Badrawahi as an endangered language by Fizza Batool

Bhadrawahi Language

Other names for Bhadarwahi: Baderwali, Badrohi, Bahi, Bhaderbhai Jamu, Bhaderwali Pahari, Bhadrava, Bhadrawahi, Bhadri, भदारावाही

Population: 53,000 (2002).

Location: Jammu and Kashmir state: Doda district, Bhadarwah town and surrounding villages; Himachal Pradesh state: small border area.

Number of speakers: 53,000 (2002) (Ethnologue)

Number of speakers: 66918 (UNESCO)

Number of speakers: 69000 (World Oral Literature Project)

Documentation: SIL

Parent Subgroup: Western Pahari; Western Pahāṛī (wpah)

Child Dialects: Padari; Pāḍarī; Padar (bhd-par)Padari; Padar (bhd-pad)Bhalesi; Bhalēsī (bhd-bha), Churahi, Bhadrawahi, Khashali. Lexical similarity: 45% with Pangwali [pgg].

Language Use: Vigorous in spite of high bilingualism; L1 seen as important. Home, village, religion. Positive attitudes. Also use Hindi [hin], Kashmiri [kas], Urdu [urd]. Highly multilingual environment.

Language Development: Literacy rate in L2: 70% (84% for males, 53% for females). Poetry. Radio programs.

Language Resources: OLAC resources in and about Bhadrawahi

Writing system: Arabic script [Arab]. Devanagari script [Deva].

Language family: Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, North-Western, Western Pahari (Dogri–Kangri), Mandeali

Spoken in: India, Pakistan

Bhadarwahi (Bhadrawahi) is a native language of the people of Bhadarwah, a tehsil in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Bhaderwahi is a Pahari language spoken by about 50,000 people in Bhaderwah town and surrounding villages (Bhadrawahi/Bhadarwahi, Bhalesi, Padari/Padri, and Khashali/Khasali dialects), and by about 110,000 people in Chaurah and Saluni tehsils in Himachal Pradesh. It has many alternate names like Baderwali, Bhadri, Badrohi, Bhidli.

Classification

Bhadarwahi is an Indo-Aryan language of Pahari group. According to Dr. G. A. Fierson the word Pahari applies to the groups of languages spoken in the sub-himalayan hills extending from Bhaderwah to the eastern parts of the Nepal. The Bhaderwah group includes three dialects, viz Bhaderwahi, Bhalesvi and Padri, which form a dialect chain with Churahi.

Place of Bhadrawahi in Language Cloud

Language descriptions

1.      ONLINEGlottolog 2.4 Resources for Bhadrawahi. n.a. 2015. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. oai:glottolog.org:bhad1241

Other resources about the language

1. ONLINEBhadrawahi: a language of India. n.a. 2013. SIL International. oai:ethnologue.com:bhd
2. ONLINELINGUIST List Resources for Bhadrawahi. Damir Cavar, Director of Linguist List (editor); Malgorzata E. Cavar, Director of Linguist List (editor). 2015-05-01. The LINGUIST List (www.linguistlist.org).oai:linguistlist.org:lang_bhd