Jaunsari language


Jaunsari is a Western Pahari language of northern India spoken by the Jaunsari people in the Chakrata and Kalsi blocks of Dehradun district in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand state.

Script

The native script of the language is a variety of Takri Script. This variety of Takri script is under proposal to be encoded in the Unicode.
Nowadays, Devanagari script is also used for writing.

Status

The language is commonly called Pahari or a dialect of Garhwali. The language has no official status. According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the language is of definitely endangered category, i.e. many Jaunsari children are not learning Jaunsari as their mother tongue any longer. The Ethnologue reports otherwise.
Since the formation of Uttarakhand in 2000, successive state governments have been slow-footed in promoting and developing the regional languages of Uttarakhand. In 2010, Hindi was made the official language and Sanskrit the second official language of the Uttarakhand.
In 2016, State Council of Educational Research and Training announced that Garhwali, Kumaoni, Jaunsari and Rang languages would be introduced on pilot basis for students in standard one to 10th in government schools Under the ‘Know Your Uttarakhand’ project.