Kangri (Takri: ) is a Western Pahari language, spoken in Himachal Pradesh, predominantly in the Kangra district, Hamirpur district and hilly parts of Una district 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. 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.thumb|Specimen in Kangri language|alt=|center

Phonology

Consonants

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! colspan="2" |

!Labial

!Dental/<br />Alveolar

!Retroflex

!Post-alv./<br />Palatal

!Velar

!Glottal

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! colspan="2" |Nasal

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! rowspan="3" |Plosive/<br />Affricate

!<small>voiceless</small>

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!<small>aspirated</small>

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!<small>voiced</small>

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! colspan="2" |Fricative

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! colspan="2" |Lateral

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! colspan="2" |Tap

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|,

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! colspan="2" |Approximant

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|()

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  • 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.

Vowels

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

!

! Front

! Central

! Back

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! Close

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! Near-close

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! Mid

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! Open-mid

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! Open

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

Tone

Kangri is a tonal language like Punjabi and Dogri but the assignment of tones differs in Kangri when compared to them.

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 and Dogri. That is, Kangri has lost the aspiration (in gaining tone), but Punjabi and 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. 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). 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. There has been no positive progress on this matter since then, even after several small organisations demand for the preservation of the language.

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.

References

Further reading

  • Singh, Amitjit. "The Language Divide in Punjab." Sagar, Volume 4, Number 1, Spring 1997.
  • Goldsmith, Parvin. "Scripture in Kangri recordings (mp3s)" 2007.