-
! hips
|F || vatal || vatal|| bund || chut
|-
! vagina
|F || seepo || seepo|| phudi || budi
|}

:{{note|gender}}This refers to the [[grammatical gender]] of the noun in Hijra Farsi

Many of these words are completely dissimilar to any of the locally spoken languages, but the pluralization strategies remain identical, i.e. nouns ending in what is transcribed here as -i are made plural by adding -an (/-i/ becomes /-ijã/), and nouns ending in -a replace the ending with plural suffix -e (/-a/ becomes /-e/).

=== Verbs ===
Awan & Sheeraz also give examples of verbs:
{|class="wikitable"
! English !! Hijra Farsi !! Punjabi !! Saraiki
|-
! to go
| vogna || janɽa, anɽa || wanjanɽ, avanɽ
|-
! to understand
| chamna || samajhna || samjhanɽ
|-
! to die
| lugiɽna || marna || maranɽ
|}

These verbs are given with the -na infinitival suffix, but that is only representative of the Rawalpindi variety: Awan and Sheeraz report that -anɽ endings are found specifically in the Dera Ghazi Khan variety, attributing it to the fact that Saraiki is more widely spoken there.<ref name=awan-sheeraz />{{rp|130}} Another such example is given with the feminine singular habitual form of the verb meaning "to do/make": whereas in Rawalpindi ''kerdi'' is used, demonstrating greater influence from Punjabi ''kardi'', Dera Ghazi Khan Hijra Farsi uses ''krendi'', which resembles the Saraiki ''kareyndi''.<ref name=awan-sheeraz />{{rp|131}}

=== Function words ===
In addition to [[content words]], Hijra Farsi demonstrates innovation (i.e. divergence from related languages) in some [[function words]]. Namely, in [[Lucknow]], Nagar (2008) found the pronouns ''humsio'' ("I", 1st person), ''tumsio'' ("you", 2nd person), and ''ojo'' ("he/she", 3rd person), and the augmentative ''adiyal'' ("very").<ref name=nagar>{{cite thesis |date=2008 |title=Language, gender and identity: the case of kotis in Lucknow-India |institution=The Ohio State University |author-last=Ila |author-first=Nagar}}</ref> The [[grammatical number|number]] of these pronouns is unclear in Nagar's thesis. In Rawalpindi and Dera Ghazi Khan, Awan and Sheeraz found ''hamala'' to be the 1st person pronoun, with ''tamala'' as the 2nd person.

In addition to pronouns, there is innovation in [[demonstratives]]: unlike surrounding languages, there is no proximal/distal distinction, and unlike surrounding languages, there ''is'' a gender distinction: ''insa'' for masculine and ''insi'' for feminine, both using productive plural morphology such that masculine "these" will be ''inse'' and feminine "these" will be ''insian'' (as transcribed by Awan & Sheeraz).

=== Numbers ===
Hijra Farsi's counting system, used specifically for counting money, uses lexemes unique to the cant:<ref name=kundalia>{{cite magazine |last1=Kundalia |first1=Nidhi |url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/queer-language/article5407840.ece |magazine=The Hindu |title=Queer language |access-date=June 4, 2022}}</ref><ref name=awan-sheeraz />
{|class="wikitable"
! Number !! Hijra Farsi
|-
! 10
| dasola
|-
! 50
| adhi vadvi/adhi vadmi
|-
! 100
| vadvi/vadmi
|-
! 500
| panj vadvi/panj vadmi
|-
! 1000
| katka
|-
! 100000 or 10000{{ref|number}}
| nira patt*
|}
:{{note|number}} Awan & Sheeraz list this number as one hundred thousand, and Kundalia lists it as ten thousand.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite thesis| last = Hall| first = Kira| year = 1995| title = Hijra/Hijrin: Language and Gender Identity| type = PhD| institution = UC Berkeley| url = https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6m5744jx}}

[[Category:Languages of India]]
[[Category:Languages of Pakistan]]
[[Category:Transgender topics in Pakistan]]
[[Category:LGBTQ argots]]
[[Category:Hijra (South Asia)]]
[[Category:Hindustani language]]

Hijra Farsi - Revision history

It Is Unique Official at 23:34, 18 August 2025