Chinali

Chinali (ISO-639-3 code: cih)

Belonging to an Indo-Aryan language family, Chinali is spoken in the Lahul and Pattan valleys and Gushal village of the Himachal Pradesh state. Also known as Chana, Channali, Chinal, Dagi, Harijan, or Shipi; this language was reported to be spoken by 215 people in 2011 (census), whereas in 2016, this number increased to 220 people. According to the Ethnologue, the status of this language is 6b, i.e., it is a threatened language. Residing in the banks of Chinab or the Chandrabhaga, these Chinali speakers are known as the Chinals (as well as Chahns, Dagis or Domba) in the Himalayan areas. For the present research on the Chinali language, data has been collected from the Lahul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh.

The origin of the Cinali community could not be confirmed by one single source. Some theory claims that they may have migrated from the GoolGulabgarh, Doda or Kashtwar of Chinab Valley of Jammu and Kashmir and claims them as Aryans. Another theory speculates their origin in Rajasthan, thus, claims them as Rajput. The primary occupation of the Chinals is agriculture, though they are mostly highly educated, and many of them hold administrative posts in government offices. According to the religion, most of them follow either Buddhism or Hinduism. Rice, wheat and maize are staple foods of this area.

The word order of the Chinali language is SOV and is, thus, classified as belonging to the Indo-Aryan language family. For writing this language,the Devanagari script is used. This language has its literature that mostly comprises poetry and folklore. No dialectical variations of this language have been reported so far. Apart from this language, Chinals also use the English language for communication outside their community (Ethnologue).