The Western Pahari languages are a group of Northern Indo-Aryan languages spoken in the western parts of the Himalayan range, predominantly in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, and also has significant influence in parts of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir and Pothohar Plateau They are sometimes referred to as the Himachali languages. They are also often called simply Pahari, but this name is ambiguous as it used for other languages as well, including some other Northern Indo-Aryan languages of Uttarakhand and Nepal.
Languages
The following lists the languages classified as belonging to Western Pahari, with the provisional grouping used in Glottolog 4.1: These languages are a dialect chain, and neighbouring varieties may be mutually intelligible. Some Western Pahari languages have occasionally been regarded as dialects of either Dogri, Hindustani or Punjabi. Some Western Pahari languages, notably Dogri and Kangri, are tonal, like their close relative Punjabi but unlike most other Indic languages. Dogri has been an official language in India since 2003. A controversial theory, put forward by linguist Claus Peter Zoller, suggests that the Bangani language is closely related the Western Pahari languages, and has been misclassified as one of the Garhwali languages. Mirpuri is a predominant Western Pahari langauge spoken in Azad Kashmir and Pahari-Pothwari is widely spoken in Potohar Plateau
Writing systems
In the past, some of these languages were written in the Takri script. It rapidly fell out of use after Independence, even though there have since been sporadic attempts to revive it.
Status
According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, all of Western Pahari languages, except for Dogri, are under either definitely endangered or critically endangered category. None of these languages, except for Dogri, have any official status. The demand for the inclusion of 'Pahari ' under the Eight Schedule of the Constitution, which is supposed to represent multiple Pahari languages of Himachal Pradesh, had been made in the year 2010 by the state's Vidhan Sabha. There has been no positive progress on this matter since then even when small organisations are taking upto themselves to save the language and demanding it. Due to political interest, the language is currently recorded as a dialect of Hindi, even when having a poor mutual intelligibility with it and having a higher mutual intelligibility with other recognised languages like Dogri. A Western Pahari Corridor from Shimla to Murree has also been proposed under the Aman ki Asha initiative to link the similar Western Pahari language-based regions of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu, Azad Kashmir and Pothohar Plateau.
