Bhadarwahi is an Indo-Aryan language of the Western Pahari group spoken in the Bhadarwah region of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Bhadarwahi
𑚡𑚛𑚶𑚤𑚦𑚭𑚩𑚯 भद्रवाही بھَدَرْواہِی
Bhadarwahi written in Takri, Devanagari and Urdu scripts
Native to	Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh
Region	Bhaderwah, Doda district
Ethnicity	Bhaderwahis
Native speakers	120,000 (2011)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Western Pahari Bhadarwahi
Dialects	Bhalesi Padri Bhadrawahi proper Khasali dialect
Writing system	Devanagari, Takri, Nastaliq
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bhd
Glottolog	bhad1241
ELP	Bhadrawahi

The name Bhadarwahi can be understood either in a narrow sense as referring to the dialect, locally known as Bhiḍlāi, native to the Bhadarwah valley, or in a broader sense to cover the group of related dialects spoken in the wider region where Bhadarwahi proper is used as a lingua franca. In addition to Bhadarwahi proper, this group also includes Padri, Bhalesi, and Khasali (Khashali) dialect.[2] The Churahi language is closely related.

Wiktionary has a category on Bhadrawahi language.

This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.

The name of the language is spelt in the Takri as 𑚡𑚛𑚤𑚦𑚭𑚩𑚯. Variants include Bhaderwahi (𑚡𑚛𑚲𑚤𑚦𑚭𑚩𑚯),[3] Baderwali (𑚠𑚛𑚲𑚤𑚦𑚭𑚥𑚯), Bhadri (𑚡𑚛𑚤𑚯), Badrohi (𑚠𑚛𑚶𑚤𑚴𑚩𑚯), Bhadlayi (𑚡𑚛𑚥𑚭𑚣𑚯), and Bhadlai (𑚡𑚛𑚥𑚭𑚃).

Phonology

According to Masica (1991) there are a set of lateral retroflex affricates /ʈ͡ꞎ ɖ͡ɭ ɖ͡ɭʱ/ from old /Cr/ clusters.[5]

Status

The language is commonly called Pahari.^{[citation needed]} Some speaker may even call it a dialect of Dogri.[6] The language has no official status. According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the language is of definitely endangered category, i.e. many Bhadravahi parents are not teaching this language to the children with which the number of its native speakers is decreasing. Some other languages, such as Kashmiri and Urdu/Hindi are taking this place. This is an archetypical natural human tendency of picking up the language of people placed better economically and socially. [7]

Notable events

A daily news headlines program is broadcast by a Doda-based News Media outlet The Chenab Times in Sarazi and Bhaderwahi languages to promote them.[8][9]

References

Sources

• Masica, Colin P. (21 March 1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-23420-7.