The Western Pahari languages are a group of
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, Uttarakha ...
that are spoken in the state of
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...
,
Jammu region
The Jammu division (; ) is a revenue and administrative division within Jammu and Kashmir, a union territory of India. It consists of the districts of Jammu, Doda, Kathua, Ramban, Reasi, Kishtwar, Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur and Samba. Most of ...
of
Jammu and Kashmir and parts of
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...
and
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
Languages
The following lists the languages classified as belonging to Western Pahari, with the provisional grouping used in
Glottolog
''Glottolog'' is a bibliographic database of the world's lesser-known languages, developed and maintained first at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany (between 2015 and 2020 at the Max Planck Institute for ...
4.1:
:
Jaunsari Jaunsari may refer to:
* Jaunsari people, an ethnic group of northern India
* Jaunsari language
Jaunsari () is a Western Pahari language of northern India spoken by the Jaunsari people in the Chakrata and Kalsi blocks of Dehradun district in ...
:Nuclear Himachali:
::
Hinduri
::
Pahari Kinnauri
::
Kullu Pahari
::
Mahasu Pahari
Mahasu Pahari (Takri: ) is a Western Pahari (Himachali, Takri: ) language spoken in Himachal Pradesh. It is also known as Mahasui or Mahasuvi. The speaking population is about 1,000,000 (2001). It is more commonly spoken in the Himachal Pradesh, S ...
::
Sirmauri
Sirmauri is a Western Pahari language spoken in the Sirmaur district in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western ...
:
Mandeali
Mandeali (Takri: ) is a language spoken in northern India, predominantly in the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh by the people of the Mandi Valley and particularly in the major city of Mandi. Other spellings for the name are Mandiyali and Mand ...
:Kangric-Chamealic-Bhattiyali:
::Chamealic:
:::
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 Bhiḍl ...
:::
Churahi
:::
Bhattiyali
:::
Bilaspuri
Bilaspuri (Takri: ), or Kahluri (Takri:) is a language spoken in northern India, predominantly in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh. It is associated with the people of the former princely state of Bilaspur in the Panjab Hills.
Bilaspu ...
:::
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- ...
:::
Gaddi
:::
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.
...
::Kangri-Dogri:
:::
Dogri
Dogri ( Name Dogra Akkhar: ; Devanagari: डोगरी; Nastaliq: ; ) is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, India, with smaller groups of speakers in adjoining regions of western Himachal Prad ...
:::
Kangri Kangri can mean:
*of, from, or related to the Kangra Valley or the Kangra district of northern India
*Kangri language, the Indo-Aryan language of the valley
*Kanger
A kanger (; also known as kangri or kangid or kangir) is an earthen pot woven ar ...
These languages are a
dialect chain
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...
, and neighbouring varieties may be
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
. Some Western Pahari languages have occasionally been regarded as dialects of either
Dogri
Dogri ( Name Dogra Akkhar: ; Devanagari: डोगरी; Nastaliq: ; ) is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, India, with smaller groups of speakers in adjoining regions of western Himachal Prad ...
, Hindustani or Punjabi.
Some Western Pahari languages, notably Dogri and Kangri, are
tonal, like their close relative
Punjabi but unlike most other Indic languages.
Dogri
Dogri ( Name Dogra Akkhar: ; Devanagari: डोगरी; Nastaliq: ; ) is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, India, with smaller groups of speakers in adjoining regions of western Himachal Prad ...
has been an official language in India since 2003.
Claus Peter Zoller Claus Peter Zoller is a linguist and professor of South Asian Studies at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages of the University of Oslo. His research interests include Hindi literature and Hindi, linguistics, the languages of the ...
, suggests that the
Bangani language is closely related to (or belongs to) the Western Pahari languages.
Status
According to the
United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), all of Western Pahari languages, except for Dogri, are under either definitely endangered or critically endangered category. None of these languages, except for Dogri, have any official status.
The demand for the inclusion of 'Pahari (Himachali)' under the Eight Schedule of the Constitution, which is supposed to represent multiple Pahari languages of Himachal Pradesh, had been made in the year 2010 by the state's Vidhan Sabha. There has been no positive progress on this matter since then even when small organisations are striving to save the language. Due to political interest, the language is currently recorded as a dialect of Hindi, even when having a poor mutual intelligibility with it and having a higher mutual intelligibility with other recognised languages like Dogri.
Recently, in October 2021 a PIL was also filed in the
Himachal Pradesh High Court
The Himachal Pradesh High Court is the High Court of the state of Himachal Pradesh.
Himachal Pradesh was born as a result of integration of twenty six Province and four Punjab hill States into a Centrally Administered Area on 15 Ap ...
which re-ignited the quest for recognizing Pahari (Himachali) or Western Pahari dialect chain spoken in Himachal as one of official languages of
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...
.The petitioners through the PIL also requested the court to direct the State government to promote Pahari (Himachali) and other local languages as the medium of instruction in primary and middle-level schools as per the
National Education Policy, 2020. As well as also prayed that the court direct the state government to include Pahari (Himachali) language as a separate category for the
2021 Census of India and simultaneously undertake an awareness campaign to create awareness amongst the masses, especially the youth of the State who speak Pahari (Himachali), to get it marked as their mother tongue in the upcoming Census. A bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Sabina while disposing off the PIL stated,“The direction as has been prayed for, cannot be issued to the State Government until and unless it is established on record that the Pahari (Himachali) language has its own script and that a common Pahari dialect is spoken throughout the State of Himachal Pradesh. We, however, set the petitioner at liberty to approach the Department of Language Art & Culture to the Government of Himachal Pradesh with his demand for undertaking research to promote a common Pahari (Himachali) nuclear language structure and nuclear Tankri script. If the petitioner approaches the respondents-State through its Additional Chief Secretary (Language Art & Culture) to the Government of Himachal Pradesh) for the prayer made in the Civil Writ Public Interest Litigation, it would be for the said authority to consider the same in accordance with the law.” Additionally, the petition had emphasised that
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
, which is the second official language of the state, had only 936 speakers according to the 2011 census and Pahari (Himachali) dialect chain which is spoken by more than 40 lakh people was being neglected and has not been made an official language even after having so many speakers.
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Map of Western Pahari languagesfrom
Grierson's early 20th-century
Linguistic Survey of India
The Linguistic Survey of India (LSI) is a comprehensive survey of the languages of British India, describing 364 languages and dialects. The Survey was first proposed by George Abraham Grierson, a member of the Indian Civil Service and a linguist w ...
*
*
Himachali Bhasaan effort by Himachal Pradesh State to form a Pahari language out of Western Pahari languages of the state.
{{Dogri-Kangri languages
Languages of Himachal Pradesh
Culture of Himachal Pradesh
Northern Indo-Aryan languages