Bhalesi is an

Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east of the Indus river in Ba ...

spoken in the

Bhalessa Bhalessa is a geographical area within Doda district in the Jammu region of India-administered Kashmir. It consists of the Bunjwah and Bhalessa Valleys, and comprises the three Tehsils of Kahara, Chilly Pingal and Gandoh. Name The name is w ...

region of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is a member of the Bhadarwahi group of dialects under the

Western Pahari The Western Pahari languages are a range of languages and dialects of Northern Indo-Aryan languages spoken in the western parts of the Himalayan range, primarily in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. They are also spoken in Jammu and Jaunsar ...

subgroup. The region is locally known as ''Bhalessa'' (with variants like ''Bhalesh''), or as ''Bhal'', and from these terms derive the local names for the dialect: and (with variants , ). The region mostly takes up two adjacent mountain valleys, with the main settlements being Kahra, Gandoh, Kilhotran, Jakyas, Bhatyas, and Juggasar. The neighbouring languages are Chinali,

Pangwali Pangwali ( Takri: ) is an Indo-Aryan language. It is spoken in the Pangi Tehsil of Chamba district, and is threatened to go extinct. Pangwali is natively written in the Takri script, but Devanagari is used as well. It is very similar to the ...

and

Chambeali Chambeali (Takri: ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the Western Pahari group 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 furthe ...

to the south-east, Padri to the north-east,

Kishtwari Kishtwari or Kashtwari is an Indo-Aryan language closely related to the Kashmiri language, with strong influences from neighbouring Western Pahari varieties. It is spoken by Hindus in Kishtwar district of Jammu division in Jammu and Kashmir, In ...

to the north-west,

Sarazi Sarazi or Sirazi (also spelled Siraji) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Saraz region of the Jammu division of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is native to the Saraz region, a hilly area taking up the northern half of Doda district and parts ...

to the west, and Bhadarwahi to the south. Features that distinguish Bhalesi from the other Bhadarwahi dialects include the preponderence of

diphthongs A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...

, and the dropping of between vowels (e.g. Bhalesi vs. Bhadarwahi 'black'). An unusual feature is found in one of the patterns for the formation of the

plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...

of feminine nouns, adjectives and participles. While some forms add a

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

( 'a small bee' -> 'small bees'), others will undergo

apophony In linguistics, apophony (also known as ablaut, (vowel) gradation, (vowel) mutation, alternation, internal modification, stem modification, stem alternation, replacive morphology, stem mutation, or internal inflection) is an alternation of vowe ...

: the final and initial vowels are

raised ''Raised'' is the third studio album by American country artist Hailey Whitters. It was released on March 18, 2022, via a partnership between Big Loud and her own imprint, Pigasus. Background Heavily inspired by her Midwestern upbringing in Iow ...

, for example: * 'a small jug' -> 'small jugs' * 'a white ant' -> 'white ants' * 'she went' -> 'they(f) went'

References

Bibliography

* *{{cite book, last = Varma, first = Siddheshwar, year = 1948, title = The Bhalesī dialect, series = Monograph series (Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal), volume = 4, place = Calcutta Indo-Aryan languages Northern Indo-Aryan languages Languages of Jammu and Kashmir