Lahul Lohar language

Lahul Lohar (also known as Lohari) is an unclassified Indo-Aryan language of northern India. It is spoken by about 750 people in the Lahul region of Himachal Pradesh and in the adjoining Leh district of Ladakh. It is distinct from Gade Lohar, though culturally similar.^[1]

According to a 1996 sociolinguistic survey, Lohari is spoken in about 85 households belonging to the metalsmith caste of Lahul. The largest concentration of Lohari speakers is in Gondhla where 12 Lohar families reside. Elsewhere in Lahul, it is typical for just one Lohar family to live in a village. Some Lohari speakers believe that their language resembles Chinali but not to the degree of mutual intelligibility. There exists a belief that Chinali is close to Sanskrit, whereas Lohari is more similiar to Hindi. A sample of Lohari as spoken in Gondhla and Gawzang shows a 73 percent lexical simililarity to the Chinali varieties of Gushal and Nalda. The similarity between the two varities of Lohari is 82 percent.^[2]

Of all languages spoken in Lahul, Lohari is among the least likely ones to be learned by someone who does not speak it natively, perhaps owing to the lower social status of the metalsmith caste. Nevertheless, Lohari speakers have a positive attitude towards their language. 100 percent of those surveyed by SIL said Lohari was "as good as Hindi", compared to 90 percent of Bunan speakers and 83 percent of Stod Bhoti speakers. The Lohars have the lowest literacy rate of all Lahuli communities. In 1996, 67 percent reported being literate in Hindi and 13 percent in English.^[2]

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