Gujari | |
---|---|
Gojri, Gurjari, Gujjari | |
| |
Native to | India, Pakistan, Afghanistan |
Native speakers | 1-2 million (2021)[1] |
Indo-European
| |
Takri, Perso-Arabic script, Devanagari | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | gju |
Glottolog | guja1253 |
Gujari (also spelt Gojri, Gujri, or Gojari; گُوجَری) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by most of the Gujjars in the northern parts of India and Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan. It is a member of the Rajasthani group of languages.[2][3]
In India, the language is spoken by 1.3 million people (as of 2011) in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, with ethnic Gujjars elsewhere having shifted to the regional languages instead. In Pakistan, there are an estimated 400,000 speakers (as of 2018) in Azad Kashmir, in Gilgit-Baltistan (Diamer and Gilgit districts), in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (the Hazara region, and northwest up to Chitral District), and in Rawalpindi District in northern Punjab. The population in Afghanistan is scattered, and numbers at 15,000 (according to a 2015 estimate).[4]
The government of the erstwhile Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir had recognized Gujari by including it in the sixth schedule of the state constitution.[5]