Hinduri language

Western Pahari language of northern India
title: "Hinduri language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["northern-indo-aryan-languages", "indo-aryan-languages", "languages-of-himachal-pradesh", "endangered-languages-of-india", "languages-written-in-devanagari", "languages-listed-as-hindi-dialects-in-latest-census"] description: "Western Pahari language of northern India" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduri_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Western Pahari language of northern India ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Hinduri |
| altname | Handuri |
| nativename | हिंडूरी, hiṁḍūrī |
| हंडूरी, haṁḍūrī | |
| states | India |
| region | Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh |
| speakers | 47,800 |
| date | 2001 census |
| ref | e25 |
| speakers2 | Census results conflate some speakers with Hindi. |
| familycolor | Indo-European |
| fam2 | Indo-Iranian |
| fam3 | Indo-Aryan |
| fam4 | Northern |
| fam5 | Western Pahari |
| script | Takri, |
| Devanagari{{cite book | title |
| iso3 | hii |
| glotto | hind1267 |
| glottorefname | Hinduri |
| image | Hinduri language.svg |
| imagecaption | The word "Hinduri" written in Devanagari script |
| :: |
| name = Hinduri | altname = Handuri | nativename = हिंडूरी, hiṁḍūrī हंडूरी, haṁḍūrī | states = India | region = Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh | ethnicity = | speakers = 47,800 | date = 2001 census | ref = e25 | speakers2 = Census results conflate some speakers with Hindi. | familycolor = Indo-European | fam2 = Indo-Iranian | fam3 = Indo-Aryan | fam4 = Northern | fam5 = Western Pahari | script = Takri, Devanagari | iso3 = hii | glotto = hind1267 | glottorefname = Hinduri | image = Hinduri language.svg | imagecaption = The word "Hinduri" written in Devanagari script Hinduri (or Handuri) is a Western Pahari language of northern India. It was classified as a dialect under the Mahasui Keonthali Group.
Phonology
Consonants
::data[format=table] | Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Retroflex | Post-alv./ Palatal | Velar | Glottal | Nasal | voiced | breathy | Stop/ Affricate | voiceless | aspirated | voiced | breathy | Fricative | Rhotic | voiced | breathy | Lateral | voiced | breathy | Approximant | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::
Vowels
::data[format=table]
| Front | Central | Back | High | Mid | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| () | |||||
| :: |
Script
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Handuri_Sample.jpg" caption="pages=588–590}}"] ::
Status
The language is commonly called Pahari or Himachali. Some speakers may even call it a dialect of Punjabi or Dogri. The language has no official status. According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the language is of critically endangered category, i.e. the youngest speakers of Handuri are generally grandparents or older and they too speak it infrequently or partially.
The demand for the inclusion of 'Pahari (Himachali)' 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 striving to save the language. The language is currently recorded as a dialect of Hindi, even when having a poor mutual intelligibility with it.
References
References
- "Census of India: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues –2001".
- "LSI 1898".
- "Linguistic Survey Of India (Volume 9, Part 4)".
- "Linguistic Survey Of India (Volume 9, Part 4)".
- (1916). "Linguistic Survey Of India Vol.9 Part.4".
- (15 April 2011). "Endangered Language".
- "Pahari Inclusion". Zee News.
- "Pahari Inclusion". The Statesman.
- "Indian Language Census".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::