7 facts about Himachali Pahari that every Himachali must know

Himachal Pradesh is a multicultural as well as multilingual state like many other Indian states. Some of the most commonly spoken languages are Hindi and Pahari. Pahari is a language spoken by more than ten million people spreading from Nepal through Himachal Pradesh , Poonch, Rajouri, and Uri of the J&K state, Pakistan administered Kashmir, through out in the North Pakistan ,up to the river Indus and Chitral, is one of most ancient languages spoken in central and south Asia. But today we will only share “7 facts about Himachali Pahari that every Himachali must know”

1. The Pahari language is divided into three forms. These are Northern Pahari, Eastern Pahari and Western Pahari. Western Pahari is also called Himachali Pahari and many languages comes under this form.

2.  Dogri, one of the Himachali Pahari languages, is recognized as one of the  national languages of India in the Indian constitution. It has 5 million speakers in India and Pakistan.

In Himachal, Dogri is majorly spoken in Hamirpur, Barsar, Una, Chintpurni, Kangra, and Bilaspur regions.

3. Western Pahari, includes no less than twenty–two dialects, of which the most important are Sirmauri and Keonthali (the dialect of Shimla). Other important dialects are Chambiali and Churahi of the state of Chamba, Mandyali of the state of Mandi, Himachali of Chamba and Kangra, Kuluhi(kulluvi) of Kullu.

4. Mahasu Pahari is one of the Western Pahari languages and is spoken by almost 1 million people in Shimla and Solan districts which were the parts of old Mahasu District.

 

According to different locations, the language has developed several dialects Lower Mahasu Pahari (Baghati, Baghliani, Kiunthali), Upper Mahasu Pahari  (Rampuri, Rohruri, Shimla Siraji, Sodochi).

5. Hinduri language is a Himachali Pahari language with only 30000 speakers left and is vulnerable to become an endangered language.

6. Sirmauri Pahari, is a pair of Western Pahari languages of northern India,  Dharthi (Giriwari) and Giripari. Their is a river called “Giri” which divides the Sirmour district in almost 2 halves and so places lying on the either sides are called Giri Aar and Giri Paar.

7. Before independence of India, In Himachal Pradesh many dialects of Himachali languages were used to written in Takri(Also known as Tankri) script. Since it fell into  disuse after Independence many efforts are made to revive Takri script for Himachali language.

We hope that you enjoyed reading about “7 facts about Himachali Pahari that every Himachali must know“. If you learnt something new today then do share it with fellow Pahadis.