Padderi, Padari or Padri ( ) is a Bhadrawahi (Western Pahari) dialect spoken in the Padar valley in Kishtwar district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir..
The Padar valley is about 80 km long, the terrain is rugged and mountainous, and the population is found mainly in scattered hamlets, with the main village being Atholi. The number of speakers, as of the 1981 census, stood at .
Padri shares a large proportion of its vocabulary with other Western Pahari varieties (like Bhadarwahi and Siraji). There are two genders: masculine and feminine (there is no neuter). Nouns change for case, but not normally for number. However, some nouns do have plurals, which are formed using a variety of strategies: 'boys' 'leaves' 'tongues' 'girls' 'walnuts' gobur -> children Dand-> teeth khar -> above Bwun -> down Pulley/Pulhor -> traditional grass shoes Lar -> roof Family/Relations :- Baji/Baab - Father Eej - Mother Baay - brother Bhaju- younger brother Bhaapa- elder brother Bheny/Byon - Sister Math-Baab - Paternal uncle Bad-baad - elder paternal uncle Poph/Bui - paternal aunt Maam - maternal uncle Moss/Masy - maternal aunt Dowd - Grandfather Daed - Grandmother Showhr- Father in law
Phonology P.K. Koul mentions several series of "complex sounds". One such series consists of a consonant + y (for example 'to play', 'apple'), and another one involves a consonant + v (as in 'dog', 'to sort'), but it is unclear whether these are co-articulated consonants (involving palatalisation and labialisation respectively) or merely sequences of two separate consonants. Another set of distinctive sounds (shared with neighbouring Bhadarwahi dialects, where they are even more widespread) involve a combination of a retroflex stop + the lateral l: ṭ͡lai 'three', niḍ͡l 'sleep', ḍ͡lau 'village'. These often correspond to clusters of a consonant + r in the ancestor language (compare the Sanskrit equivalents of the above three words: trīṇi-, nidrā- and grāma-).; .
References
Bibliography
Originally published in Chandrabhāg Ṭaṭ kī Parvatīya Boliyāṃ .