Kullu language

Kullu
Native to	India
Region	Himachal Pradesh
Native speakers	109,000  (1997)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan North-Western Western Pahari (Dogri–Kangri) Kullu
Writing system	Devanagari script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kfx

Kullu (Kullū, also known as Kuluī) is a Western Pahari language spoken in Himachal Pradesh.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial		Dental		Alveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Pharyngeal	Glottal
Plosive	p pʰ	b bʱ	t̪ t̪ʰ	d̪ d̪ʱ			ʈ ʈʰ	ɖ ɖʱ			k kʰ	ɡ ɡʱ		ʔ
Affricate					ts tsʰ	dz dzʱ			c cʰ	j jʱ
Fricative					s				ś				ħ	ɦ
Nasal	m		n̪				ɳ		ɲ		ŋ
Trill/Flap					r		ɽ
Lateral					l		ɭ
Approximant									y

For the stops and affricates there is a four-way distinction in phonation between tenuis /p/, voiced /b/, aspirated /pʰ/ and breathy voiced /bʱ/ series. Thakur (1975, pp. 175–8) lists as separate phonemes aspirated correlates of /ŋ/, /n/, /m/, /j/, /r/, /ɽ/, /l/ and /ɭ/, but describes the aspiration as a voiceless pharyngeal friction. /n̪/ is dental, but becomes alveolar if the next syllable contains a retroflex consonant. /ŋ/ and /ɲ/ are rare, but contrast with the other nasals word-medially between vowels. /ɳ/, /ɭ/ and /ɽ/, together with their aspirated correlates, don't occur in the beginning of words. The glottal stop occurs only between a vowel and /ɳ/, /n/, /r/ or /l/, e.g. [kɑːʔɭ] "a trumpet", which contrasts with [kɑːɭ] "famine". The pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ historically derives from /s/ and occurs word-finally, e.g. [ɡʱɑːħ] "grass", [biːħ] "twenty".

Bibliography

• Thakur, Mauluram (1975), Pahāṛī bhāṣā, Delhi: Sanmarg Prakashan