Kangri language

Kangri (Takri: 𑚊𑚭𑚫𑚌𑚪𑚯) is an Indo-Aryan language , spoken in northern India, predominantly in the Kangra, Una and Hamirpur of Himachal Pradesh as well as in some parts of Mandi and Chamba districts of Himachal Pradesh and Gurdaspur, Rupnagar and Hoshiarpur districts of Punjab. Kangri language is also spoken in Duggar i.e. Jammu region and in a few villages of Pakistan by the people belonging to the families migrated from Kangra Valley. It is associated with the people of the Kangra Valley. The total number of speakers has been estimated at 2.3 million as of 2024.

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

Like most of IA 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. Besides it also share continuum north-west to Dogri and in south and west to Punjabi. It is currently classified under Western Pahari.

Kangri language is on International Dashboard of Current UD Languages since May 2021. Only ten Indian languages are there on this dashboard and Kangri is one of them. Google has also introduced Kangri keyboard for typing now.

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.

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.

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.

Grammar

Pronouns

The Pronouns of Kangri for different person and number are -

1st Person Singular : मैं /mæ̃/

1st Person Plural : असाँ, अहाँ /əsãː, əhãː/

2nd Person Singular : तू /tu/

2nd Person Plural : तुसाँ, त्वहाँ /t̪usãː, t̪vəhãː/

3rd Person Singular and Plural : सै /sæ/

Noun Cases

• Kangri - Hindi - English - Case
• घर /kʱər/ (noun)

1. घर - घर - home - Nominative

2. घरे यो/जो - घर को - to home - Accusative

3. घरैँ - घर ने - Ergative

‌4. घरेने - घर के साथ - with house - Comitative

5. घरेते - घर से - through home - Instrumental

6. घरेताँइ - घर के लिए - for home - Dative

7. घरेते - घर से - from home - Ablative

8. घरे दा, दे, दि, दियाँ - घर का/की/के - of home - Genetive

• Locatives

9. घरेच् - घर में - Innesive

10. घरे पर - घर पर - Addesive

• Others

11. घर॑ - ओ घर - Vocative

12. घर देआ, दए, दइ, दीयाँ - घर सा/सी/से - Semblative

13. घरे साइ - घर जैसा - Similative

14. घरे तिक्कर् - घर तक - Terminative

• Postpositional/Oblique forms -

Noun - Sin., Plu.

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 and Punjabi linguists have referred Kangri as part of their language due to similarities and decent mutual intelligibility between them. This is generally observed only in bordering lects due to dialect continuum present among many IA 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 when small organisations are taking it upon themselves to save the language. Due to political interest, the language is currently recorded as a dialect of Hindi, even when having a poor mutual intelligibility with it.

Further reading

• Eaton, Robert D. (2008). Kangri in context: An areal perspective (PhD). The University of Texas at Arlington.

External links

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