Jaunsari

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A language of India

ISO 639-3
jns
Alternate Names
Jansauri, Jaunpuri, Jaunsauri, Pahari
User Population

137,000 (2011 census).

Location

Himachal Pradesh state: Shimla district; Uttar Pradesh state: Saharanpur district; Uttarakhand state: Dehra Dun district, Kalsi, Tiuni, and Chakrata sub-district, Jaunsar-Bawar area.

Language Maps
Language Status

6a (Vigorous).

Classification
Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Intermediate Divisions, Western, Pahari, Western Pahari
Dialects

Jaunsari, Jaunsari-Bawari. 97% intelligibility between dialects. Perceived by some as a Garhwali [gbm] dialect; but users perceive Garhwali as distinct and report lack of intelligibility. Lexical similarity: 70%–77% between dialects, 63%–70% with Garhwali dialects [gbm], 64% with Kumaoni [kfy], 66% with Hindi [hin], 51%–64% with Sirmauri [srx].

Language Use

Vigorous. Home, village, private prayer. Used by all. Positive attitudes. Also use Hindi [hin], with proficiency higher among the educated. Used as L2 by Gujari [gju].

Language Development

Literacy rate in L2: 26%. Hindi preferred for education. Dictionary. Texts. Bible portions: 1895–2009.

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Jaunsari
Writing

Devanagari script [Deva]. Latin script [Latn], no longer in use. Takri (Tankri, Takari) script [Takr], no longer in use.

Other Comments

A Scheduled Tribe. Hindu.