Ahirwati (''Ahīrvāṭī'', sometimes also known as Hīrwāṭī) is an Indo-Aryan dialect of India. It is spoken within the

Ahirwal Ahirwal is a region spanning parts of southern Haryana , north-eastern Rajasthan, and South-Western Delhi The region was once a small principality based from the town of Rewari and controlled by members of the Yaduvanshi Ahir community fro ...

region located to the south-west of the capital

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

. It belongs to the Rajasthani language group and is commonly taken to be a dialect of

Mewati Mewati (Devanagri:मेवाती; Perso-Arabic:میواتی) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about three million speakers in the Mewat Region (Alwar and Bharatpur, districts of Rajasthan, Nuh district of Haryana). While other people ...

, but in many respects it is intermediate with the neighbouring varieties of Bangru and Bagri, and is especially close to

Shekhawati Shekhawati is a semi-arid historical region located in the northeast part of Rajasthan, India. The region was ruled by Shekhawat Rajputs. Shekhawati is located in North Rajasthan, comprising the districts of Jhunjhunu district, Jhunjhunu, part ...

. There are no reliable census figures for the number of speakers. In the past it was variously written in either

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...

Gurmukhi Gurmukhī ( pa, ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ, , Shahmukhi: ) is an abugida developed from the Laṇḍā scripts, standardized and used by the second Sikh guru, Guru Angad (1504–1552). It is used by Punjabi Sikhs to write the language, commonly r ...

, or the

Perso-Arabic script The Persian alphabet ( fa, الفبای فارسی, Alefbâye Fârsi) is a writing system that is a version of the Arabic script used for the Persian language spoken in Iran ( Western Persian) and Afghanistan (Dari Persian) since the 7th cent ...

. A peculiar feature of the grammar of Ahirwati is the use of the same

postposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

to mark both the

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

(in certain tenses) and the

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ...

Geographic distribution

Ahirwati is spoken mostly in the south of

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...

. At its maximal extent, its territory extends from

Loharu Loharu (also known as Luharu) is a city, municipal committee and assembly constituency in the Bhiwani district of the Indian state of Haryana. It is the administrative headquarters of one of the four administrative sub-divisions of the distric ...

in the west to

Sohna Sohna is a town and a municipal committee in the Gurgaon district of Haryana, India. A popular tourist weekend and conference retreat, it is on the highway from Gurgaon to Alwar near a vertical rock. Sohna is known for its hot springs and Shiva t ...

in the east, and from

Jhajjar Jhajjar is a town in Jhajjar district in the Indian state of Haryana. The city is situated on the road connecting Rewari to Rohtak (NH-352), Loharu to Meerut (NH334B), Charkhi Dadri to Delhi and Gurgaon to Bhiwani. Jhajjar is located west o ...

and

Najafgarh Najafgarh is a town in the South West Delhi district of National Capital Territory of Delhi, India. It is one of the three subdivisions of the Southwest Delhi district. Najafgarh is located in south western part of Delhi sharing its territory ...

in the north to

Bawal Bawal is a big industrial town located, near Rewari city in Rewari district in Indian state of Haryana. It lies in the National Capital Region (NCR) of India. It is located on national highway NH 48 (formerly called NH 8), 11 km from Rewari, ...

and

Behror Behror () is a city in the Alwar district of Rajasthan. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Behror Tehsil. Situated 120 km south-west of national capital, New Delhi, and part of the National Capital Region, it al ...

in the south. It encompasses partially or fully the districts of

Mahendragarh Mahendragarh is a city and a municipal committee in Mahendragarh district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is from Gurgaon and comes under National Capital Region (India). Etymology Earlier named ''kanaud'', in early 1860s it was renam ...

Rewari Rewari is a city and a Municipal Council in Rewari district in the Indian state of Haryana. King of Rewari is Rao Onkar Singh.It is located in south-west Haryana around 82 km from Delhi

, and

Gurgaon Gurgaon (pronunciation: �ʊɽɡãːw, officially named Gurugram (pronunciation: �ʊɾʊɡɾaːm, is a city located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest of the nationa ...

, as well as the areas of

Taoru Taoru or Tauru is a town, near Nuh city in Nuh district in the Indian state of Haryana. History Fort Fort of Taoru, also called Taoru Fort of Raja Nahar Singh, has chambers and rooms surrounded by high walls. It is presently used as a po ...

in Nuh district (all in Haryana),

(in the district of Alwar, Rajasthan),

(in Delhi), and additionally an enclave further to the north in the region of

Hansi Hansi, is a city and municipal council in Hisar district in the Indian state of Haryana. It appears that at one time Hansi was larger, more prosperous and more important than Hisar. The town has several important buildings of archeological import ...

, in Hisar district. Ahirwati's neighbouring dialects are Bangru and Bagri to the north,

and

Torawati Torawati (also known as Tanwarawati or Toravati) was a small chieftainship whose rulers claimed to be direct descendants of Anangpal II, the Tomara king of Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a ci ...

to the west, and

to the south.According to ; he additionally lists

Braj Bhasha The Braj language, ''Braj Bhasha'', also known as Vraj Bhasha or Vrij Bhasha or Braj Bhāṣā or Braji or Brij Bhasha or Braj Boli, is a Western Hindi language. Along with Awadhi (a variety of Eastern Hindi), it was one of the two predominant ...

as an eastern neighbour, but this appears to be contradicted by the other chapters in the volume (e.g. ), which present Mewati as intervening between Ahirwati and Braj.

References

Bibliography

* * * *{{cite book, last = Yadav , first = Shankar Lal, chapter = Ahīrvāṭī , title = Hariyāṇā kī upabhāṣāeṃ, date = c. 1979 , editor-last = Sharada, editor-first = Sadhu Ram , pages = 193–269, place = Chandigarh, publisher = Bhasha Vibhag, language = Hindi Indo-Aryan languages Haryana