Hindko language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hindko هندکو |
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| Pronunciation: | [Hindkoŭ] | |||
| Spoken in: | Pakistan (N.W.F.P., Punjab) Azad Kashmir; India (Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab) |
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| Region: | South Asia | |||
| Total speakers: | approx. 2.2 - 4 million[1][citation needed] | |||
| Language family: | Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northwestern zone Lahnda Hindko |
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| Writing system: | Nasta'liq script | |||
| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |||
| ISO 639-2: | – | |||
| ISO 639-3: | hnd | |||
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Hindko (هندکو /Hindkoŭ/), also Hindku, Hinko,[2] or Lahnda[3] , لَیہندا) is an ancient Indo-Aryan language spoken by Hindkowans in Pakistan.[4][5] The literal meaning of the word "Hindko" is "Mountains of the Indus". The word "Hind" is the Persianised reference to the regions associated with the Indus River immediately to the east of Persia and "Ko" means mountains[6]. The word Hindko has also been interpreted to mean the language of India.[7] The term is also found in Greek references to the mountainous region in eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan as Καύκασος Ινδικός (Caucasus Indicus). The language is spoken in the areas of the North West Frontier Province (including Hazara), Punjab (including Attock), and Azad Kashmir (mirpuri's don't speak hindko) by an estimated 2.2 to 4 million people.[1]
There is no generic name for these people because they belong to diverse ethnicities and tend to identify themselves by the larger families or castes. However the people of the largest group in the districts of Haripur, Abbottabad and Mansehra are sometimes recognised collectively as Hazarawal, named after the defunct Hazara Division that comprised of these districts. In Peshawar city they are referred to as "Kharay" meaning City-dwellers or Hindkowans.
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[edit] History and Origin
During the pre-Buddhist era in present day Pakistan, the language of the masses was refined by the ancient grammarian Pāṇini, who set the rules of a structurally rigorous language called Sanskrit which was used principally for scriptures (analogous to Latin in the Western world). Meanwhile, the vernacular language of the masses, Prakrit developed into many tongues and dialects which spread over the northern parts of South Asia. Hindko is believed to be closely related to Prakrit. Due to the geographic isolation of the regions, it has undergone very little grammatical corruption, but has borrowed considerable vocabulary from its neighbours, in particular Pashto. It shows close affinity to Punjabi and the Lahnda sub-group of Indo-Aryan tongues and can be sub-divided into a northern and southern dialect (the southern dialect spoken in Pakistani Punjab shows some similarity with Siraiki as opposed to Punjabi). This language is very similar to the Mirpuri dialect of Potohari and Hindko and Mirpuri speakers can understand each other very well.
[edit] Speakers
The largest geographically contiguous group of Hindko speakers is concentrated in the districts of state Abbottabad, Haripur, Mansehra, Attock, Muzaffarabad and Kaghan valley of Pakistan, while there are a substantial number of geographically isolated speakers of Hindko in cities like Peshawar, Mardan and Kohat.
People here tend to associate themselves with the larger families instead of a language (or caste as it used to be called). The Qureshi(Arabians), for example, have a great history of bravery and are known as lords of the Hazara Division. Other tribes are Awan, Tanoli, Tareen, Swati, Jadoon, Abbasi, Karlal, Tahirkheli etc. People who speak Hindko are referred to by some academics as Punjabi Pathans probably because of the many Pashtun tribes, for example Jadoons,Tanolis and Tahirkhelis, who settled in places like Hazara, adopted Hindko as their first language and gained political power in these areas during the British rule, and also because of many ethnic Pushtun people who speak Hinkdo as their first language in Peshawar and Kohat. The Hindko speaking people living in major cities Peshawar, Kohat, Mardan are bilingual in Pashto and Hindko. Similarly many Pashto speaking people in districts like Abbottabad and Mansehra (especially in Agror Valley and northern Tanawal) have become bilingual in Pashto and Hindko.
The NWFP Imperial Gazetteer (1905) refers to the language as Hindko. More than one interpretation has been offered for the term Hindko. Some associate it with Hindustan (as the word may have been used during the medieval Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent), others with the Indus River which is of course the etymological source of all these terms. Farigh Bukhari and South Asian language expert and historian Christopher Shackle believe that Hindko was a generic term applied to the Indo-Aryan dialect continuum in the northwest frontier territories and adjacent district of Attock in the Punjab province to differentiate it from Pashto.
Linguists classify the language into the Indic subgroup of Indo-European languages and consider it to be one of the Indo-Iranian languages of the area. An estimated 2.4 per cent of the total population of Pakistan speak Hindko as their mother tongue, with more rural than urban households reporting Hindko as their household language.
[edit] Madre Hindko
Riffat Akbar of Mansehra is called Madre Hindko a title of Hindko speaking people had given to her against her valuable services rendered for promoting this language. Riffat Akbar is an MPA from Mansehra and well known among Hindkians not only in Hazara Division but also in Peshawar and other cities of Pakistan.
[edit] Writers
There are several Hindko writers including Haider Zaman who translated Holy Quran in Hidko. Dr. Syed Mehboob a famous writer, researcher and columnist is also belongs to Hindko speaking area and settled in Karachi. He also wrote many stories and essays in the Hindko language.
[edit] Demographics
The speakers of Hindko live primarily in six districts: Mansehra, Abbottabad, Haripur, Peshawar, Nowshera and Kohat in NWFP, Attock and Rawalpindi in Punjab and parts of Azad Kashmir including Muzaffarabad; Jonathan Addleton states that "Hindko is the linguistic majority in the NWFP, represented in nearly one-fifth of the province's total households." (NWFP referring to North-West Frontier Province.) In Abbottabad District 98 per cent of households reported speaking Hindko, in Mansehra District 77 per cent, in Peshawar District 17 per cent, and in Kohat District 10 per cent (1986). 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.
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 than elsewhere). In the mixed areas, many people speak both languages. The relationship between Hindko and Pashto is not one of stable bilingualism. In the northeast, Hindko is the dominant language both in terms of domain of usage and in terms of the number of speakers, whereas in the southwest, Pashto seems to be advancing in those same areas.
The Gandhara Hindko Board has published the first dictionary of the language and its launching ceremony was held on March 16, 2003. According to a press release, Sultan Sakoon, a prominent Hindku poet, has compiled the dictionary.
[edit] Literature and writers
Faroghe Hindko is rendering valuable services to promote Hindko Language and Riffat Sawatti , Aurangzeb Ghaznavi are the heart a soul of this organization. A monthly Faroogh is published from Peshawar under his supervision. In Karachi Dr.Syed Mehboob is working for the promotion of this language.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Shah Rukh, Dilip Kumar invited to Pakistan
- ^ "Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan" (1964). Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan 22: 23.
- ^ Lahnda. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved on 2007-05-23.
- ^ Abstract of speakers’ strength of languages and mother tongues – 2001, Census of India (retrieved 19 March 2008)
- ^ Daily Times: Peshawarites still remember the Kapoor family
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition - Kohistan
- ^ - Grierson Linguistic Survey of India
1974: Phonlogy of Verbal Phrase in Hindko,Dr Elahi Bkahsh Akhtar 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 Panjab." Rule, protest, identity: aspects of modern South Asia (ed. P. Robb & D. Taylor), 213-34. London: Curzon
- 1986: Addleton, Jonathan S., "The Importance of Regional Languages in Pakistan," al'Mushir, Vol. 28, No. 2 (1986), pp. 55-80.
