Hindko | |
---|---|
Southern Hindko (ISO) Panjistani | |
ہندکو | |
![]() Hindko in Shahmukhi | |
Native to | Pakistan |
Region | Peshawar, Kohat, Hazara Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pothohar Plateau, Punjab, Azad Kashmir |
Native speakers | (625,000 cited 1981)[1] |
Dialects |
|
Shahmukhi Script | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | hnd (Southern Hindko) |
Glottolog | sout2668 |
Hindko (ہندکو ALA-LC: [Hindko] Error: {{Transliteration}}: unrecognized language / script code: Hindko (help) IPA: [hɪnd̪koː])[3] is a variety of Western Punjabi spoken in northern Pakistan. It follows the standardized Punjabi Shahmukhi script for writing. It is also known as Panjistani or (ambiguously) as Pahari.
Name
The name Hindko simply means "the Indian language" (in contrast to Pashto)[4] and has been applied to various dialects spoken in northern Pakistan, in the areas of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (including Hazara), Punjab especially Pothohar Plateau, Pakistan Administered Kashmir, including by some Pashtun tribes, as well as by the Hindki people of Afghanistan.
There is no generic name for these people because they belong to diverse ethnic groups and tend to identify themselves by the larger families or castes. However the people of the largest group in the districts of Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram and Kohistan are sometimes recognised collectively as Hazarawal, named after the defunct Hazara Division that comprised these districts. In Peshawar city they are called Peshawari or "Kharay" by Pashtuns meaning City-dwellers.
Language or dialect
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/Dialects_Of_Punjabi.jpg/400px-Dialects_Of_Punjabi.jpg)
In recent years, the migration of the people from the Hazara region to the plains of Punjab and intermarriages has brought Hindko even closer to standard Punjab.[citation needed] Punjabi has, like Sindhi, Urdu, and Hindi, also been exposed to the dialect-versus-language question. Each of these languages have a central standard on which its literature is based, and from which there are multiple dialectal variations.
Subdialects
Hindko could be classified into four subdialects: Hazara Hindko, Peshawari Hindko, Chachhi, and Kohati. The Hindko of Peshawar is prestigious and the basis for an emergent literature. Due to the ambiguous nature of the name "Hindko", much of the literature on the language is confused, and much of the material below concerns all dialects called "Hindko" rather than Hindko proper. Hindko is closely related to few other dialects of Punjabi, especially with the Dhani dialect of Chakwal.
Demographics
The speakers of Hindko live primarily in seven districts: Mansehra, Abbottabad, Haripur, Peshawar, Nowshera, Akora Khattak, Swabi and Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Attock and Rawalpindi in Punjab, and parts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir including Muzaffarabad; Jonathan Addleton states that "Hindko is the linguistic majority in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, represented in nearly one-third of the province's total households." (Pakhtunkhwa referring to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.) According to the 1981 census, Hindko-speaking households accounted for 92.3% of households in Abbottabad District, 46.8% in Mansehra District, 6.9% in Peshawar District and 10.4% in Kohat District.[5] Testing of inherent intelligibility among Hindko dialects through the use of recorded tests has shown that there is a northern (Hazara) dialect group and a southern group. The southern dialects are more widely understood throughout the dialect network than are the northern dialects. The dialects of rural Peshawar and Talagang are the most widely understood of the dialects tested. The dialect of Balakot is the least widely understood.
The most common second language for Hindko speakers is Urdu and the second most common one is Pashto.[6] In most Hindko-speaking areas, speakers of Pashto live in the same or neighbouring communities (although this is less true in Abbottabad and Kaghan Valley). The relationship between Hindko and Pashto is not one of stable bilingualism. In terms of domains of use and number of speakers, Hindko is dominant and growing in the northeast, whereas in the southwest it is loosing ground.[7]
The language is spoken by people of different ethnic backgrounds.[8]
Hindko speakers are also found throughout Afghanistan, where they are known as Hindkois.
