Kannauji is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Kannauj region of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Kannauji is closely related to Hindustani, with a lexical similarity of 83–94% with Hindi.

Kannauji shares many structural and functional differences from other dialects of Hindi, but in the Linguistic Survey of India it has been added as a variant of Braj and Awadhi.

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 heavily influenced by Awadhi whereas Western districts are Braj speaking.

Kannauji is predominantly spoken around the historic town of Kannauj in the following districts of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab: In the non-Doabi areas, it is spoken in Hardoi, western parts of Lakhimpur Kheri and Sitapur districts in Awadh and Shahjahanpur and Pilibhit of Rohilkhand.

A distribution of the geographical area can be found in volume 9 of 'Linguistic Survey of India' by George A. Grierson.

In coining meaning of a word is extended up to an extent that it starts being used as a category.

'ap-' + jash → apjash (evil) (fame) 'par-' + dosh → pardo:sh (others) (defects) ‘ap’ and ‘par’ are prefixes here.

For example: am͜ma aur dad͜da → am͜ma: dad͜da: Conversion is a very productive but less frequent process of word formation.

This is not a productive type of word formation process; instead it adds stylistic effect in conversation.

In echo formation, a similar-sounding word is made from nominal and adjectival.

In metaphoric expansion a word is used in different situations and environments due to one similar quality.

So sarka:r ko dama:d is used to refer a person who is favoured very much by government.