Garhwal District - Language-Garhwali

Language-Garhwali

The people of Garhwal use the Garhwali language. It has basically originated from the Indo Aryan language and comes under the Pahari Subgroup. Garhwali is not very difficult to understand and Kumaoni language comes closest to it in terms of similarities. Kumaoni (spoken in the region of Uttrakhand) and Himachali (spoken in Himanchal Pradesh) also come under the Pahari sub group. Garhwali is influenced by Sauraseni Prakrit, who helped in development of languages like rajasthani, Brij bhasha. Garhwali is spoken in different places of Uttrakhand and the language has many regional dialects. Devanagari is used as the script for Garhwali as it doesn’t have its own script. Over 4 million people speak Garhwali in India. The language is losing its essence over the years as people are migrating from Garhwal to bigger cities where they tend to use English and Hindi as their medium of communication. Many families still use their native language but it has been noticed that very few children of today's age know their language. If it keeps on going this way then Garhwali language would become extinct soon.