1. DIALECTAL VARIATION
A. REGIONAL VARIATION
The natural physical barriers such as high mountain ranges and rivers, have given rise to the number of dialectal variations in the language. Grierson (1916) grouped these dialects into four main divisions:
The first group consists of the dialects which drop the final vowels which are otherwise retained in the literary form of the speech. Under this group comes the standard variety Khaspariya spoken in the Baramandal and Danpur paraganas of the Almora district, Phaldakotiya, spoken in Phaldakot paragana of Almora and the north of Nainital district and Pacchai, spoken in the south-west of Almora, on the borders of British Garhwal and to the west of Phaldakotiya and Khaspariya.
The second group of dialects is the ‘Kumarya type’ which ‘retains the final vowels of the standard with more of less completeness’. This dialect is spoken in the greater part of Nainital district, Kumaiya of Kali Kumaun, Chaugarkhiya, Gangola and Danpuriya of the Chaugarkha, Gangola and Danpur Paraganas.
The third group of dialects is the one spoken in the east of Almora district adjoining the Nepal frontier . They are Soriyali, Askoti and Sirali spoken in the Sor, Askot and Sira parganas respectively. These languages are influenced by Nepali and vice versa.
Finally, in the north of Arkot, Johar paragana is prominent. It is a ‘mixed jargon' with half Kumauni and non-Kumauni speaking population. These have led to regrouping of the dialects/varieties of Kumauni by scholars.
The widely accepted division of Kumauni dialects is the division into Western Kumauni and Eastern Kumauni as is given below.
1. Western Kumauni
Khaspariya: This dialect is mainly spoken in the Haramandal Pargana. The Khaspariya spoken in Almora town is considered to be the basis of standard and written form of Kumauni.
Chaugarkhiya: This is the dialect spoken in Chaugarkha which adjoins the north-western part of Kati Kumaun. Chaugarkha is separated from Almora by the Suyal river and Chaugarkhiya is considered to be closest to Khaspariya.
Gangoli: Gangoli is spoken in Gangoli Pargana and in some parts of Danpur paragana which is located towards the north of Gangoli.
Danpuria: The dialect spoken in the Danpur is the Danpuriya Dialect. In the west of Danpur is the Garhwat region of Uttaranchal and in its north lays Johar.
Pacchai: In the lower part of Naithana hills lies a Kasba called Pali and the western part of Kumauni is known as the Pali Pacchaum. The dialect of Pali Pacchaun paragana is Pacchai.
Phaldakotiya: Phaldakotiya is also spoken in Pali and in some villages of Nainital District.
Rauchaubengshi : Rauchaubengshi is the dialect of Rau and Chaubengshi patties of the Nainital district. It is also used in the hilly regions of Ramgarh and Cchakhata.
2. Eastern Kumauni
Kumaiya: Kumaiya is the dialect of Kali Kumaiya of Lohaghat and Champawat
Soryali: Soryali is the dialect of the Sor pargana of the Pithoragarh district. Nepal lies to the east of Sor and thus influences from Nepali can be found in this dialect.
Sirali: Sirali is the dialect of Sira Pargana which comprises of Didihat, Barbisi, Atthabisi and Mali. Sita is situated in the west of Askot and east of Gangoli. Influences from Askoti, Soryali and Gangoli are found in this dialect.
Asloti: Askoti is the dialect of Askoti which lies in the north of Sor paragana. It is considered to be similar to Soryali.
Though some writers consider Johari and Darma as the dialects of Kumauni, it is still debatable whether this should be the case. Johari of Johar and Darma or Darma valley is surrounded by and coexists with many Tibeto-Burman languages. This is one reason which makes it difficult to group them under Kumauni.
The following features have been given by D.D. Sharma which sharply demarcates Western Kumauni and Eastern Kumauni:
Some of the features of the Western Kumauni and Eastern kumauni are as follows:
1. Predominant use of intervocalic dental or retroflex nasal, arising from Old Indo Aryan(OIA) /n/ and / ŋ/. As in pani~ paaŋi-paaniiyam ‘water’: Kano~kano-kantaka ‘thorn’; the western group preferring /ŋ/ for OIA /n/ and /n/ for OIA /ŋ/ and the eastern group maintaining the OIA sound pattern.
2. Preservation vs. elision of final vowels, particularly -o and -aa, of Old Kumauni or of the literary form of the language. In this the western group favours dropping of final –o (norm.sg.) and aa (nom.pl. or of aa ending stems), and weakening of other vowels, whereas the eastern group fully or weakly maintains all these vowels in this position.
3. Glidalisation vs. preservation of -e- and -o- occurring in a penultimate syllable, i.e. they are maintained as such in the eastern Kumauni whereas in western Kumauni they are glidalized in this position, e.g. meromyar –[myכr] ‘my’(sg.); mera-myaar ‘my’(pl.); moŧo=mwaŧ ‘fat’ (sg.); moŧo=mwaŧ ‘fat’ (pl). respectively.
4. Epenthesis vs. maintenance of final vowel, particularly of o, A, and e, as in cello=cyal ‘son’; cela –cyaal ‘sons’; celinle=celinel ‘by daughters’.
5. Maintenance vs. replacement/elision of intervocalic and f final /l/, i.e. it is fully maintained in eastern Kumauni ( in Kumiya and Rau Chaubainsi dialects it is realised as aon inert-dental –L), whereas in the western group it is either replaced by a –w- like glide or is completely elided, e.g. bell/byaal/-byaawi/bei ‘yesterday’.
6. Synthetic vs. analytical formations in agentive and posesive cases, i.e., in western Kumauni postpositions like –le(ag.); ko, ka(gen.) have lost their separate entity and have developed in to a suffixial form, as in mæl ‘ by me’; ijaak ‘mothers’; mæn∫ak ‘man’s’; but in eastern Kumauni these are separately maintained as postpositions, as in mæle, ijaa ko, me∫akaa respectively.
7. Penultimate or final accent, i.e. in western Kumauni the accent, which is mostly a stress accent, falls on the penultimate syllable, whereas in eastern Kumauni it is always on the final syllable. Moreover, in the latter case it is primarily musical too.
Most of the morphological variations noticeable in these regions owe their origin to diverging accentual tendencies of these regions, e.g. nom. forms od –o and -A ending stems such as ghoro (east) - ghwaґ/ghwaґ ‘foot’ is an accentual phenomenon which demarcates the boundaries of these two groups .
8. Use of ha and bha in the sense of ‘become' is also another morphological feature which bisects these groups with the western group preferring ha and the eastern group preferring bha.
The differences between these dialects are minor and based on administrative units rather than linguistic features. The isoglossic division of the dialects are based on the distinctive futures of the dialects of Kumauni rather than on administrative units and geographical locations in which these dialects are spoken. The isoglosses of various linguistic elements, sounds, syntax and vocabulary which have been taken for dialectal divisions are found freely crossing and re-crossing the geographical boundaries of one another, thus defying all attempts of bisection of these dialects in the form of clear cut isoglosses. The dialects are divided in to the following groups:
Central: The nucleus of this group are Khasparjiya, Baramandal, Phaldakot, parts of Danpur and northern parts of the Nainital district.
North-eastern: With Soryali as its nucleus all the dialects spoken in the district of Pithoragarh constitute this group.
South –Eastern: Rau-Chaubangsi as its nucleus, all the dialects spoken in the south-eastern part of the Nainital District constitute this group .
Western: All the dialects spoken in the South –western part of the Nainital District constitutes this group.
The standard variety of Kumauni language is spoken in Almora district of Kumaun region. Younger generation speakers switch over to Hindi language from Kumauni.
