The Garhwali are a people of the hilly Garhwal Division of Uttarakhand. The Garhwali language belongs to the Pahari (Northern) subgroup of Indo-Aryan. Garhwal, or Gurwal, is a region and administrative division of Uttaranchal state, India, lying in the Himalayas. ... A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages. ... The Indo-Aryan languages form a subgroup of the Indo-Iranian languages, which belong to the Indo-European family of languages. ... The Pahari languages, also known as Northern Zone languages, are a group of related Indo-Aryan languages or dialects spoken in the lower ranges of the Himalayas from Nepal in the east to the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh in the west. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... Garhwal, or Gurwal, is a region and administrative division of Uttaranchal state, India, lying in the Himalayas. ... , Uttarakhand (Hindi: उत्तराखंड), known as Uttaranchal from 2000 to 2006, became the 27th state of the Republic of India on November 9, 2000. ... The Pahari languages, also known as Northern Zone languages, are a group of related Indo-Aryan languages or dialects spoken in the lower ranges of the Himalayas from Nepal in the east to the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh in the west. ... The Indo-Aryan languages form a subgroup of the Indo-Iranian languages, which belong to the Indo-European family of languages. ...

Bhotiyas living in the north speak Tibeto-Burman dialects that is unintelligible to other Garwhali dialects and Tibetan. The closest language is Kumauni (or Kumaoni) to its immediate east in the Central subgroup of the Pahari chain of dialects stretching from Himachal Pradesh to Nepal. Garhwali, like Kumauni has many regional dialects spoken in different places in Uttarakhand. The Script used for Garhwali is Devanagari. The Bhotiya are an ethno-linguistic group of people living in the trans-Himalayan region that divides India from Tibet. ... The Tibeto-Burman linguistic subfamily of the proposed Sino-Tibetan language family is spoken in various central and south Asian countries: Myanmar (Burmese language), Tibet (Tibetan language), northern Thailand (Mong language), Nepal, Bhutan, India (Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and the Ladakh region of... Variously used to signify the people or the local dialect of Kumaon Division of Uttaranchal, a region in the Indian Himalayas. ... Selected ethnic groups of Nepal; Bhotia, Sherpa, Thakali Gurung Kiranti, Rai, Limbu Newari Pahari Tamang Pahari (or Pahaari) is a general terms for a range of dialects spoken across the Himalayan range, not limited to a single country in the subcontinent. ... , Himachal Pradesh   (Panjabi: ਹਿਮਾਚਲ ਪਰਦੇਸ਼,(Hindi: हिमाचल प्रदेश, IPA: ) is a state in the north-west of India. ... , Uttarakhand (Hindi: उत्तराखंड), known as Uttaranchal from 2000 to 2006, became the 27th state of the Republic of India on November 9, 2000. ... Rigveda manuscript in Devanagari (early 19th century) DevanāgarÄ« (देवनागरी — in English pronounced ) (ISCII – IS13194:1991) [1] is an abugida alphabet used to write several Indian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri and Nepali from Nepal. ...

The Bangani dialect of Garhwali played a certain role in Indo-European studies in the 1980s, when Claus-Peter Zoller announced the discovery of apparent traces of a centum language in it. However, George van Driem and Suhnu Sharma later went there to do further fieldwork [1], and claim that it is in fact a satem language, and that Zoller's data were flawed. Zoller does not accept this [2][3], and claims that their data was flawed. Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics, dealing with the Indo-European languages. ... Centum is the collective name for the branches of Indo-European in which the so-called Satem shift, the change of palato-velar *k^, *g^, *g^h into fricatives or affricates, did not take place, and the palato-velar consonants merged with plain velars (*k, *g, *gh). ... George van Driem is a research professor at Leiden University, where he holds the chair of Descriptive Linguistics. ...

Dialects

• Pahari
  • Tehri/Sailani (Gangapariya) - spoken in Tehri Garhwal.
  • Jaunsari - spoken in Jaunsar-Babar area (strongly related to neighbouring Himachali dialects), only limited mutual intellegibility with the other dialects.
  • Srinagari - classical Garhwali spoken in erstwhile royal capital, similar to Pauri.
  • Badhani
  • Dessaulya
  • Lohbya
  • Majh-Kumaiya
  • Bhattiani
  • Nagpuriya
  • Rathi
  • Salani (Pauri)
  • Ravai
  • Bangani
  • Parvati - reportedly not mutually intelligible with other dialects.
  • Jaunpuri
  • Gangadi (Uttarkashi)
  • Chandpuri
• Tibeto-Burman
  • Marchi/Bhotia - spoken by Marchas, neighbouring Tibet.
  • Jadhi - Spoken in parts of Uttarkashi.

Garhwali is a dialect spoken by four million Garhwali people, mostly living in the Garhwali region of a north Indian state Uttaranchal. This dialect follows the grammar of Hindi and most of its spoken words are deformed versions of Hindi words. Almost all people who can speak and understand Garhwali can speak and understand Hindi also. This is one of the dialects which is shrinking very rapidly and becoming out of fashion. Most of the educated people who live in cities hardly speak Garhwali and in most cases parents still speak and understand Garhwali but their children cannot. Although it is easy to write Garhwali in Hindi (Devnagri) script, there is hardly any literature available in Garhwali. In the last few decades there have been many singers like Narendra Singh Negi who have made people interested in Garhwali by their popular songs & videos. On an average there is one movie in four or five years in Garhwali. If you are planning to visit tourist places of this Middle Himalayan Region (Badrinath, Kedarnath, Uttarkashi, Joshimath etc.) your knowledge of Garhwali can be useful. Tehri is a city and a municipal board in Tehri Garhwal District in the Indian state of Uttaranchal. ... Garhwal, or Gurwal, is a region and administrative division of Uttaranchal state, India, lying in the Himalayas. ... Sherpa (ཤེརཔཱ , Devnagari: शेर्पा; also Sharpa, Sharpa Bhotia, Xiaerba, Serwa; ISO/DIS 639-3: xsr) is a language spoken in parts of Nepal and Sikkim mainly by the Sherpa community. ... Uttarkashi District, also known as Uttar Kashi District, is a district of Uttaranchal state in northern India. ...

References

• SIL Ethnologue [4]

SIL International is a worldwide non-profit evangelical Christian organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document lesser-known languages in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy and aid minority language development. ... Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages primarily to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language. ...

External links

• Garhwali
• Language and Music of Uttarakhand