Pahari, or Pahadi ( 'of the hills/mountains'; ) is an ambiguous term that has been used for a variety of languages, dialects and language groups, most of which are found in the lower Himalayas.
Most commonly, it refers to:
*
Pahari-Pothwari, the predominant language of Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir and neighbouring areas of Punjab and Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir
* individual
Western Pahari languages spoken primarily in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh,
with some languages in the south-eastern parts of Indian Jammu and Kashmir,
*
Northern Indo-Aryan languages
The Northern Indo-Aryan languages, also known as Pahāṛi languages, are a proposed group of Indo-Aryan languages spoken in the lower ranges of the Himalayas, from Nepal in the east, through the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhan ...
, in the linguistics literature often referred to as "Pahari languages", a proposed group that includes the Indo-Aryan languages of Nepal and the Indian states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
Less commonly, ''Pahari'' may be:
* a term used by
Dogri speakers of the plains to refer to the Dogri varieties spoken at higher elevations, in Indian Jammu and Kashmir
* a local name for a variety of
Bilaspuri spoken in a certain hilly area of
Indian Punjab
* a name nowadays used only in rural areas to refer to the
Nepali language
Nepali (; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Himalayas region of South Asia. It is the official, and most widely spoken, language of Nepal, where it also serves as a '' lingua franca''. Nepali has official status in the Indian st ...
* a local name for a
Bhili dialect of Eastern
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the nin ...
.
Pahari ( ''paharī'') refers to:
*
Pahari language (Sino-Tibetan), a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by a few thousand people in central Nepal.
Of similar origin is the name ''Paharia'', which is used for several languages of east-central India: see
Paharia language (disambiguation).
References
{{Reflist
Language naming