Hinduri language explained

Hinduri
Also Known As:Handuri
Nativename:हिंडूरी, hiṁḍūrī
हंडूरी, haṁḍūrī
States:India
Region:Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh
Speakers:47,800
Date:2001 census
Ref:e25
Speakers2:Census results conflate some speakers with Hindi.[1]
Familycolor:Indo-European
Fam2:Indo-Iranian
Fam3:Indo-Aryan
Fam4:Northern
Fam5:Western Pahari
Script:Takri,[2] Devanagari[3]
Iso3:hii
Glotto:hind1267
Glottorefname:Hinduri

Hinduri (or Handuri) is a Western Pahari language of northern India. It was classified as a dialect under the Kiunthali Group[4]

Status

The language is commonly called Pahari or Himachali. Some speakers may even call it a dialect of Punjabi or Dogri. The language has no official status. According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the language is of critically endangered category, i.e. the youngest speakers of Handuri are generally grandparents or older and they too speak it infrequently or partially.[5]

The demand for the inclusion of 'Pahari (Himachali)' 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.[6] There has been no positive progress on this matter since then even when small organisations are striving to save the language.[7] The language is currently recorded as a dialect of Hindi,[8] even when having a poor mutual intelligibility with it.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Census of India: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues –2001.
  2. Book: LSI 1898.
  3. Book: Linguistic Survey Of India (Volume 9, Part 4) . 586–592.
  4. Book: Linguistic Survey Of India (Volume 9, Part 4) . 586–592.
  5. Web site: Endangered Language. . 15 April 2011.
  6. News: Pahari Inclusion. Zee News.
  7. News: Pahari Inclusion. The Statesman.
  8. Web site: Indian Language Census.