2025/03/27 by Anu Pandey
#Kanauji #low-resourced language #snapshot #threatened Hindi variety
paper · doi:10.25894/ldd.1004
Kanauji is a threatened and low-resourced western-Hindi variety spoken by 7 million people in Kanpur, Farrukhabad, Etawah, Hardoi, Shahjahanpur, Pilibhit, Kanauj, etc., Uttar Pradesh, India. Kanauji native speakers use Kanauji, Hindustani, and Standard Hindi in different social situations or domains, simultaneously switching between the standard dialect 'Standard Hindi' and the vernacular dialects ‘Hindustani or Kanauji’ in language variation patterns. Kanauji speakers maintain their language in rural regions more than in urban centers. Although Kanauji is still prevalent in homes and neighbourhoods, It needs more presence in formal domains such as education, literary works, and media where Hindustani and Standard Hindi are used. The migration of youth towards the city for socio-economic mobility and higher education is causing them to learn and shift towards the ‘Hindustani’ lingua franca and Standard Hindi. Thus, Kanauji is a threatened variety now and needs urgent documentation efforts. There have been ongoing efforts to document the Kanauji language in the last few years. The author’s Ph.D. project starting in 2017, is another step to describe and document the language, social situation, and culture of the Kanauji community. This paper briefly overviews the geographical location, demographics, socio-culture, prior research, and current research on Kanauji.