Pahari-Pothwari

Pahari-Pothwari
The Western Punjabi language variety spoken on the Pothohar Plateau in the far north of Punjab, Pakistan, as well as in most of Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir and in western areas of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, is known by a variety of names, the most common of which are Pahari (an ambiguous name also applied to unrelated languages of India), and Pothwari (or Pothohari).
The language variety is transitional between Hindko and Standard Punjabi and is mutually intelligible with both. There have been efforts at cultivation as a literary language variety, although a local standard has not been established yet. The Shahmukhi script is used to write the language, such as in the works of Mian Muhammad Bakhsh.
Grierson in his early 20th-century Linguistic Survey of India assigned it to a so-called "Northern cluster" of Lahnda (Western Punjabi), but this classification, as well as the validity of the Lahnda grouping in this case, have been called into question. In a sense both Pothwari, as well as other Western Punjabi varieties, and Standard Panjabi are "dialects" of a "Greater Punjabi" macrolanguage.
Geographic distribution and dialects
There are at least three major dialects: Pothwari, Mirpuri and Pahari. The Pothwari spoken in Gujar Khan is regarded as the most prestigious dialect of Pothwari spoken in Pakistan.
The dialects are mutually intelligible, but the difference between the northernmost and the southernmost dialects (from Muzaffarabad and Mirpur respectively) is enough to cause difficulties in understanding.
Pothohar Plateau
Pothwari, also spelt Potwari, Potohari and Pothohari, is spoken in the Pothohar Plateau of northern Punjab, an area administratively within Rawalpindi division. Pothwari is its most common name, and some call it Pindiwal Punjabi to differentiate it from the Punjabi spoken elsewhere in Punjab.
Pothwari extends southwards up to the Salt Range, with the city of Jhelum marking the border with Punjabi. To the north, Pothwari transitions into the Pahari-speaking area, with Bharakao, near Islamabad, generally regarded as the point where Pothwari ends and Pahari begins. Pothwari has been represented as a dialect of Punjabi by the Punjabi language movement, and in census reports the Pothwari areas of Punjab have been shown as Punjabi-majority.
Among the dialects of the Pahari-Pothwari dialect cluster, the variety spoken on the Pothohar is the most mutually intelligible with Punjabi because of geographic proximity with other regions of the Punjab. This Pothwari is also regarded as the most prestigious dialect spoken in the region.
Mirpur
East of the Pothwari areas, across the Jhelum River into Mirpur District in Azad Kashmir, the language is more similar to Pothwari than to the Pahari spoken in the rest of Azad Kashmir.
Locally it is known by a variety of names: Pahari, Mirpur Pahari, Mirpuri, and Pothwari, while some of its speakers call it Punjabi.
Mirpuris possess a strong sense of Kashmiri identity that overrides linguistic identification with closely related groups outside Azad Kashmir, such as the Pothwari Punjabis.
The Mirpur region has been the source of the greater part of Pakistani immigration to the UK, a process that started when thousands were displaced by the construction of the Mangla Dam in the 1960s and emigrated to fill labour shortages in England.
The British Mirpuri diaspora now numbers several hundred thousand, and Pahari has been argued to be the second most common mother tongue in the UK, yet the language is little known in the wider society there and its status has remained surrounded by confusion.
Kashmir, Murree and the Galyat
Pahari is spoken to the north of Pothwari. The central cluster of Pahari dialects is found around Murree. This area is in the Galyat: the hill country of Murree Tehsil in the northeast of Rawalpindi District (just north of the capital Islamabad) and the adjoining areas in southeastern Abbottabad District. One name occasionally found in the literature for this language is Dhundi-Kairali (Ḍhūṇḍī-Kaiṛālī), a term first used by Grierson who based it on the names of the two major tribes of the area – the Kairal and the Dhund. Its speakers call it Pahari in Murree tehsil, while in Abbottabad district it is known as either Hindko or Ḍhūṇḍī.
