Pahari-Pothwari

Pahari-Pothwari is an Indo-Aryan 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 border areas of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, is known by a variety of names, the most common of which are Pahari (English: /pəˈhɑːri/;^[1] an ambiguous name also applied to other unrelated languages of India), and Pothwari/Pothohari. ^[b]

The language is transitional between Hindko and Punjabi and is unidirectionally intelligible with Punjabi.^[2] There have been efforts at cultivation as a literary language,^[3] although a local standard has not been established yet.^[4] The Shahmukhi script is used to write the language with Roman script being used online.

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.^[5] There is a movement for recognition of these languages. ^[6]

Due to effects of dominant languages in Pakistani media like Standard Punjabi and English and religious impact of Arabic and Persian, Pahari-Pothwari like other regional varieties of Pakistan are continuously expanding its vocabulary base with loan words.^[7]

There are at least three major dialects of Pahari-Potwari: Pothwari, Mirpuri and Pahari.^[c]

The dialects are mutually intelligible,^[8] but the difference between the northernmost and the southernmost dialects (from Muzaffarabad and Mirpur respectively) is enough to cause difficulties in understanding.^[9]

Pothwari (پوٹھوہاری‎), also spelt Potwari, Potohari and Pothohari,^[10] is spoken in the north-eastern portion of Pothohar Plateau of northern Punjab,^[11] an area administratively within Rawalpindi division.^[12] Pothwari is its most common name, and some call it Pindiwal Punjabi to differentiate it from the Punjabi spoken elsewhere in Punjab.^[13]

Pothwari extends southwards up to the Salt Range, with the city of Jhelum marking the border with Punjabi language. 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.^[14] In Attock and Talagang districts of Pothohar, it comes in contact with other Lahnda varieties, namely Chacchi, Awankari and Ghebi. In Chakwal, yet another dialect is spoken, Dhani.^[15] There is a sense of separate identity in speakers and there is a growing movement for recognition of Pothwari as a separate language from Punjabi.

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.^[16] Locally it is known by a variety of names:^[d] Pahari, Mirpur Pahari, Mirpuri,^[e] and Pothwari,^[17].^[18] Mirpuris possess a strong sense of Kashmiri identity that overrides linguistic identification with closely related groups outside Azad Kashmir, such as the Pothwaris.^[19] 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.^[20] 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.^[21]

Pahari (پہاڑی‎) is spoken to the north of Pothwari. The central cluster of Pahari dialects is found around Murree.^[22] 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.^[23] One name occasionally found in the literature for this language is Dhundi-Kairali (Ḍhūṇḍī-Kaiṛālī), a term first used by Grierson^[24] who based it on the names of the two major tribes of the area – the Kairal and the Dhund.^[11] Its speakers call it Pahari in Murree tehsil, while in Abbottabad district it is known as either Hindko or Ḍhūṇḍī.^[25] 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.^[26] It forms a dialect continuum with Pahari,^[11] 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.^[27]

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,^[28] named after the Chibhal region^[29] or the Chibh ethnic group,^[12] and Pahari (Poonchi) (پونچھی‎, also spelt Punchhi). The latter name has been variously applied to either the Chibhali variety specific to the district of Poonch,^[30] or to the dialect of the whole northern half of Azad Kashmir.^[31] This dialect (or dialects) has been seen either as a separate dialect from the one in Murree,^[24] or as belonging to the same central group of Pahari dialects.^[32] 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%).^[33]

In Muzaffarabad the dialect shows lexical similarity^[f] 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.^[34] The speakers however tend to call their language Hindko^[35] and to identify more with the Hindko spoken to the west,^[36] despite the lower lexical similarity (73–79%) with the core Hindko dialects of Abbottabad and Mansehra.^[37] Further north into the Neelam Valley the dialect, now known locally as Parmi, becomes closer to Hindko.^[38]

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,^[39] 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,^[40] and also – as a result of the influx of refugees during the Partition of 1947 – scattered throughout the rest of Jammu and Kashmir.^[41] Pahari-Pothwari is among the regional languages listed in the sixth schedule of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir.^[42] 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", although not same they are closely related to Pahari–Pothwari.^[43]

Pahari Pothwari is also very widely spoken in the United Kingdom. Labour shortages after World War II, and the displacement of peoples caused by the construction of the Mangla Dam, facilitated extensive migration of Pahari-Pothwari speakers to the UK during the 1950s and 1960s, especially from the Mirpur District. Academics estimate that between two thirds and 80% of people officially classified as British Pakistanis originate as part of this diaspora, with some suggesting that it is the second most spoken language of the United Kingdom, ahead of even Welsh, with hundreds of thousands of speakers.^[44] However, since there is little awareness of the identity of the language among speakers,^[45] census results do not reflect this.^[46] The highest proportions of Pahari-Pothwari speakers are found in urban centres, especially the West Midlands conurbation and the West Yorkshire Built-up Area.^[46]

A long diphthong /ɑi/ can be realized as [äː].^[47]

• Sounds [f, ʒ, χ, ʁ, q] are heard from Persian and Arabic loanwords.
• /h/ is realized as voiced [ɦ] in word-initial position.
• /n/ before a velar consonant can be heard as [ŋ].^[47]

Extended masculine forms can be realised as being added the oblique forms ending in -e, which is shortened to -i- (phonetically [e̯]) before back vowels and is lost before front vowels.

