I. HISTORY AND LINGUISTIC CLASSIFICATION

Problem in Classification

Kumauni belongs to the Tibeto-Himalayan group of languages. It further belongs to the Tibetan/ Bhotia sub-group. The Bhotia group to which Kumauni belongs, is further sub-divided into Western (Ladhaki, Balti, and Purik in Jammu and Kashmir; Stod, Spitian in himachal Pradesh and Jāḍ in Uttar Pradesh) and Eastern (Marcha, Darmiya, Haudangsi, Byangsi, Sikkimese and Johari) languages. The Bhotia language of Eastern branch have certain characteristics of Munda languages apart from the general features of Tibeto-Burman and Indo-Aryan groups. Ex: Pronominalization of the verb form, Vigesimal system of counting, Pronominal on flections (singular, Dual and Plural), Dichotomy between inclusive/ exclusive in first person, Reduplication of verb base, Prefixation of tense marker etc. are the features of Munda language.
Some scholars have considered the eastern languages as dialects of Kumauni. But this is not true. This ambiguity is because of two reasons:
1. These languages are spoken in the Kumauni region (Pitthoragarh, Munsyari, Dharchula, Tawaghat etc)

2. Many of these languages are in the process of “shifting”, as many speakers of these languages are shifting towards eastern varieties of Kumauni. For example, the Joharis have almost given up their ancestral tongue.

Because of this reason, these languages are sometimes termed as “mixed form of Kumauni”. The original dialects of Kumauni are Khasparjiya, Danpuriya, Picchai, Gangli, Kumaiya, Chaugarkhiya, Soryali, Sirali etc . Along with these dialects, some scholars have included Johari and Darmiya to this category. Kumauni is an off-shoot of the Central Pahari languages which is found in the eastern region between Garhwali and Nepali.