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 group in Kinnaur District; the language used to be called as Kinnauri Tribal language, but it is no longer used as this is 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
Kinnauri Pahari and Oras Boli written in Takri Script.
Native toIndia
RegionHimachal Pradesh
EthnicityTribal of Kinnaur district
Native speakers
6,300 (1998 survey)[1]
Takri, Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3kjo
Glottologhari1246

Script

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

a specimen in Kinnauri language using Takri

Status

The language is also commonly called Pahari or Himachali. Some speaker may even call it a dialect of Punjabi or Dogri. 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.

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.[3] There has been no positive progress on this matter since then even when small organisations are taking upto themselves to save the language and demanding it.[4] 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.

As of now, there is no proposal to grant any status to Kinnauri.

References
  1. Pahari Kinnauri at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. "Indian Language Census" (PDF).
  3. "Pahari Inclusion". Zee News.
  4. "Pahari Inclusion". The Statesman.
  • Kumar, Ajesh and Saramma Bezily (2015). Kinnauri Pahari: Phonemic Summary, Himachal Pradesh, India. Reckong Peo: Unpublished manuscript.
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