Padri dialect

 ( Languages Of Jammu And Kashmir ) 

Padderi (पाडरी pāḍrī) is a dialect spoken in the Padar valley in Kishtwar district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It belongs to the Bhadarwahi group of dialects, and is classified as a member of the Western Pahari branch of the Indo-Aryan languages. It is very similar to the Pangwali language of Pangi, Himachal Pradesh. This language has been influenced heavily by the neighbouring Kashmiri language. It is often referred to as a dialect of Kashmiri language as it shares it's various features with the Kashmiri language as well.

The Padar valley is about 80 km long, the terrain is rugged and mountainous, and the population is found mainly in scattered hamlets, with the main village being Atholi. The number of speakers, as of the 1981 census, stood at .

Padri shares a large proportion of its vocabulary with other Western Pahari varieties (like Bhadarwahi, Pangwali and Sarazi). There are two genders: masculine and feminine (there is no neuter). Nouns change for Grammatical case, but not normally for number. However, some nouns do have plurals, which are formed using a variety of strategies:

• italic=yes 'boys'
• italic=yes 'leaves'
• italic=yes 'tongues'
• italic=yes 'girls'
• italic=yes 'walnuts'
• göbur -> children
• Dand-> teeth
• khar -> above
• Bwun -> down
• Pulley/Pulhor -> traditional grass shoes
• Lar -> roof

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Phonology P.K. Koul mentions several series of "complex sounds". One such series consists of a consonant + y (for example italic=yes 'to play', italic=yes 'apple'), and another one involves a consonant + v (as in italic=yes 'dog', italic=yes 'to sort'), but it is unclear whether these are co-articulated consonants (involving palatalisation and labialisation respectively) or merely sequences of two separate consonants. Another set of distinctive sounds (shared with neighbouring Bhadarwahi dialects, where they are even more widespread) involve a combination of a retroflex stop + the lateral l: ṭ͡lai 'three', niḍ͡l 'sleep', ḍ͡lau 'village'. These often correspond to clusters of a consonant + r in the ancestor language (compare the Sanskrit equivalents of the above three words: trīṇi-, nidrā- and grāma-).; .

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Bibliography

• Pritam Krishen Kaul (2025). 9788178541013, Eastern Book Linkers. ISBN 9788178541013
• Pritam Krishen Kaul (2025). 9788178541020, Eastern Book Linkers. ISBN 9788178541020
  Originally published in Chandrabhāg Ṭaṭ kī Parvatīya Boliyāṃ 1977.

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