Bhalesi is an

Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...

spoken in the

Bhalessa Bhalessa is a geographical area within Doda district in the Jammu region of India-administered Kashmir. It consists of the Bunjwah and Bhalessa Valleys, and comprises the three Tehsils of Kahara, Chilly Pingal and Gandoh. Name The name is writt ...

region of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is a member of the

Bhadarwahi Bhadarwahi is an Indo-Aryan language of the Western Pahari group spoken in the Bhaderwah region of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The name Bhadarwahi can be understood either in a narrow sense as referring to the dialect, locally known as Bhiḍ ...

group of dialects under the

Western Pahari The Western Pahari languages are a group of Northern Indo-Aryan languages that are spoken in the state of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Uttarakhand and Punjab Languages The following lists the languages cla ...

subgroup. The region is locally known as ''Bhalessa'' (with variants like ''Bhalesh''), or as ''Bhal'', and from these terms derive the local names for the dialect: and (with variants , ). The region mostly takes up two adjacent mountain valleys, with the main settlements being Kahra, Gandoh, Kilhotran, Jakyas, Bhatyas, and Juggasar. The neighbouring languages are Chinali,

Pangwali Pangwali ( Takri: ) is a Western Pahari language of Himachal Pradesh, India. It is spoken in the Pangi Tehsil of Chamba district, and is threatened to go extinct. Pangwali is natively written in the Takri script, but Devanagari is used as well. ...

and

Chambeali Chambeali ( Takri: ) is a language spoken in the Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. Classification The Chambeali language is a part of the North-Western branch of the Indo-Aryan languages. It is further classified as a member of the Western- ...

to the south-east, Padri to the north-east,

Kishtwari Kishtwari or Kashtwari is a northern Indo-Aryan language closely related to the Kashmiri language, with strong influences from neighboring Western Pahari varieties, spoken in Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Kishtwari has historic ...

to the north-west, Sarazi to the west, and

to the south. Features that distinguish Bhalesi from the other Bhadarwahi dialects include the preponderence of

diphthongs A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...

, and the dropping of between vowels (e.g. Bhalesi vs. Bhadarwahi 'black'). An unusual feature is found in one of the patterns for the formation of the

plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

of feminine nouns, adjectives and participles. While some forms add a suffix ( 'a small bee' -> 'small bees'), others will undergo

apophony In linguistics, apophony (also known as ablaut, (vowel) gradation, (vowel) mutation, alternation, internal modification, stem modification, stem alternation, replacive morphology, stem mutation, internal inflection etc.) is any alternation wit ...

: the final and initial vowels are raised, for example: * 'a small jug' -> 'small jugs' * 'a white ant' -> 'white ants' * 'she went' -> 'they(f) went'

References

Bibliography

* *{{cite book, last = Varma, first = Siddheshwar, year = 1948, title = The Bhalesī dialect, series = Monograph series (Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal), volume = 4, place = Calcutta Indo-Aryan languages Northern Indo-Aryan languages Languages of Jammu and Kashmir