Symbols
88Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Vowels (સ્વર)
Each vowel has a full letter, used at the start of a word, and a matra that attaches to a consonant: ક + ા = કા. અ has no matra: every consonant already carries it. ઍ and ઑ write the vowels of English loanwords.
Consonants (વ્યંજન)
The stop rows read across: plain, aspirated, voiced, voiced aspirated, nasal. Then ય ર લ વ, શ ષ સ હ and ળ. Conjuncts such as ચ્છ in કચ્છ are typed with the virama ્.
Signs
ં and ઁ nasalise the vowel before them, ઃ is the visarga of Sanskrit words, ્ removes a consonant's vowel to make a conjunct, and the nukta ઼ goes under a letter.
૨૦૨૬ is 2026. Kutchi writing uses these digits or 0–9.
Punctuation
Prose ends with the full stop; the danda and double danda close lines of verse and devotional songs.
Currency
Where it's spoken
Kutch district, Gujarat, with communities in Mumbai and abroad.
Kutch in emoji
The Rann's salt desert, herders' camels, the flamingos of the Great Rann, the Banni buffalo, Kutchi embroidery, and folded hands for greetings.
On the map
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The Kutchi language and its script
Kutchi, also spelled Kachchhi or Kachhi (કચ્છી), is the language of Kutch, the district in the far west of Gujarat that is bordered by the Rann to the north and east. It belongs to the Sindhi branch of the Indo-Aryan languages: in sound and grammar it is much closer to Sindhi, spoken across the border in Pakistan, than to Gujarati, although most Kutchi speakers in India also speak Gujarati, the language of school and office around them. The Census of India counts Kachchhi as a mother tongue grouped under Sindhi.
Kutchi has no official script, and "what is the Kutchi script?" has more than one honest answer. In Kutch and among Kutchi families in Mumbai, books, magazines, poems and WhatsApp messages are written in the Gujarati script, the letters on this page. CLDR, the Unicode language database, also lists Devanagari for Kutchi, but Gujarati is the script Kutchi is mostly printed in. In Pakistan, Kutchi speakers who write it tend to use the Sindhi form of the Arabic script, and for centuries the Khoja community wrote its religious songs, the ginans, in Khojki, a script of its own that is now in Unicode too.
How the Gujarati letters write Kutchi
The Gujarati script is an abugida: every consonant carries a built-in short a, so ક alone is ka. Other vowels after a consonant are written with a vowel sign, a matra: કા કિ કી કુ કૂ કે કૈ કો કૌ. The full vowel letters અ આ ઇ ઈ ઉ ઊ એ ઐ ઓ ઔ stand at the start of a word or after another vowel. Unlike Devanagari, Gujarati has no line along the top of the letters.
The virama ્ removes the built-in vowel and joins two consonants into a conjunct. The name of the region shows it: કચ્છ is ક ચ ્ છ, and કચ્છી adds the matra ી. Conjuncts such as ક્ષ, જ્ઞ and ત્ર have no code points of their own; type the parts and the font draws the joined shape. The anusvara ં and candrabindu ઁ mark nasal vowels, which Kutchi has in plenty.
Kutchi writers follow Gujarati spelling habits and simply spell Kutchi words the way they are said, so the same word can turn up in more than one spelling. The nukta ઼ is used by some writers under a letter to mark Persian and Arabic sounds, as in જ઼ for z; ઋ ૃ and the visarga ઃ appear in words borrowed from Sanskrit, and ઍ ઑ write the vowels of English loanwords such as ડૉક્ટર.
How to type Kutchi: keyboard, phone and English to Kutchi typing
There is no separate Kutchi keyboard; the Gujarati one has every letter. On Windows, add Gujarati under Settings Time & language Language & region and choose Gujarati (INSCRIPT) for fixed keys or the Gujarati Phonetic layout, where typing ka gives ક; switch with WinSpace. On a Mac, add Gujarati or Gujarati – QWERTY under System Settings Keyboard Input Sources.
"English to Kutchi typing" on a phone means transliteration: add Gujarati in Gboard or the iPhone keyboard settings, type kutchi or kachchh in Latin letters and pick કચ્છી or કચ્છ from the suggestions. In HTML any letter can be written by its code: ક is ક, ળ is ળ and ₹ is .
