A Grammar of Bhadarwahi
Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University
Bhadarwahi is spoken by 250, 000 speakers in Bhadarwah town of Doda district in the eastern part of Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir State in India. Genetically, it comes under Northern Zone Western Pahari languages of Indo-Aryan family, and it shows lexical similarity with Pangwali, Siragi, Padri, and Bhalesi languages. The origin of Bhadarwahi can be traced back to the ancient time when Buddhism started to spread around 400 BC in this region, and Buddhist priests searched a language other than Sanskrit to spread the teachings of Buddha.
Typologically it is a subject dominant language with an SOV word order (SV if without object) and its verb agrees with a noun phrase which is not followed by an overt post-position. These noun phrases can move freely in the sentence without changing the meaning of the sentence. The indirect object generally precedes the direct object. Aspiration, like any other Indo-Aryan languages, is a prominent feature of Bhadarwahi. Nasalization is a distinctive feature, and vowel and consonant contrasts are commonly observed. Infinitive and participle forms are formed by suffixation while infixation is also found in causative formation. Tense is carried by auxiliary and aspect and mood is marked by main verb.
ISBN 9783862884353. Languages of the World/Materials 495. 152pp. 2013.
