Kangri

Kangri belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family, specifically classified within the Western Pahari subgroup of the Northern Indo-Aryan languages.

Speakers

According to the 2011 Census of India, there are approximately 1.17 million speakers of Kangri (often grouped under Pahari).

Distribution in India

Kangri is primarily spoken in the state of Himachal Pradesh, centering on the Kangra, Hamirpur, and Una districts. It is also spoken in adjacent border areas of the neighboring states of Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.

Major grammatical features

• Phonology: Like Punjabi and other Western Pahari varieties, Kangri is a tonal language. It features a distinctive three-way tonal system (high, level/mid, and low) that historically developed from the loss of voiced aspirates (such as gh, jh, ḍh, dh, bh). It maintains a robust distinction between dental and retroflex consonants.
• Morphology: Kangri is moderately synthetic and postpositional. Nouns inflect for two genders (masculine and feminine), two numbers (singular and plural), and three cases (direct, oblique, and vocative). Verbal morphology is rich, inflecting for aspect, tense, mood, and person, with complex auxiliary verb constructions.
• Syntax: The basic word order is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV). Kangri exhibits split-ergativity, where the subject of a transitive verb is marked with an ergative case postposition in the perfective aspect, while agreeing with the object in gender and number.

Further reading

• Learn more about Kangri on the Kangri Language Wikipedia Page.
• View scientific classification and bibliography on the Glottolog Entry for Kangri (kang1280).