Jaunsari

JNS

vigorous

Alternate Names: Jansauri, Jaunsauri, Pahari

Dialects: Jaunsari, Jaunsari-Bawari. 97% intelligibility between dialects. Perceived by some as a Garhwali , dialect; but users perceive Garhwali as distinct and report lack of intelligibility. Lexical similarity: 70%–77% between dialects, 63%–70% with Garhwali dialects ,, 64% with Kumaoni ,, 66% with Hindi ,, 51%–64% with Sirmauri ,.

Genealogy:

Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Indo-Aryan
Northern zone
Western Pahari

Demographics: 100,000 (2001 USCWM).

Language Use: Vigorous. Home, village, private prayer. Positive attitudes. Also use Hindi [hin] with higher proficiency among the educated. Used as L2 by Gujari [gju].

Language Development: Literacy rate in L1: Below 1%. Literacy rate in L2: 26%. Hindi preferred for education. Schools officially use Hindi as medium but Jaunsari used among children and by teachers to explain things to primary students. Bible portions: 1895–2009.

Writing System: Devanagari

Nation of Origin: India

Other Comments: A Scheduled Tribe. Hindu.