: क़न्नौजी) (also spelled Kanauji (क़नौजी or क़न‍उजी), Kanauji language) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of the 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...

n state of Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

. Kannauji is closely related to Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

, and some consider it to be a dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

 of Hindi, while others consider it a separate Western Hindi language

Western Hindi languages

Hindi is a subset of the Indo-Aryan language family in the northern plains of India, bounded on the northwest and west by Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati and Marathi; on the east by Maithili and Bengali; and on the north by Nepali...

.

Kannauji has about 6 million speakers.

Kannauji has two dialects or variants of its own: Tirhari and Transitional Kanauji, which is between standard Kanauji and Awadhi

Awadhi language

Awadhi is an Indo-Aryan language, part of the Hindi-Urdu continuum. It is spoken chiefly in the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh, although its speakers are also found in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Nepal. Furthermore, the Fiji Hindi dialect spoken by Indo-Fijians is considered a variant of Awadhi,...

.

Geographical distribution

Kannauji is not a standard dialect of Hindi and can be assumed to be the transitory phase between Braj Bhasha and Awadhi. Eastern parts are totally Awadhi while Western districts are Braj speaking. Kannauji is predominantly spoken around the historic town of Kannauj

Kannauj

Kannauj , also spelt Kanauj, is a city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city's name is traditionally derived from the term Kanyakubja . Kannauj is an ancient city, in earlier times the capital...

 in the following districts of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab

Doab

A Doab is a term used in India and Pakistan for a "tongue" or tract of land lying between two confluent rivers...

:

• Kannauj
  Kannauj District
  Kannauj District is an administrative district of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India, along the river Ganges. The historic town of Kannauj, northwest of Kanpur, is the administrative center.-Geography:...
  
  
• Mainpuri
  Mainpuri District
  Mainpuri district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state of India, and Mainpuri town is the district headquarters. Mainpuri district is a part of Agra division.-Demographics:...
  
  
• Etawah
  Etawah District
  Etawah district is a district in the southwestern portion of Uttar Pradesh state of India. Etawah town is the district headquarters. Etawah district is part of Kanpur Division. The district covers an area of 2311 km²...
  
  
• Farrukhabad
  Farrukhabad District
  Farrukhabad district is a district of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. The town of Fatehgarh is the district headquarters. The district is part of Kanpur Division....
  
  
• Auraiya
  Auraiya district
  Auraiya district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state of India, and Auraiya town is the district headquarters.-History:On 17 September 1997 two tehsils named Auraiya and Bidhuna were separated from district Etawah to form the new district named as Auraiya.-Geography:The district of...
  
  
• Kanpur
  Kanpur Dehat district
  Ramabai Nagar district , formerly known as Kanpur Dehat district, is a district of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. The administrative headquarters of the district are at Mati, Akbarpur. This district is part of Kanpur division.-History:...
  
  

In the non-Doabi areas, it is spoken in Hardoi

Hardoi District

Hardoi disctrict is a district of Uttar Pradesh, India, and Hardoi town is the district headquarters. Hardoi district is a part of Lucknow division.-Economy:...

, western parts of Lakhimpur Kheri and Sitapur

Sitapur District

Sitapur district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state of India, with Sitapur town as the district headquarters. Sitapur district is a part of Lucknow division. This district covers an area of 5743 km². It has a population of 3,619,661....

 districts in Awadh

Awadh

Awadh , also known in various British historical texts as Oudh or Oude derived from Ayodhya, is a region in the centre of the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before independence known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh...

 and Shahjahanpur

Shahjahanpur District

Shahjahanpur district is one of the historical districts of Uttar Pradesh in the republic of India. It is a part of Bareilly division. The main town is Shahjahanpur and its Tehsils are: Powayan, Tilhar, Jalalabad, and Kanth....

 and Pilibhit

Pilibhit District

Pilibhit district is one of the districts in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, and Pilibhit city is the district headquarters. Pilibhit district is a part of Bareilly Division.The city is famous for its contribution to Bollywood, Urdu literature and its involvement in Politics of India...

 of Rohilkhand

Rohilkhand

Rohilkhand is a region of northwestern Uttar Pradesh state of India.Rohilkhand lies on the upper Ganges alluvial plain and has an area of about 25,000 km²/10,000 square miles...

.