Notes:

• Extended nouns generally end in -ā for masculine and -ī for feminine in the direct singular form

The numbers in their oblique form function the same as Punjabi and Saraiki.

Pahari-Pothwari has unique forms for nouns in oblique cases. This is not observed in Punjabi, but is seen in Hindko.^[49]

These cases remain the same between Pahari-Pothwari, Saraiki and Punjabi.

As example of the vocative case:

Pronominal suffixes

Examples:

A peculiar feature of Pahari-Pothwari is to end the basic root form of verbs with an "i" sound.^[50]

The future tense in Pothwari is formed by adding -s as opposed to the Punjabi and Hindi gā.^[51]

This tense is also used in other Lahnda varieties such as the Jatki, Shahpuri, Jhangochi and Dhanni, as well as in and Hindko language and Saraiki.^[52]

This type of future tense was also used by classical Punjabi and Saraiki poets. Punjabi poet Bulleh Shah sometimes uses a similar form of future tense in his poetry:^[53]

Shahmukhi: جو کُجھ کرسَیں, سو کُجھ پاسَیں

Transliteration: jo kujh karsãĩ, so kujh pāsãĩ

Translation: whatsoever you do, is what you shall gain^[54]

Similar to other Lahnda, Pothwari uses peyā (past tense form of pēṇā) to signify the continuous tense. Pahari-Pothwari makes the use of Karna and Laghna for continous tense as well ^[55] Pahari-Pothwari makes the use Karna and Laghna for continous tense as well

The past tense in Pothwari resembles that of Punjabi, however there are significant variations.

The place of "pyā" may sometimes be switched with respect to the verb. This is common in Majhi (e.g: Noor Jehan's "chann māhi teri rāh pyi takkni ãã) and as well as in Jhangochi, Shahpuri, etc

"tusā̃ báhū̃ changā kamm karne ò pa'e", meaning "you (plural/sing. formal) are doing a very good thing"

"mē̃ vī tā̃ éhe gall ākhnā sā̃ peyā", meaning "I was also saying the same thing"

"mē̃ vī tā̃ ehe gall peyā ākhnā ā̃̀", meaning "I am also saying the same thing"

These are typically the same in Pothohari, Punjabi and Saraiki but some differences can be noted.

Note:

• Some Majhi subdialects do use کٹھّیوں for کٹھّیاں
• Standard Punjabi makes use of اُپّر
• In Pahari-Pothohari مسیں means now, while in other languages مسیں / مساں means "barely/hardly"

• The word and expression ہلا / Hala is common throughout Western Punjab, also used in Majhi

The genitive marker in Pahari-Pothwari is represented through the use of nā (ਨਾ / نا‎) as opposed to dā (ਦਾ / دا‎) in Punjabi and "ka" (का / کا‎ in Urdu and Hindi.^[56]

• The phrase: lokkā̃ dā (ਲੋਕਾਂ ਦਾ / لوکاں دا‎), meaning "people's" or "of the people" in Pahari-Pothwari, would become lokkā̃ nā (ਲੋਕਾਂ ਨਾ / لوکاں نا‎)

It should also be noted that in Pahari-Pothwari, the present form of verb does not end with the standard dā sound either, and is replaced with nā. This means that ākhdā would be ākhnā in Pahari-Pothwari meaning "to say" and similarly the word takkdā would be takknā in Pahari-Pothwari meaning "to look/to watch".

For example:

• miki eh nih si cāhinā (میکی ایہہ نِیہ سی چاہینا‎), meaning "this is not what I wanted"
• oh kai pyā ākhnā ae? (اوہ کہ پیا آخنا اہہ؟‎), meaning "what is he saying?"

The dative and definite object marker in Pothwari is kī (ਕੀ /کی) as opposed to nū̃ (ਨੂੰ / نوں) in Punjabi and (ਕੂੰ / کوں) in Saraiki.

The phrase: lokkā̃ nū̃ (ਲੋਕਾਂ ਨੂੰ / لوکاں نوں), meaning "to the people" in Punjabi, would become lokkā̃ kī (ਲੋਕਾਂ ਕੀ / لوکاں کی) in Pothwari.

Pahari-Pothwari speakers belong to the same tribes found in Punjab, Haryana and Rajhasthan. While the names of the tribes remain the same, the Punjabi word for tribe birādrī/barādarī (برادری‎) becomes bilādrī/balādarī (بلادری‎) in Pahari-Pothwari.

Pahari-Pothwari follows the numbering traditions of Punjabi and Saraiki. A point of departure from Punjabi occurs in the use of trai (ترَے‎) instead of tinn (تِنّ‎) for "three". Saraiki also tends to use trai over tinn.^[57]

Similarly, Pothwari, Punjabi and Saraiki use "yārā̃" (یاراں) for "gyarā̃" (گیاراں), "trei" (ترئی) for "tei" (تئی) "panji" (پنجِی) for "pachchi" (پچّی) and "trih" (ترِیہہ) for "tih" (تِیہہ), for the numbers 11, 23, 25, and 30.

Unlike Jhangochi, Shahpuri and Dhanni, Pothohari does not use "dāh" for 10, and instead uses "das" as in Punjabi and Urdu/Hindi.

The ordinal numbers are largely the same. The only difference occurs in the words for "second" and "third". The former is dūwā (دووا) in Pothwari, whilst it is dūjjā (دوجا) in Punjabi; the latter is trēyā (تریا) in Pothwari whilst it is tējjā (تیجا) in Punjabi. Western Punjabi in general tends to follow this trend.