Jaunsari language

Jaunsari (Devanagari: जौनसारी) is a Western Pahari language of northern India spoken by the Jaunsari people in the Kalsi, Chakrata and Tyuni sub-districts of Dehradun district in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand state. It is considered as the dialect of Mahasui.

Jaunsari
Jaunsari Script
Native to	India
Region	Uttarakhand
Ethnicity	Jaunsari
Native speakers	136,779 (2011)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northern Western Pahari Jaunsari
Writing system	Sirmauri script(Historical) Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3	jns
Glottolog	jaun1243
ELP	Jaunsari

For a list of words relating to Jaunsari language, see the Jaunsari language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The dialects of Jaunsari share about 60% of their basic vocabulary with each of the neighbouring varieties of Bangani, Jaunpuri, Nagpuriya and Sirmauri.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive / Affricate	voiceless	p	t		ʈ	tʃ	k
	aspriated	pʰ	tʰ		ʈʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ
	voiced	b	d		ɖ	dʒ	ɡ
	breathy	bʱ	dʱ		ɖʱ	dʒʱ	ɡʱ
Fricative				s		ʃ		ɦ
Nasal		m		n	ɳ
Lateral				l	ɭ
Trill / Tap	voiced			r	ɽ
	breathy			rʱ	ɽʱ
Approximant						j	w

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Mid	(e) eː	ə əː	(o) oː
Open-mid	ɛː		ɔː
Open		aː

Script

Jaunsari was historically written in Jaunsari Script. The Devanagari script is being used these days in certain works.

Status

The language has no official status. According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the language is of definitely endangered category, i.e. many Jaunsari children are not learning Jaunsari as their mother tongue any longer. The Ethnologue reports otherwise.

In 2016, State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) announced that Garhwali, Kumaoni, Jaunsari and Rang languages would be introduced on pilot basis for students in standard one to 10th in government schools Under the ‘Know Your Uttarakhand’ project.