{{Short description|Western Pahari language of India}} {{Infobox language | name = Bangani | nativename = {{lang|him|बंगाणी}} | pronunciation = {{IPA|him|bəŋɡaːɳiː||OpenSpeaks-him-Bangani-Jayprakash Chauhan-Pronunciation-Bangani.wav}}<small>(Bangani)</small><br> | region = Mahasu | states = {{hlist|Uttarakhand|Himachal Pradesh}} | pushpin_map = India | pushpin_map_caption = Approximate location of the Bangani-speaking area in India | pushpin_map_alt = Bangani is spoken in the north-west of Uttarakhand, in the north of India | coordinates = {{coord|31.2|N|78.4|E|display=inline}} | ethnicity = | speakers = | familycolor = Indo-European | fam2 = Indo-Iranian | fam3 = Indo-Aryan | fam4 = Northern | script = | iso3 = | isoexception = dialect | glotto = bang1335 | glottorefname = Bangani | image = Bangani.jpg | imagecaption = }} thumb|A native speaker discussing the state of access to public information in and online use of Bangani language in 2019 thumb|Balbeer Singh Rawat, a Bangani speaker discussing the Bangani language thumb|Uttarkashi District
'''Bangani''' ({{IPA|him|bəŋɡaːɳiː||OpenSpeaks-him-Bangani-Jayprakash Chauhan-Pronunciation-Bangani.wav}}, {{lang|him|बंगाणी}} ''baṅgāṇī'') is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of Uttarkashi district in the west of the Garhwal division of Uttarakhand, India. It has been described as a member of the Western Pahari language group.<ref>{{cite journal| last = Zoller| first = Claus Peter| year = 2007| title = Is Bangani a V2 language?| journal = European Bulletin of Himalayan Research| volume = 31| pages = 83–142 | url = http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ebhr/pdf/EBHR_31_06.pdf}}</ref> It shares at least half and possibly as much as two-thirds of its basic vocabulary with both neighbouring varieties of the Garhwali language and with two Western Pahari languages, Jaunsari and Sirmauri.<ref>{{Cite web| last = Matthews| first = John| date = 2008| title = Jaunsari: a sociolinguistic survey| series = SIL Electronic Survey Reports| url = https://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/9074|pages=12–13}}</ref>
==Lexical similarity with neighbors== {| class="wikitable" |+Lexical similarity <ref>{{Cite book|title=Jaunsari: A Sociolinguistic Survey|publisher=SIL International|year=2008|pages=13}}</ref> ! !% lexical similarity |- |Jaunpuri |56% |- |Jaunsari |61% |- |Sirmauri |59% |- |Nagpuri |56% |}
== Centum substrate hypothesis == Bangani is of interest amongst scholars of Indo-European languages, due to some unusual features.
Since the 1980s, Claus Peter Zoller – a scholar of Indian linguistics and literature – has hypothesised, controversially, that Bangani has a substrate from a centum-group Indo-European language. Zoller also suggests that Bangani has been misclassified as a dialect of Garhwali and is more closely related to the Western Pahari languages.
While Zoller's centum substrate hypothesis remains controversial, it and his underlying data have been supported by 21st century linguists and indologists, such as Anvita Abbi, Hans Henrich Hock,<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1515/9783110423303-004 |title=The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia |year=2016 |isbn=978-3-11-042330-3 |editor1-last=Hock|editor1-first=Hans Henrich|editor1-link=Hans Henrich Hock|editor2-last=Bashir|editor2-first=Elena|editor2-link=Elena Bashir}}</ref> and Koenraad Elst.<ref>See, for example, Koenraad Elst, 2007, ''Asterisk in Bhāropīyasthān: Minor Writings on the Aryan Invasion Debate'', Delhi, Voice of India, p. 31.</ref> Abbi visited Bangan and confirmed the accuracy of Zoller's data.<ref name=Jouanne/>
The substance of Zoller's claims has been rejected by George van Driem and Suhnu Sharma, in publications since 1996,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iias.nl/host/himalaya/abstracts/sgo.html |title= Religion and Global empire |work=The Newsletter Issue 54 |publisher=International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) |accessdate=4 September 2010|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20061019044736/http://www.iias.nl/host/himalaya/abstracts/sgo.html |archivedate = 19 October 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> which claim that Zoller's data was flawed and that Bangani is an unambiguously satem language.
Zoller does not accept the findings by van Driem and Sharma, and claims that there are methodological issues and factual errors in van Driem and Sharma's work.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pehook/bangani.zoller.html |title=The van Driem Enigma Or: In search of instant facts |author= |date= |website= |publisher= |accessdate=4 September 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/abt/MIND/zoller/Bangani.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030528154936/http://www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/abt/MIND/zoller/Bangani.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 May 2003|title=?|df=dmy-all}}</ref> In addition, Zoller also notes the two scholars did not set foot in Bangan but interviewed speakers at another location near Bangan.<ref name=Jouanne>{{cite web |last1=Jouanne |first1=Thomas |title=A Preliminary Analysis of the Phonological System of the Western Pahāṛī Language of Kvār |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/30815038.pdf |website=core.ac.uk |publisher=Institutt for kulturstudier og orientalske språk, Universitetet i Oslo |access-date=12 May 2014}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{Commons-inline}}
Category:Northern Indo-Aryan languages Category:Languages of Uttarakhand Category:Endangered Indo-European languages Category:Languages written in Takri Category:Critically endangered languages Category:Endangered languages of India