Bilaspuri


Bilaspuri, or Kahluri is a Western Pahari language spoken in northern India, predominantly in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh. It is associated with the people of the former princely state of Bilaspur in the Hills State.
Bilaspuri is classified as one of the varieties of the Himachali language group. According to the 2011 Census, the speakers of Bilaspuri/Kahluri are 295,805.
The dialect of the hilly part of Hoshiarpur district is also known as Pahāṛī.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Dialects

Following are the five dialects of Bilaspuri:
  1. North-east Bilaspuri: ; resemblance with Mandeali and Baghliani dialect of Mahasui of Arki tehsil of Solan district.
  2. North Bilaspuri: ; resemblance with Mandeali.
  3. West Bilaspuri: shares resemblance with Kangri.
  4. Central Bilaspuri: Bilaspur town and surrounding area; shares resemblance with Baghliani dialect of Mahasui of Arki tehsil of Solan district.
  5. Davin or Daur: east and south-east of Bilaspur shares resemblance with Hinduri, a dialect of Keonthali sub group of Mahasui.
The dialects of Kahluri are so closely allied that one might call them one dialect Kahluri or Bilaspuri.

Writing system

The native script of the language is Takri script.

Proverbs

Status

The language is commonly called Pahari or Himachali. Before independence there were certain institutions which enjoyed states patronage to publish in Kahluri. All of these institutions today lie in ruins since independence to favour Hindi. With no institute that imparts teaching for this language, the language/dialect is endangered due to dominance of other recognised languages like Hindi.
The demand for the inclusion of '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 striving to save the language. The language is recorded under Western Pahari group of languages, which was done on the basis of the conclusion made by linguists.