Hindko | |
---|---|
ہندکو | |
![]() Hindko in Shahmukhi | |
Native to | Pakistan |
Region | Hazara Division, Peshawar, Kohat, Potohar |
Ethnicity | Hindkowans and Hazarewal |
Native speakers | 5–7 million (2017–2020)[1][2] |
Dialects | |
Shahmukhi | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Either:hnd – Southern Hindkohno – Northern Hindko |
Glottolog | hind1271 |
![]() The proportion of people with Hindko as their mother tongue in each Pakistani District as of the 2017 Pakistan Census |
Hindko (ہندکو, romanized: Hindko, IPA: [ˈɦɪnd̪koː]) is a cover term for a diverse group of Lahnda dialects spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds in several areas in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northwestern regions of Punjab.[3]
There is a nascent language movement,[4] and in recent decades Hindko-speaking intellectuals have started promoting the view of Hindko as a separate language.[5] There is a literary tradition based on Peshawari,[6] the urban variety of Peshawar in the northwest, and another one based on the language of Abbottabad in the northeast.[7] In the 2017 census of Pakistan, 5.1 million people declared their language to be Hindko,[1] while a 2020 estimate placed the number of speakers at 7 million.[2]
Hindko to some extent is mutually intelligible with Punjabi and Saraiki,[5] and has more affinities with the latter than with the former.[8] Differences with other Punjabi varieties are more pronounced in the morphology and phonology than in the syntax.[9]
The name "Hindko" means "the Indian language" or "language of Hind",[a][13][10][14][11] and refers to the Indo-Aryan speech forms spoken in the northern Indian subcontinent,[10][15][12] in contrast to the neighbouring Pashto, an Iranic language spoken by the Pashtun people.[11][15][16] An alternative local name for this language group is Hindki.[b][17] A speaker of Hindko may be referred to as Hindki, Hindkun, or Hindkowan (Hindkuwan).[18]
Like other Lahnda varieties, Hindko is derived from the Shauraseni Prakrit.[19][20]
The south and west of Lahnda territory he identified as the Seraiki region (though he didn't use the word Seraiki, his description of the tongue matches it), and the northern half as the Hindko region. This was the area, he stated, where the "language of the Hindus" (that is what he interpreted Hindko to mean) was spoken. Hindko, Grierson stated, was the main language of the Hazara division and was also spoken in Peshawar. ... Also, scholars post-Grierson understood Hindko to mean the "language of the people of Hind, i.e. India" and not the Hindus, which was a term used for a religious community.
The term Hindko as used in Pakistan refers to speakers of Indo-Aryan languages who live among the primarily Iranian Pashtuns of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). The origins of the term refer merely to "Indian speaking" rather than to any particular ethnic group.
The India of the ancient times extended from the Hindukush (Hindu meaning Indian, Kush meaning Koh or a mountain)... Apart from the names of places and streams there are many other words also which have 'Hind' as their adjectival parts. ... Hindko (the language of Peshawar and Abbotabad), Hindwana (water-melon), Indi maran (a wrestling skill), Hindvi (language other than Persian and Arabic spoken or written by locals) etc.
Hindko could mean 'Indian language' as opposed to Pashto, which belongs to the Iranian group.
GeijbelsAddleton
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).The outer languages descend from various sources: The Eastern group from Magadhi Prakrit, Marathi from Maharastri Prakrit (which was a sub-division of Ardha-Māgadhi Prakrit, leaning more towards Māgadhi than Sauraseni), while Sindhi and Lahnda, whose early histories are not entirely clear, seem to be derived from Apabhramsas which show Sauraseni influence .
The Outer branch includes Lahnda spoken in West Punjab, Sindhi, Marathi, Briya Bahari (including its dialect Maithili), Bengali and Assamese. They are derived from Sauraseni Prakrit.
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