Literature and writers
The Gandhara Hindko Board is a leading organisation that has been active in the preservation and promotion of the Hindko and culture since 1993. The board was launched in Peshawar in year 1993 to preserve and promote Hindko —the second most spoken of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. It brings out four regular publications— Hindkowan, The Gandhara Voice, " Sarkhail" and "Tarey" and a number of occasional publications. Late professor Zahoor Ahmad Awan of Peshawar city, the author of 61 books and publications, was the founding-chairman of the board. Now the board is headed by Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi. The board has published first Hindko dictionary and several other books on a variety of topics. With head office in Peshawar, the organisation has regional offices in other cities of the province where Hindko is spoken and understood. The organisation has arranged a number of mega events to raise awareness among the Hindkowans about the importance of their language and culture. The board seeks respect for and due attention to all the languages spoken in Gandhara.
In 2003 the Gandhara Hindko Board published first a Hindko dictionary which was compiled by a prominent linguists from Abbottabad, Sultan Sakoon. The board published a second more comprehensive Hindko dictionary in 2007 prepared by Elahi Bakhsh Awan of the University of London. He is the author of Sarzamin e Hindko, and Hindko Sautiyat. His three booklets on Hindko phonology were published by the University of Peshawar in the late 70's.
The Idara-e-Faroghe Hindko based in Peshawar is another body that is promoting the Hindko. Riffat Akbar Swati and Aurangzeb Ghaznavi are main people of this organisation. The Idara has published the first Hindko translation of the Quran by Haider Zaman Haider and the first Ph.D. thesis on Hindko by E.B.A. Awan. A monthly magazine Faroogh is also published regularly from Peshawar under supervision of Aurangzeb Ghaznavi. In Karachi Syed Mehboob is working for the promotion of Hindko. His articles are frequently published in Farogh monthly. He is organiser of Hindko Falahi Forum.
Many organisations like Bazm-e-Ilm-o-Fun Abbottabad and Halqa-e-Yaraan Shinkyari are contributing in their own way to the cause of promoting Hindko and literature. Asif Saqib, Sufi Abdur Rasheed, Fazal-e-Akbar Kamal, Sharif Hussain Shah, Muhammad Farid, Yahya Khalid, Nazir Kasalvi, and Muhammad Hanif have contributed a lot in this regard. Sultan Sakoon has written the First Hindko dictionary that has been published by Gandhara Hindko Board. Sultan Sakoon stands out for his literary contribution as he is a prolific writer and his books including those on Hindko proverbs and Hindko riddles have been published.
See also
References
- ^ Hindko at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ "Western Panjabi". Ethnologue. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
- ^ Shackle, "Lahnda", in Brown & Ogilvie, eds, Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World
- ^ Shackle 1980, p. 482.
- ^ Addleton 1986, pp. 58–59, quoted by Rensch (1992, p. 5)
- ^ Rensch, 1992 & 80.
- ^ Rensch 1992, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Rensch 1992, pp. 10–11.
Bibliography
- 1974: Phonology of Verbal Phrase in Hindko, Dr E.B.A. Awan published by Idara-e-Farogh-e-Hindko Peshawar in 1992.
- 2004: Hindko Sautiyat, Dr E.B.A. Awan, published by Gandhara Hindko Board Peshawar in 2004.
- 2005: Hindko Land - a thesis presented by Dr E.B.A. Awan at the World Hindko Conference at Peshawar in 2005.
- 1980: "Hindko in Kohat and Peshawar." Bulletin of SOAS, 1980, 482-510
- 1978: "Rival linguistic identities in Pakistan Punjab." Rule, protest, identity: aspects of modern South Asia (ed. P. Robb & D. Taylor), 213-34. London: Curzon
- Monthly Farogh Peshawar Hindko magazine March 2010.
- Karachi main Hindko zaban o adab Dr.Syed Mehboob ka kirdar " by Kamal Shah
- Addleton, Jonathan S. (1986). "The Importance of Regional Languages in Pakistan". al-Mushir. 28 (2): 58–80.
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: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - Masica, Colin P. (1991). The Indo-Aryan languages. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-23420-7.
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(help) - Rensch, Calvin R. (1992). "The Language Environment of Hindko-Speaking People". In O'Leary, Clare F.; Rensch, Calvin R.; Hallberg, Calinda E. (eds.). Hindko and Gujari. Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan. Islamabad: National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University and Summer Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 969-8023-13-5.
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(help) - Shackle, Christopher (1980). "Hindko in Kohat and Peshawar". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 43 (3): 482–510. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00137401. ISSN 0041-977X.
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