Khana

Khana

Khana is spoken in the Neel-Chamalvas area of the Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir. It is locally known as Kha. Almost 500-600 residents speak it, which is the primary communication medium in this area. Neighboring languages include Kashmiri, Poguli, and Dogri. Khana is the primary language used by the people in their homes, fields, and other informal situations. Children also speak Khana in informal situations. Apart from Khana, Kashmiri and Pahari (Pahari-Urdu). Hindi is also spoken to some extent. Khana is the mother tongue of about 10,000 people. The native speakers reported living in this area for several generations.

Khana has no official status. In Jammu and Kashmir, Khana is recognized as a minority language, and the outsiders have no idea about its existence; they perceive Khana people as Pahari-speaking people. Khana has no script of its own and has no written texts. It is an unclassified language.

Khana belongs to the Dardic language family. Its closest major relatives are Poguli and Kashmiri, and these languages are spoken in the same belt of the Ramban area surrounded by the Sargili Mountains. Khana shares quite a few words with Kashmiri and Poguli. The cultural characteristics, along with the language intelligibility, strengthen the view that all Kha speakers belong to a common ethnic group. Khana is the identity of the Khana people, which separates them from other people and makes them ethnically different as language reflects the thoughts, ethnic background, and other cultural features of a society.