Jaunsari language

Jaunsari (Devanagari: जौनसारी) is a Western Pahari language of northern India spoken by the Jaunsari people in the Kalsi, Chakrata and Tyuni sub-districts of Dehradun district in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand state.

The Jaunsari language spoken in red area in western Pahari languages

Jaunsari
Jaunsari Script
Native to	India
Region	Uttarakhand
Ethnicity	Jaunsari
Native speakers	136,779 (2011)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northern Western Pahari Jaunsari
Writing system	Sirmauri script(Historical)[2] Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3	jns
Glottolog	jaun1243
ELP	Jaunsari

The dialects of Jaunsari share about 60% of their basic vocabulary with each of the neighbouring varieties of Bangani, Jaunpuri, Nagpuriya and Sirmauri.^[3]

Script

Mr. Anil speaking Jaunsari.

Jaunsari was historically written in Jaunsari Script . The Devanagari script is being used these days in certain works.^[4]

Specimen in Jaunsari script

Status

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 Jaunsari children are not learning Jaunsari as their mother tongue any longer.^[5] The Ethnologue reports otherwise.

In 2016, State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) announced that Garhwali, Kumaoni, Jaunsari and Rang languages would be introduced on pilot basis for students in standard one to 10th in government schools Under the ‘Know Your Uttarakhand’ project.^[6]