PAHARI LANGUAGE (properly Pahari, the language of the mountains), a general name applied to the Indo-Aryan languages or dialects spoken in the lower ranges of the Himalayas from Nepal in the east, to Chamba of the Punjab in the west. These forms of speech fall into three groups—an eastern, consist ing of the various dialects of Khas-kura, the language of Nepal; a central, spoken in the north of the United Provinces, in Kumaon and Garhwal ; and a western, spoken in the country round Simla and in Chamba. In Nepal, Khas-kura is the lan guage only of the Aryan population, the mother tongue of most of the inhabitants being some form or other of Tibeto-Bur man speech. Khas-kura is mainly differentiated from Central Pa hari through its being affected by Tibeto-Burman idioms. Central and Western Pahari have not been brought into close association with Tibeto-Burmans ; their language is therefore purely Aryan.
Khas-kura, as its speakers themselves call it, passes under various names. The English term Nepali or Naipali (i.e., the lan guage of Nepal) is a misnomer, for it is not the principal form of speech used in that country, viz., the Tibeto-Burman Newari. Khas-kura is also called Gorkhali, or the language of the Gurk has, and Pahari or Parbatiya, the language of the mountains.
Central Pahari includes two dialects :—Garhwali, spoken mainly in Garhwal and the country round the hill station of Mussoorie, and Kumauni, spoken in Kumaun, including the coun try round the hill station of Naini Tal.
Western Pahari includes a great number of dialects. In the Simla Hill States alone no less than twenty-two, of which the most important are Sirmauri and Keonthali (the dialect of Simla it self), were recorded. To these may be added Jaunsari, spoken in the Jaunsar tract of Dehra Dun ; Chambiali and Churali, of the state of Chamba; Mandeali of the state of Mandl; Gadi of Chamba and Kangra; Kuluhi of Kulu, and others.
But the Aryan language of the whole Pahari area is now a form of Rajasthani, exhibiting at the same time traces of the old Khaga language which it superseded, and also in Nepal of the Tibeto-Burman forms of speech by which it is surrounded.
Khas-kura shows most traces of Tibeto-Burman influence. The gender of nouns is purely sexual, and, although there is an oblique case derived from Rajasthani, it is so often confounded with the nominative, that in the singular number either can be employed for the other. Both these are due to Tibeto-Burman influence, but the non-Aryan idiom is most prominent in the use of the verb. There is an indefinite tense referring to present, past or future time according to the context, formed by suffixing the verb sub stantive to the root of the main verb, exactly as in some of the neighbouring Tibeto-Burman languages.
In Eastern and Central Pahari the verb substantive is formed from the root ach, as in both Rajasthani and Kashmiri. In Raja sthani its present tense, being derived from the Sanskrit present rcchcimi, I go, does not change for gender. But in Pahari and Kashmiri it is a participial tense and does change according to the gender of the subject.
Here we have a relic of the old Khaa, language, which seems to have been related to Kashmiri. Other relics of Khai are the tendency to shorten long vowels, the practice of epenthesis, or the modification of a vowel by the one which follows in the next syllable, and the frequent occurrence of disaspiration. (See INDO ARYAN LANGUAGES.)