Pahari language

{{Short description|Ambiguous term referring to Himalayan languages}}

{{Other uses|Pahari (disambiguation){{!}}Pahari}}

Pahari, or Pahadi ({{lang|hi|पहाड़ी}} {{Nastaliq|پہاڑی}} {{lang|inc|pahāṛī}} 'of the hills/mountains'; {{IPAc-en|lang|p|ə|ˈ|h|ɑː|r|i}}),{{Cite OED|Pahari}} is an ambiguous term that has been used for a variety of languages, dialects and language groups, most of which are found in the lower Himalayas.

Most commonly, it refers to:

• Pahari-Pothwari, the language spoken in Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir and neighbouring areas of northern Punjab and Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir
• Western Pahari languages spoken primarily in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh,{{Cite book| last = Masica| first = Colin P.|author-link = Colin Masica| title = The Indo-Aryan languages| series = Cambridge language surveys| date = 1991| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-0-521-23420-7| page = 439}} with some languages in the south-eastern parts of Indian Jammu and Kashmir,{{cite book| last = Kaul| first = Pritam Krishen| year = 2006| title = Pahāṛi and Other Tribal Dialects of Jammu| volume = 1| place = Delhi| publisher = Eastern Book Linkers| isbn = 8178541017}}
• Northern Indo-Aryan languages, in the linguistics literature often referred to as "Pahari languages", a proposed group that includes the Indo-Aryan languages of Nepal and the Indian states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

Less commonly, Pahari may be:

• a term used by Dogri speakers of the plains to refer to the Dogri varieties spoken at higher elevations, in Indian Jammu and Kashmir{{cite report|last1 = Brightbill| first1 = Jeremy D.| last2= Turner| first2 = Scott D.| year = 2007 | title = A sociolinguistic survey of the Dogri language, Jammu and Kashmir| series = SIL Electronic Survey Reports| url = https://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/9015| page = 7}}
• a local name for a variety of Bilaspuri spoken in a certain hilly area of Indian Punjab
• a name nowadays used only in rural areas to refer to the Nepali language{{Cite book| last = Riccardi| first = Theodore|editor1= George Cardona |editor2=Dhanesh Jain | date = 2003| title = The Indo-Aryan languages| chapter = Nepali| series = Routledge language family series. Y| publisher = Routledge| location = London| page = 540| isbn = 978-0-7007-1130-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C9MPCd6mO6sC}}
• a local name for a Bhili dialect of Eastern Gujarat.

Pahari ({{lang|ne|पहरी}} paharī) refers to:

• Pahari language (Sino-Tibetan), a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by a few thousand people in central Nepal.{{cite report| last = Smith| first = Brianne J.| year= 2022| title = A Sociolinguistic Study of Pahari: A Language of Nepal| series = Journal of Language Survey Reports. 2022-003| url = https://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/92594}}

Of similar origin is the name Paharia, which is used for several languages of east-central India: see Paharia language (disambiguation).