Pahari language

Pahari, or Pahadi (पहाड़ी پہاڑی pahāṛī 'of the hills/mountains'; English: /pəˈhɑːri/)^[1] 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
• Western Pahari languages spoken primarily in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh,^[2] with some languages in the south-eastern parts of Indian Jammu and Kashmir,^[3]
• Northern Indo-Aryan languages, 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^[4]
• a local name for a variety of Bilaspuri spoken in a certain hilly area of Indian Punjab^[2]
• a name nowadays used only in rural areas to refer to the Nepali language^[5]
• a local name for a Bhili dialect of Eastern Gujarat.^[2]

Pahari (पहरी paharī) refers to:

• Pahari language (Sino-Tibetan), a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by a few thousand people in central Nepal.^[6]

Of similar origin is the name Paharia, which is used for several languages of east-central India: see Paharia language (disambiguation).

References

1. "Pahari". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
2. Masica, Colin P. (1991). The Indo-Aryan languages. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press. p. 439. ISBN 978-0-521-23420-7.
3. Kaul, Pritam Krishen (2006). Pahāṛi and Other Tribal Dialects of Jammu. Vol. 1. Delhi: Eastern Book Linkers. ISBN 8178541017.
4. Brightbill, Jeremy D.; Turner, Scott D. (2007). A sociolinguistic survey of the Dogri language, Jammu and Kashmir (Report). SIL Electronic Survey Reports. p. 7.
5. Riccardi, Theodore (2003). "Nepali". In George Cardona; Dhanesh Jain (eds.). The Indo-Aryan languages. Routledge language family series. Y. London: Routledge. p. 540. ISBN 978-0-7007-1130-7.
6. Smith, Brianne J. (2022). A Sociolinguistic Study of Pahari: A Language of Nepal (Report). Journal of Language Survey Reports. 2022-003.