Eastern Pahari
| Pahari/Himalayan | |
|---|---|
| पहाड़ी | |
| (geographic) | |
| Geographic distribution |
India (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, West Bengal), Nepal, Azad Kashmir, Tibet |
| Linguistic classification |
Indo-European
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Glottolog | indo1310 |
The Pahari languages (Devanagari: पहाड़ी, pahāṛī 'of the mountains') also known as the Himalayan Languages are a geographic group of Indo-Aryan languages spoken in the lower ranges of the Himalayas, from Nepal in the east, through the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, to Azad Kashmir and Murree in Pakistan. They are usually written in the Devanagari and Persio-Arabic scripts.Newari may also be called "Pahari/Pahri", but belongs to a different language family.
The Pahari languages fall into three genealogical groups. Eastern and Central Pahari have been placed together as the Northern zone of Indo-Aryan, with Western Pahari in the Northwestern zone along with Punjabi and related languages.
There are a dozen Western Pahari languages, of which Dogri and Kangri are the best known. Though traditionally considered Pahari, and often Hindi or Punjabi, the Western Pahari languages are more closely related to each other than to other Indo-Aryan languages. 17-20% of Jammu and Kashmir's population speaks Pahari languages. Pahari, along with Urdu, are the two most spoken languages in Azad Kashmir.
In Nepal, Nepali is the native language mainly of the Indo-Aryan population of the "hills" north of the Mahabharat Range up to the limits of rice cultivation at about 2,500 meters. The mother tongues of most "hill tribes" of higher elevations are Tibeto-Burman. Nepali is mainly differentiated from Central Pahari through its being affected, both in grammar and vocabulary, by Tibeto-Burman idioms. The speakers of Central and Western Pahari have not been brought into close association with Tibeto-Burmans, and their language is therefore purely Indo-Aryan. Even the Bihari people have adapted this style and also use a wide range of terms from this language. English speakers generally call it Nepali. Khaskura is also called Gorkhali or Gurkhali, the language of the Gurkhas, and Parbatiya, the language of the mountains. Palpa, closely related to Khaskura, is deemed by some authorities to be a separate language.
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