Chambeali

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Chambeali
𑚏𑚢𑚶𑚠𑚣𑚭𑚥𑚯, चम्बयाली
cambayālī
The word "Chambeali" written in Takri script
Native toChamba
RegionHimachal Pradesh
Native speakers
126,000 (2011)[1]
Dialects
  • Bansyari
  • Bansbari
  • Gadi Chameali
Takri
Language codes
ISO 639-3cdh
Glottologcham1307
ELPChambeali

Chambeali (Takri: 𑚏𑚢𑚶𑚠𑚣𑚭𑚥𑚯) is a Western Pahari language spoken in the Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh.

Classification

The Chambeali language is a part of the North-Western branch of the Indo-Aryan languages. It is further classified as a member of the Western-Pahari group. The language has a high degree of mutual intelligibility with neighbouring Pahari languages like Mandeali (83%).[2]

Geographic distribution

Official status

The language is commonly called Pahari or Himachali. Some speaker may even call it a dialect of Punjabi or Dogri. The language has no official status and is recorded as dialect of Hindi.[3] According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the language is of definitely endangered category, i.e. many Chambeali children are not learning Chambeali as their mother tongue any longer.[4] Earlier the language got huge amount of state patronage. Everything changed since independence, due to favoritism towards Hindi by the Indian Government.

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.[5] There has been no positive progress on this matter since then even when small organisations are striving to save the language.[6] Due to political interest, the language is currently recorded as a dialect of Hindi, even when having a poor mutual intelligibility with it and having a higher mutual intelligibility with other recognised languages like Dogri.

Dialects

There are three dialects of the language[7] as follows:

  1. Bansyari
  2. Bansbari
  3. Gadi Chambeali

Writing system

The native script of the language is Takri script. The Chambeali version of Takri script has been encoded as the standard for Takri script under Unicode. This version resembles other version of the script.[8]

Specimen in Chambyali Takri

Vocabulary

Name of months

Traditionally, the month formats is based on Hindu calendar.

List of Months in Chambeali
𑚏𑚢𑚶𑚠𑚣𑚭𑚥𑚯 चम्बयाली Transliteration (ITRANS) English
𑚏𑚳𑚙𑚤 चैतर chaitara March-April
𑚠𑚨𑚭𑚸 बसाख basAkha April-May
𑚑𑚳𑚕 जैठ jaiTha May-June
𑚩𑚭𑚖 हाड hADa June-July
𑚨𑚵𑚘 सौण sauNa July-August
𑚡𑚭𑚛𑚶𑚤𑚴 भाद्रो bhAdro August-September
𑚨𑚱𑚑 सूज sUja September-October
𑚊𑚭𑚙𑚮 काति kAti October-November
𑚢𑚍𑚳𑚤 मघैर maghaira November-December
𑚞𑚴𑚩 पोह poha December-January
𑚢𑚭𑚍 माघ mAgha January-February
𑚟𑚵𑚌𑚘 फौगण phaugaNa February-March

References

  1. ^ Chambeali at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021) Closed access icon
  2. ^ "intelligibility".
  3. ^ "Indian Language Census" (PDF).
  4. ^ "Endangered languages".
  5. ^ "Pahari Inclusion". Zee News.
  6. ^ "Pahari Inclusion". The Statesman.
  7. ^ "Chambeali".
  8. ^ Anshuman Pandey (6 April 2009). "Proposal to Encode the Takri Script in ISO/IEC 10646" (PDF).