Pahari Kinnauri language
Pahari Kinnauri, or Kinnauri Pahari (Takri: 𑚊𑚮𑚝𑚵𑚤𑚯 𑚞𑚩𑚭𑚪𑚯), also known as Oras Boli (Takri: 𑚈𑚤𑚭𑚨 𑚠𑚴𑚥𑚯), is a Western Pahari of northern India. It is spoken by different tribal groups in Kinnaur District; the language used to be commonly known as ‘Kinnauri Tribal language’, but this is now considered a derogatory term. It is not clear how distinct it is from other varieties of Himachali.
Pahari Kinnauri | |
---|---|
Indo Aryan Kinnauri | |
𑚞𑚩𑚭𑚪𑚯 𑚊𑚮𑚝𑚵𑚤𑚯, पहाड़ी किनौरी, 𑚈𑚤𑚭𑚨 𑚠𑚴𑚥𑚯, ओरास बोली Pahari Kinnauri, Oras Boli | |
Native to | India |
Region | Himachal Pradesh |
Ethnicity | Tribal of Kinnaur district |
Native speakers | (6,300 cited 1998 survey)[1] |
Indo-European
| |
Takri, Devanagari | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | kjo |
Glottolog | hari1246 |
Status
The language is also commonly called Pahari or Himachali. The language has no official status and is recorded under Kinnauri or Pahari.[2] According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the language is of definitely endangered category, i.e. many Kinnauri Pahari children are not learning Kinnauri Pahari as their mother tongue any longer. One of the reason is he favoritism towards Hindi by the Indian Government.
A 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, was made in the year 2010 by the state's Vidhan Sabha.[3] There has been no positive progress on this matter since then, despite small organisations making efforts to save the language.[4] Due to political interest, the language is currently recorded as a dialect of Hindi, even when having a poor mutual intelligibility with it. As of now, there is no proposal to grant any status to Kinnauri.
References
- Pahari Kinnauri at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- "Indian Language Census" (PDF).
- "Pahari Inclusion". Zee News.
- "Pahari Inclusion". The Statesman.
Relevant literature
- Kumar, Ajesh and Saramma Bezily (2015). Kinnauri Pahari: Phonemic Summary, Himachal Pradesh, India. Reckong Peo: Unpublished manuscript.
- Kim, HaeKyung. 2021. Split case system and Case marking on NPs in Kinnauri Pahari, Proceedings of the Payap University Research Symposium 2021, Chiang Mai. Feb. 12, 2021. Payap University: Research and Academic Service Affairs. 1203-1211.
- Kim, HaeKyung. 2019. Verb agreement in Kinnauri Pahari. Proceedings of the Payap Research Symposium 2019. Chiang Mai. Feb. 8, 2019. Payap University: Research and Academic Service Affairs. 760-772.
- Negi, Harvinder. "A sociolinguistic profile of the Kinnaura tribe." Nepalese Linguistics 27 (2012): 101-105.
- Saxena, Anju. "A Linguistic Sketch of Kinnauri Pahari." In The Linguistic Landscape of the Indian Himalayas, pp. 272-375. Brill, 2022.