Kutchi in Gujarati script ends sentences with the ordinary full stop, and the danda । and double danda ॥ are kept for verse and devotional songs. Commas, question marks and quotation marks “ ” are the same as in English. Numbers are written with Gujarati digits ૦૧૨૩૪૫૬૭૮૯ or with 0–9, and prices take the rupee sign, ૫૦ or 50; is an older Gujarati sign for the rupee.
Where Kutchi is spoken
Kutchi is at home all over Kutch, from Bhuj and Mandvi to the villages of the Banni grasslands, and Kutch is India's largest district by area. CLDR estimates about 1.1 million speakers in India. Large Kutchi communities have lived for generations in Mumbai and over the sea in East Africa, Oman and Karachi, where the Kutchi Memons and Khojas kept the language at home while trading abroad.
Its closest relative is Sindhi; Gujarati is the language of school and office around it, and Kachi Koli, spoken by Koli families in southern Sindh, is a separate Gujarati-branch language despite the similar name. See the Sindhi, Gujarati and Kachi Koli collections for their letters, and the India page for the flag and its national symbols.
Kutch in emoji
The emoji Kutchi speakers reach for come from home: for the white salt desert of the Rann, where the Rann Utsav festival draws crowds on full-moon nights; for the camels of the herders, including the Kharai camels that swim out to the mangroves; for the flamingos that breed on the Great Rann; for the Banni buffalo, a breed named after the grassland; and for the mirror-work embroidery and Ajrakh block prints Kutch is known for. goes with the greetings, and the Kutchi New Year, Ashadhi Bij (અષાઢી બીજ), falls at the start of the monsoon rather than after Diwali as in the rest of Gujarat.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyKutchi Language Letters combos
10Worth knowing
- Kutch is the largest district in India by area, bigger than several Indian states, and much of it is the salt flat of the Rann.
- Khojki, the script the Khoja community used for its ginans in Sindhi and Kutchi, was added to Unicode in version 7.0 in 2014, so those manuscripts can now be typed in their own letters.
- The Kutchi New Year, Ashadhi Bij, is celebrated in the monsoon month of Ashadh, months away from the Gujarati New Year the day after Diwali.
- Dholavira in Kutch, a Harappan city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021, has one of the longest Indus inscriptions ever found: ten large signs, often called the Dholavira signboard.
Questions people ask
6What is the Kutchi language script?
Kutchi has no official script of its own. In India it is mostly written in the Gujarati script, the letters on this page; in Pakistan in the Sindhi form of the Arabic script; and historically the Khoja community wrote it in Khojki. Searches for "Kutchi lipi" usually mean the Gujarati letters.
Is Kutchi language the same as Gujarati?
No. Kutchi belongs to the Sindhi branch of Indo-Aryan, and in grammar and vocabulary it is closer to Sindhi than to Gujarati, though the two have borrowed a lot from each other. Most Kutchi speakers in India also speak Gujarati, study in it and write Kutchi with its letters, which is why the two are so often confused.
How do I do English to Kutchi typing on my phone?
Add the Gujarati keyboard in Gboard or in the iPhone keyboard settings and use its transliteration: type the Kutchi word in English letters as it sounds and pick the Gujarati-script word from the suggestions. To fix a single letter or matra, copy it from this page.
How do I copy and paste Kutchi letters?
Click or tap any letter on this page (ક, ચ, છ, ળ, the matras ા િ ી, the virama ્) to copy it, then paste with CtrlV, CmdV or long-press and Paste. Matras and the virama show a dotted circle on their own and join the consonant in front of them once pasted.
How are numbers written in Kutchi?
In writing, Kutchi uses the Gujarati digits ૦ ૧ ૨ ૩ ૪ ૫ ૬ ૭ ૮ ૯ or the international 0–9. The spoken number words are close to Sindhi rather than Gujarati: one is hakdo, where Gujarati says ek.
Where is Kutchi language spoken?
In the Kutch district of Gujarat, India, where CLDR estimates about 1.1 million speakers, and among Kutchi communities in Mumbai, Karachi, Oman and East Africa.
