Kangri language

Kangri (Takri: 𑚊𑚭𑚫𑚌𑚪𑚯) is a Western Pahari language, spoken in Himachal Pradesh, predominantly in the Kangra district, Hamirpur district and hilly parts of Una district of Himachal Pradesh, as well as in some parts of Mandi and Chamba districts of Himachal Pradesh and in hilly parts of Pathankot and Hoshiarpur districts of Punjab.^[1] It is also spoken in some areas of Jammu region and in a few villages of Pakistan by the people belonging to the families migrated from Kangra region. It is associated with the people of the Kangra.^[1]

Kangri
कांगड़ी
Kangri written in Takri and Devanagari
Native to	India
Region	Himachal Pradesh
Native speakers	1.1 million (2011)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan North-Western or Northern Western Pahari Kangri
Writing system	Takri, Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xnr
Glottolog	kang1280

Like most of Indo-Aryan languages, Kangri does form a dialect continuum with its neighbouring languages. This includes the Pahari varieties spoken to the east Mandeali and Kullui, north to Chambeali, Gaddi & Bhateali, south-east to Kahluri and Hinduri, Baghliani, Baghati and Keonthali dialects of Mahasui. Besides it also share continuum north-west to Dogri.^[2] It is classified under Western Pahari.

Script

The native script of the language is Takri Script but now people write Kangri Language in Devanagari script.

Specimen in Kangri language

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Retroflex	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	(ɳ)
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	ʈ	tʃ	k
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	ʈʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ
	voiced	b	d	ɖ	dʒ	ɡ
Fricative			s				ɦ
Lateral			l	ɭ
Tap			ɾ	ɽ, ɽ̃
Approximant					(j)

• It is not clear whether or not [j] is considered as a separate phoneme, but it does occur in various phonetic environments.
• [ɳ] is heard mostly as either an allophone of /ɽ̃/, and as /n/ before a retroflex stop.^[3]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	iː		uː
Near-close	ɪ		ʊ
Mid	e	ə	o
Open-mid			ɔ
Open	æ	ɑː

• /e/ can also become lowered to a nasal [ɛ̃], after /ɽ̃/.

Tone

Kangri is a tonal language like Punjabi or Dogri but the assignment of tones differs in Kangri when compared to them.^[4]

Most of the surrounding language varieties (including Kangri) lack voiced, aspirated obstruents (J. C. Sharma 2002, Masica 1993). The cognates of Hindi voiced, aspirated obstruents are voiced but have no aspiration. They are distinct from the cognates of voiced unaspirated obstruents by the tone induced by the loss of aspiration. Another difference to note between Kangri and Punjabi/Dogri is that these forms surface as voiced consonants in Kangri, but voiceless consonants in Punjabi/Dogri. That is, Kangri has lost the aspiration (in gaining tone), but Punjabi/Dogri has lost both aspiration and voicing. It is likely that these are separate innovations which originated in the West (Punjab or Jammu & Kashmir) and have spread outwards. The loss of aspiration (and gaining of tone) has been fully realized in all three languages, but the loss of voicing has not yet reached Kangri.^[4]

Grammar

Pronouns

The pronouns of Kangri for different persons and numbers are as follows:

Person	Number	Kangri	IPA
1st	Singular	मैं	mæ̃
	Plural	असाँ / अहाँ	əsãː / əhãː
2nd	Singular	तू	t̪u
	Plural	तुसाँ / त्वहाँ	t̪usãː / t̪vəhãː
3rd	Singular & Plural	सै	sæ

Noun Cases

Using the noun घर (/kʰər/, "home") as an example, the cases in Kangri are:

Case	Kangri	Hindi Equivalent	English Equivalent
Nominative	घर	घर	home
Accusative	घरे यो/जो	घर को	to home
Ergative	घरैँ	घर ने	(by) home
Comitative	घरेने	घर के साथ	with home
Instrumental	घरेते	घर से	through home
Dative	घरेताँइ	घर के लिए	for home
Ablative	घरेते	घर से	from home
Genitive	घरे दा / दे / दि / दियाँ	घर का / की / के	of home

Locatives

Case	Kangri	Hindi Equivalent	English Equivalent
Inessive	घरेच	घर में	in home
Adessive	घरे पर	घर पर	on home

Others

Case	Kangri	Hindi Equivalent	English Equivalent
Vocative	घर॑	ओ घर	O home
Semblative	घर देआ / दए / दइ / दीयाँ	घर सा / सी / से	like home
Similative	घरे साइ	घर जैसा	similar to home
Terminative	घरे तिक्कर	घर तक	up to home

Postpositional / Oblique forms

Noun	Singular	Plural
घर	घरे	घरेयाँ
घड़ा	घड़े	घड़ेयाँ
नदी	नदिया	नदियाँ
घ्यो	घ्यो	घ्योआँ

Status

Interview of Sahil in Kangri language at Dharamshala, India

The language is commonly clubbed as Pahari or Himachali. Some Dogri linguists have referred Kangri as part of their language due to similarities and decent mutual intelligibility between them.^{[5][6][need quotation to verify]} This is generally observed only in bordering lects due to dialect continuum present among many Indo-Aryan languages. Kangri writers & poets have been making submissions to Pahari language's cause under Himachal Pradesh Academy of Arts, Culture & Languages (HPAACL).^[7] 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 Kangri children are not learning Kangri as their mother tongue any longer.

The demand for the inclusion of 'Western Pahari' under the Eight Schedule of the Constitution, which is supposed to represent multiple Pahari languages of Himachal Pradesh, had been made in the year 2010 by the state's Vidhan Sabha.^[8] There has been no positive progress on this matter since then, even after several small organisations demand for the preservation of the language.^[9]

Gautam Sharma Vyathit and Chandrarekha Dhadwal are noted for their contributions to the preservation of Kangri folk songs as well as their novel contributions to Kangri literature.