Khāṣi (खाषी) is an Indo-Aryan dialect of

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...

, India. It belongs to 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 ...

group and is spoken in some of the mountainous areas north of

Jammu Jammu () is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute ...

. It is different from the north-eastern Himalayan dialects of Assam and Meghalya, belonging to the

Mon-Khmer The Austroasiatic languages ( ) are a large language family spoken throughout Mainland Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. These languages are natively spoken by the majority of the population in Vietnam and Cambodia, and by minority popu ...

Family. Its area extends on both sides of the river

Chenab The Chenab River is a major river in India and Pakistan, and is one of the 5 major rivers of the Punjab region. It is formed by the union of two headwaters, the Chandra and Bhaga, which rise in the upper Himalayas in the Lahaul region of Himac ...

: to the north this includes the Panj Gabbar region of Ramban district comprising the five valleys of Arnās–Bamhāg, Gool, Gulābgaṛh, Māhore and Budhal. To the south of the Chenab, it is spoken in the Bamhāg-Pancheri block, as well as a number of villages between Arnas and Dubli Gali. Its language neighbours are Kashmiri,

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 ...

Dogri language Dogri (Devanagari: ; Name Dogra Akkhar: ; Nastaliq: ; ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the Western Pahari group, primarily spoken in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir, India, with smaller groups of speake ...

, Pahari and Bhaderwahi. The total number of speakers is unknown, but is likely that a substantial proportion of the census figures for "Pahari" in these districts represent speakers of Khāṣi.

Phonology

It shares distinctive sounds with neighbouring dialects like Bhadarwahi involving a combination of a

retroflex stop In phonetics and phonology, a retroflex stop is a type of consonantal sound, made with the tongue curled back and in contact with area behind the alveolar ridge or with the hard palate (hence retroflex), held tightly enough to block the passage of ...

+ the lateral ''l'': ''ṭ͡lai'' 'three', ''niḍ͡l'' 'sleep', These often correspond to clusters of a consonant + ''r'' in the ancestor language (compare the Sanskrit equivalents of the above two words: ''trīṇi-'', ''nidrā-)''

References

Bibliography

*{{cite book, last = Kaul, first = Pritam Krishen, year = 2006, title = Pahāṛi and Other Tribal Dialects of Jammu, volume = 1, place = Delhi, publisher = Eastern Book Linkers, isbn = 8178541017 Languages of Jammu and Kashmir Indo-Aryan languages