Pahari, or Pahadi (पहाड़ी پہاڑی pahāṛī ‘of the hills/mountains’; English: /pəˈhɑːri/) is an ambiguous term that has been used for a variety of languages, dialects and language groups, most of which are found in the lower Himalayas.
Most commonly, it refers to:
- Pahari-Pothwari, the predominant language of Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir and neighbouring areas of Punjab and Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir
- Western Pahari languages spoken primarily in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, with some languages in the south-eastern parts of Indian Jammu and Kashmir,
- Northern Indo-Aryan languages, in the linguistics literature often referred to as “Pahari languages”, a proposed group that includes the Indo-Aryan languages of Nepal and the Indian states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
Less commonly, Pahari may be:
- a term used by Dogri speakers of the plains to refer to the Dogri varieties spoken at higher elevations, in Indian Jammu and Kashmir
- a local name for a variety of Bilaspuri spoken in a certain hilly area of Indian Punjab
- a name nowadays used only in rural areas to refer to the Nepali language
- a local name for a Bhili dialect of Eastern Gujarat.
Pahari (पहरी paharī) refers to:
- Pahari language (Sino-Tibetan), a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by a few thousand people in central Nepal.
Of similar origin is the name Paharia, which is used for several languages of east-central India: see Paharia language (disambiguation).