Kului (, also known as Kulvi, Takri: ) is a Western Pahari language spoken in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

Phonology

Consonants

For the

stops Stop may refer to: Places *Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States * Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina Facilities * Bus stop * Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck dri ...

and affricates there is a four-way distinction in

phonation The term phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, ''phonation'' is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the defini ...

between tenuis , voiced , aspirated and breathy voiced series. lists as separate phonemes aspirated correlates of , , , , , , and , but describes the aspiration as a voiceless pharyngeal friction. is dental, but becomes alveolar if the next syllable contains a retroflex consonant. and are rare, but contrast with the other nasals word-medially between vowels. , and , together with their aspirated correlates, don't occur in the beginning of words. The

glottal stop The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...

occurs only between a vowel and , , or , e.g. "a trumpet", which contrasts with "famine". The

pharyngeal fricative A pharyngeal consonant is a consonant that is articulated primarily in the pharynx. Some phoneticians distinguish upper pharyngeal consonants, or "high" pharyngeals, pronounced by retracting the root of the tongue in the mid to upper pharynx, ...

historically derives from and occurs word-finally, e.g. "grass", "twenty".

Script

The native script of the language is a variety of Takri script. Kullui

Status

The language is commonly called Pahari or Himachali. The language has no official status. According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the language is of definitely endangered category, i.e. many Kulluvi children are not learning Kulluvi as their mother tongue any longer.

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Pahari-languages.ru
a Kullui documentation project {{Authority control Languages of India Northern Indo-Aryan languages Endangered languages of India Languages of Himachal Pradesh