Kullui (, also known as Kulvi,

Takri The Tākri script (Takri (Chamba district, Chamba): ; Takri (Jammu Division, Jammu/Dogri script, Dogra): ; sometimes called Tankri ) is an abugida writing system of the Brahmic scripts, Brahmic family of scripts. It is derived from the Sharada ...

: ) is

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 ...

language spoken in the

Kullu District Kullu () is a List of districts in India, district in Himachal Pradesh, India. It borders Shimla district to the south, Mandi district, Mandi and Kangra district, Kangra districts to the west, Kinnaur district, Kinnaur to the east and the Lahau ...

of the Indian state of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

Phonology

Consonants

For the stops and

affricates An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pai ...

there is a four-way distinction in

phonation The term phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, ''phonation'' is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the defi ...

between tenuis ,

voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refe ...

, aspirated and

breathy voice Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like s ...

d series. lists as separate

phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...

s aspirated correlates of , , , , , , and , but describes the aspiration as a voiceless pharyngeal friction. is dental, but becomes alveolar if the next syllable contains a

retroflex consonant A retroflex () or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consona ...

. and are rare, but contrast with the other nasals word-medially between vowels. , and , together with their aspirated correlates, don't occur in the beginning of words. The

glottal stop The glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many Speech communication, spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic ...

occurs only between a vowel and , , or , e.g. "a trumpet", which contrasts with "famine". The

pharyngeal fricative A pharyngeal consonant is a consonant that is articulated primarily in the pharynx. Some phoneticians distinguish upper pharyngeal consonants, or "high" pharyngeals, pronounced by retracting the root of the tongue in the mid to upper pharynx ...

historically derives from and occurs word-finally, e.g. "grass", "twenty".

Script

The native script of the language is a variety of the

script.

Status

The language is commonly called Pahari or Himachali. 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 Kulluvi children are not learning Kulluvi as their mother tongue any longer.

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Pahari-languages.ru
a Kullui documentation project {{Authority control Languages of India Northern Indo-Aryan languages Endangered languages of India Languages of Himachal Pradesh Languages written in Devanagari Languages listed as Hindi dialects in latest census