Nevertheless, Hindko – properly the language of the rest of Abbottabad District and the neighbouring areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – is generally regarded as a different language. It forms a dialect continuum with Pahari, and the transition between the two is in northern Azad Kashmir and in the Galyat region. For example, on the road from Murree northwest towards the city of Abbottabad, Pahari gradually changes into Hindko between Ayubia and Nathiagali.
A closely related dialect is spoken across the Jhelum River in Azad Kashmir, north of the Mirpuri areas. Names associated in the literature with this dialect are Pahari (itself the term most commonly used by the speakers themselves), Chibhālī, named after the Chibhal region or the Chibh ethnic group, and Poonchi (also spelt Punchhi). The latter name has been variously applied to either the Chibhali variety specific to the district of Poonch, or to the dialect of the whole northern half of Azad Kashmir.
This dialect (or dialects) has been seen either as a separate dialect from the one in Murree, or as belonging to the same central group of Pahari dialects. The dialect of the district of Bagh, for example, has more shared vocabulary with the core dialects from Murree (86–88%) than with the varieties of either Muzaffarabad (84%) or Mirpur (78%).
In Muzaffarabad the dialect shows lexical similarity of 83–88% with the central group of Pahari dialects, which is high enough for the authors of the sociolinguistic survey to classify it is a central dialect itself, but low enough to warrant noting its borderline status. The speakers however tend to call their language Hindko and to identify more with the Hindko spoken to the west, despite the lower lexical similarity (73–79%) with the core Hindko dialects of Abbottabad and Mansehra. Further north into the Neelam Valley the dialect, now known locally as Parmi, becomes closer to Hindko.
Pahari is also spoken further east across the Line of Control into the Pir Panjal mountains in Indian Jammu and Kashmir. The population, estimated at 1 million, is found in the region between the Jhelum and Chenab rivers: most significantly in the districts of Poonch and Rajouri, to a lesser extent in neighbouring Baramulla and Kupwara, and also – as a result of the influx of refugees during the Partition of 1947 – scattered throughout the rest of Jammu and Kashmir. Pahari is among the regional languages listed in the sixth schedule of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir. This Pahari is sometimes conflated with the Western Pahari languages spoken in the mountainous region in the south-east of Indian Jammu and Kashmir. These languages, which include Bhadarwahi and its neighbours, are often called "Pahari", but they are not closely related to Pahari–Pothwari.
Phonology
Vowels
A long diphthong /ɑi/ can be realized as .
Consonants
Sounds are heard from Persian and Arabic loanwords.
is realized as voiced in word-initial position.
before a velar consonant can be heard as .
Notable Features
Future tense endings
The Future tense in Pothwari is formed by adding -s as opposed to the Standard Punjabi gā.
This tense is also used in other Western Punjabi dialects such as Shahpuri and Hindko.
The type of future tense Pothwari uses was also used by classical Punjabi poets. Punjabi poet Bulleh Shah sometimes uses a similar form of future tense in his poetry
Shahmukhi: جو کُجھ کَرسین, سو کُجھ پاسیں
Transliteration: Jo kujh karsãi, so kujh paasãi
Translation: Whatsoever you do, is what you shall gain
- From one of Bulleh Shah's poems
Continuous Tense:
Similar to Jatki, Hindko, and other Western Punjabi dialects, Pothwari also uses pyā to signify the continuous tense.
Some Majhi sub-dialects also utilize this tense.
Past Tense:
The past tense in Pothwari resembles that of Eastern Punjabi, however depending on the dialect, there may be slight variations.
Tribal groupings
Pahari-Pothwari speakers belong to the same tribes found in Punjab. While the names of the tribes remain the same, the Punjabi word for tribe Birādrī/Barādarī becomes Bilādrī/Balādarī in Pahari-Pothwari.
Numbering system
Pahari-Pothwari follows the numbering traditions of Standard Punjabi. A point of departure from Eastern Punjabi dialects occurs in the use of trai instead of tinn for the number 3. Western Punjabi and Doabi also tend to use trai over tinn.
