The Bhil languages are a group of Western Indo-Aryan languages spoken by some 6 million Bhil

Bhil

Bhils are primarily an Adivasi people of Central India. Bhils are also settled in the Tharparkar District of Sindh, Pakistan. They speak the Bhil languages, a subgroup of the Western Zone of the Indo-Aryan languages....

s in western, central, and by small numbers, even in far eastern, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. They constitute the primary languages of the southern Aravalli Range

Aravalli Range

The Aravalli Range literally meaning 'line of peaks', is a range of mountains in western India and eastern Pakistan running approximately 800 km from northeast to southwest across states of Rajasthan, Haryana, and Gujarat and Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh...

 in Rajasthan

Rajasthan

Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...

 and the western Satpura Range

Satpura Range

The Satpura Range is a range of hills in central India. The range rises in eastern Gujarat state near the Arabian Sea coast, running east through Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to Chhattisgarh. The range parallels the Vindhya Range to the north, and these two east-west ranges divide the...

 in Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....

, north western Maharashtra and south Gujarat.

Relationship

The Bhil languages form a link midway between the Gujarati language

Gujarati language

Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...

 and the Rajasthani language

Rajasthani language

Rajasthani Rajasthani Rajasthani (Devanagari: , Perso-Arabic: is a language of the Indo-Aryan languages family. It is spoken by 50 million people in Rajasthan and other states of India and in some areas of Pakistan. The number of speakers may be up to 80 million worldwide...

s.

The group comprises the following languages:

• Bhili–Wagdi: Bhili proper
  Bhili language
  Bhili is a Western Indo-Aryan language spoken in west-central India, in the region east of Ahmedabad. Other names for the language include Bhagoria and Bhilboli; varieties are Wagdi and Garasia. Bhili is a member of the Bhil language family, which is related to Gujarati and the Rajasthani language...
  
   (Patelia; Pardhi?), Bhilodi, Wagdi
  Wagdi language
  The Wagdi language is one of the Bhil languages of India, and is mutually intelligible with Bhili .Other names for Wagdi are Wagadi, Vagdi, Vagadi, Vagari, Vageri, Vaged, Vagi, Wagari, Waghari, Wagri, Wagholi and Mina Bhil...
  
  , Adiwasa & Rajput Garasia [mutually intelligible]
  • Some forms intelligible with Marwari
    Marwari language
    The Marwari language , also variously Marvari, Marwadi, Marvadi), is spoken in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Marwari is also found in the neighboring state of Gujarat and Haryana and in Eastern Pakistan...
    
    
• Bareli (Palya, Pauri, Rathwi)
  • Kalto
    Kalto language
    Kalto or Nahali is an Indo-Aryan language of India. Kalto is the ethnonym; "Nahal" or "Nihal" is disparaging. The language is often confused with Nihali, an apparent language isolate spoken by neighboring people with a similar lifestyle....
    
     (Nahali)
• Bhilali
  Bhilali language
  Bhilali is a Bhil language of India. Two varieties, Bhilali proper and Rathawi , are largely mutually intelligible. A third, Parya Bhilali, is more distant, but is treated as a dialect....
  
   (Rathawi)
• Bhilori (Noiri, Dungra)
• Dubli (intelligible with Vasavi Gujarati)
• Gamit
  Gamit language
  Gamit is a Bhil language of Gujarat, mainly the area of Surat. It is mostly spoken by the Gamit caste; according to Ethnologue "most speakers have high school or college education". Gamti proper has most of the speakers; Mawchi Gamti of Gujarat and Maharashtra has about 80,000....
  
   (Mawchi)

Other varieties include Bauria, Chodri, Dhodia.

Further reading

• Khare, Randhir. The Singing Bow: Song-Poems of the Bhil. New Delhi: HarperCollins Publishers India, 2001. ISBN 8172234252
• Varma, Siddheshwar. Bhil Dialects and Khandesi: A Linguistic Analysis. Panjab University Indological series, 23. Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Vishva Bandhu Institute of Sanskrit and Indological Studies, Panjab University, 1978.