TheBazigar,Goaar, orGuar language is a language spoken by theBazigar ethnic group^[a] of north-western India who are found primarily inPunjab, but also inHaryana,Uttar Pradesh,Delhi,Chandigarh,Himachal Pradesh,Jammu and Kashmir andRajasthan.^[2]

It is apparently anIndo-Aryan language (Ethnologue)^[3] whileGlottolog has labelled it "unclassifiable". Schreffler argues that it compares well with the WesternRajasthani dialects as well as withPunjabi (with which it is not mutually intelligible),^[4] while Deb notes its resemblance toBagri.^[5] Ethnologue formerly classified it as aDravidian language.^[6]

Initially nomadic and with a traditional occupation involving acrobatics and performance arts, they are now largely settled and mostly engaged in agricultural and other forms of labour.^[7] Several of the major Bazigar groups currently found in Indian Punjab migrated at the time ofPartition in 1947 from Western Punjab (now in Pakistan), where they had started settling earlier in the century.^[8]

The ethnic Bazigar are estimated at half a million in Punjab,^[9] but the language is not spoken by all. The younger generation areshifting to the regional languages,^[10] for example Schreffler reports that people younger than 30 prefer to use the regional language with one another, and speak Bazigar only with older people.^[11]

The language is also known asGuar boli,^[12] orgoāroṅ ri bolī "Guars' speech", after the name that the community uses for itself.^[13] Bazigar has no written literature.^[11]

Additionally, the Bazigar have an artificialsecret language which they use when they do not want to be understood by outsiders. They call itParsi orPashto (not to be confused with theFarsi andPashto languages).^[14]

Bazigar has an almost identical phonology to Punjabi except for the presence of thevoiceless palatal fricative/ç/ and the absence of thevoiceless glottal fricative/h/. Words with initial/h/ in Punjabi correspond to words with a tone in Bazigar. There are differences from Punjabi in the vocabulary and the morphology, notably in the absence of a vowel feminine ending (e.g./buɖʱ/ 'old woman'), and there are similarities to Hindi and Western Rajasthani, for example thegenitive marker/ro/ and thedative marker/ne/.^[11]

^[15]

• Lambadi language, spoken by the Banjara

• Deb, P. C. (1987).Bazigars of Punjab: A Socio-economic Study. Delhi: Mittal Publications.
• Schreffler, Gibb (2011)."The Bazigar (Goaar) People and Their Performing Arts"(PDF).Journal of Punjab Studies.18 (1&2).
• Singh, Birinder Pal, ed. (2010)."Criminal" Tribes of Punjab: A Social-anthropological Inquiry. Routledge.ISBN 9780415551472.
• Singh, Gurpeet (2016). "Bazigari". In Devy, Ganesh; Koul, Omkar N.; Bhat, Roop Krishen (eds.).The Languages of Punjab. People's Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. 24. Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan. pp. 116–20.ISBN 978-8125062400.

• Kaur, Navneet (2004–2005).Linguistic Analysis of the Language of Bazigar Community (Mphil) (in Punjabi). Punjabi University, Patiala.
• Christian evangelistic audio materials in Bazigar:Good News^{[permanent dead link]} andWords of LifeArchived 2015-05-18 at theWayback Machine

• Unclassified Indo-Aryan languages
• Languages of India

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