Ordinals
The ordinal numbers are largely the same. The only difference occurs in the words for Second and Third. Second is Doowa (دووا) in Pothwari, whilst it is Dooja (دوجا) in Punjabi. Likewise Third is Treeya (تریا) in Pothwari whilst it is Teeja (تیجا) in Punjabi. Western Punjabi in general tends to follow this trend.
Possessive pronouns:
The possessive pronouns in Pothwari differ from that of Standard Punjabi and other Lahnda dialects.
Object marker
The object marker in Pothwari is kī (ਕੀ /کی) as opposed to nū̃ (ਨੂੰ / نوں) in Standard Punjabi.
For example:
The phrase: lokkā̃ nū̃ (ਲੋਕਾਂ ਨੂੰ / لوکاں نوں), meaning "to the people" in Standard Punjabi, would become lokkā̃ kī (ਲੋਕਾਂ ਕੀ / لوکاں کی) in Pothwari.
Hence, the personal pronouns would be as follows:
Genitive marker
The genitive marker in Pothwari is represented through the use of nā (ਨਾ / ) as opposed to dā (ਦਾ / ).
For example:
The phrase: lokkā̃ dā (ਲੋਕਾਂ ਦਾ / ), meaning "people's" or "of the people" in Pothwari, would become lokkā̃ nā (ਲੋਕਾਂ ਨਾ / ).
This also affects some of the possessive pronouns as described above.
It should also be noted that in Pothwari, the present form of verb does not end with the standard dā sound either, and is replaced with nā.
For example:
Miki eh nahi si chāhinā (میکی ایہہ نہیں سی چاہی نا), meaning "This is not what I wanted"
Oh kay pyā ākhnā ae? (اوہ کے پیا آخنا اے؟), meaning "What is he saying?"
Oblique case of nouns:
Pothwari has unique forms for nouns in oblique cases. This is not observed in Standard Punjabi, but is seen in Hindko.
Adding "i" to root form of verb:
A peculiar feature of Pothwari is to end the basic root form of verbs with an "i" sound.
Vocabulary
Words for "Coming" and "Going":
The Pothwari word for "coming" is acchṇā, whereas for "going" gacchṇā, julṇā and jāṇā are used.
The imperative for gacchṇā is both gacch and gau.
Causative verbs:
Pothwari causative verbs end with -ālnā.
Words used for "Taking" and "Bringing":
Commonly observed in the Lahnda dialects is the use of Ghinṇā (گھِننا) and Aaṇnā (آننا) instead of the Eastern Punjabi words Laiṇā (لَینا) and Lyāṇā (لیانا).
Notice how Ghin āo becomes Ghini achho in accordance with Pothwari grammar.
Irregular past tense of verbs:
Pothwari generally follows the common Punjabi irregular verbs (e.g. khādhā, peetā, nahātā, dhotā, moyā, latthā, khalotā, ḍaṭṭhā, suttā), with a deviation observed in bantā (بنتا) for banyā and khaltā (کھلتا) for khalā.
For example:
Miki sarkay apar khaltyon addhā ghantā hoi gya sā
Menu sark tey khalyā̃/khlotyā̃ addhā ghantā ho gya si
(It had been an hour since I was waiting on the road)
Chā kadon ni banti hoi ae
Chā kadon di bani hoi ae
(The tea has been ready for quite some time)
Interrogative words:
Notes
References
Bibliography
(access limited).
Further reading
External links
Pahari Language Textbook for Class2
Pahari Language Textbook for Class3
Pahari Language Textbook for Class4
Pahari Language Textbook for Class5
Pahari Language Textbook for Class6
Pahari Language Textbook for Class8 (Part A)
Pahari Language Textbook for Class8 (Part B)
Punjabi dialects
Languages of Punjab, Pakistan
Languages of Azad Kashmir
Languages of Jammu and Kashmir