Hindko (,
romanized: , ) is a cover term for a diverse group of
Lahnda
Lahnda () () also known as Lahndi or Western Punjabi, is a group of north-western Indo-Aryan language varieties spoken in parts of Pakistan and India. Its validity as a genetic grouping is not certain. Terms like ''Lahnda'' or ''Western Punja ...
dialects spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds in several areas in northwestern
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, primarily in the provinces of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ...
and
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...
.
There is a nascent language movement, and in recent decades Hindko-speaking intellectuals have started promoting the view of Hindko as a separate language. There is a literary tradition based on Peshawari, the urban variety of
Peshawar
Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...
in the northwest, and another one based on the language of
Abbottabad
Abbottabad (; Urdu, Punjabi language(HINDKO dialect) آباد, translit=aibṭabād, ) is the capital city of Abbottabad District in the Hazara region of eastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the 40th largest city in Pakistan and fourt ...
in the northeast. In the 2017 census of Pakistan, 4.65 million people declared their language to be Hindko.
Hindko is mutually intelligible with
Punjabi
Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan
* Punjabi language
* Punjabi people
* Punjabi dialects and languages
Punjabi may also refer to:
* Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
and
Saraiki, and has more affinities with the latter than with the former. Differences with other
Punjabi varieties
The Punjabi dialects and languages or Punjabic are a series of dialects and languages spoken in the Punjab region of Pakistan and India with varying degrees of official recognition. They have sometimes been referred to as ''Greater Punjabi''.
...
are more pronounced in the morphology and phonology than in the syntax.
The word ''Hindko'', commonly used to refer to a number of Indo-Aryan dialects spoken in the neighbourhood of
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...
, likely originally meant "the Indian language" (in contrast to Pashto). An alternative local name for this language group is ''Hindki''. A speaker of Hindko may be referred to as ''Hindki'', ''Hindkun'', or ''
Hindkowan
Hindkowans (lit. "Indian-speakers"), also known as the Hindki, is a contemporary designation for speakers of Indo-Aryan languages who live among the neighbouring Pashtuns, particularly the speakers of various Hindko dialects of Lahnda. The ori ...
'' (''Hindkuwan'').
Like other
Lahnda
Lahnda () () also known as Lahndi or Western Punjabi, is a group of north-western Indo-Aryan language varieties spoken in parts of Pakistan and India. Its validity as a genetic grouping is not certain. Terms like ''Lahnda'' or ''Western Punja ...
varieties, Hindko is derived from the
Shauraseni Prakrit
Shauraseni Prakrit (, ) was a Middle Indo-Aryan language and a Dramatic Prakrit. Shauraseni was the chief language used in drama in northern medieval India. Most of the material in this language originates from the 3rd to 10th centuries, thou ...
.
Geographic distribution and dialects
Varieties of Hindko are primarily spoken in a core area in the district of Attock in the northwestern corner of the province of
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...
, and in two neighbouring regions: in Peshawar to the north-west, and Hazara to the north-east, both in the province of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ...
(formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province). The Hindko of Hazara also extends east into nearby regions of
Kashmir
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
.
The central dialect group comprises
Kohati (spoken in the city of
Kohat
Kohat ( ps, کوهاټ; ur, ) is a city that serves as the capital of the Kohat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is regarded as a centre of the Bangash tribe of Pashtuns, who have lived in the region since the late 15th century ...
and a few neighbouring villages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and the three closely related dialects of
Attock District
Attock District (Urdu and pnb, ) is a district in Pothohar Plateau of the Punjab Province of Pakistan. Its capital is Attock city.
The district was created in April 1904 by the merging of tehsils of nearby districts. Its former name was ...
, Punjab:
Chacchi (spoken in
Attock
Attock (Punjabi and Urdu: ), formerly known as Campbellpur (), is a historical city located in the north of Pakistan's Punjab Province, not far from the country's capital Islamabad. It is the headquarters of the Attock District and is 61st lar ...
and
Haripur Tehsil
Haripur Tehsil is a tehsil located in Haripur District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The tehsil is administratively subdivided into 37 Union Councils.
History
The tehsil was described by the Imperial Gazetteer of India, compiled over a centu ...
s),
Ghebi (spoken to the south in
Pindi Gheb Tehsil
Pindi Gheb Tehsil (in Punjabi and ur, ) is an administrative subdivision (tehsil), of Attock District in the Punjab Province of Pakistan, the capital is the town of Pindi Gheb.
The tehsil is administratively subdivided into 13 Union Coun ...
) and
Awankari (spoken in
Talagang Tehsil, now part of
Chakwal District
Chakwal District (Punjabi and ur, ) is in Pothohar Plateau of Punjab, Pakistan. It is located in the north of the Punjab province, Chakwal district is bordered by Khushab to its south, Rawalpindi to its north east, Jhelum to its east, Mian ...
). Rensch's classification based on lexical similarity also assigns to this group the rural dialects of
Peshawar District. Shackle, however, sees most of them as closely related to the urban variety of Peshawar City.
In a group of its own is Peshawari, the
prestigious urban variety spoken in the city of
Peshawar
Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...
and the one that is promoted as a standardised literary language. It has a wide dialectal base and has undergone the influence of
and
Standard Punjabi
Punjabi (; ; , ), sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It has approximately 113 million native speakers.
Punjabi is the most widely-spoken first language in Pakistan, with 80.5 m ...
.
A separate group is formed in the northeast by the relatively homogeneous dialects of the
Hazara region
Hazara (Hindko: هزاره, Urdu: ) is a region in northeastern Pakistan, falling administratively within Hazara Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It is dominated mainly by the Hindko-speaking Hindkowan people, who are the native ethn ...
, which are collectively known as ''Hazara Hindko'' or ''Northern Hindko'', with the variety spoken in
Kaghan Valley known as ''Kaghani'',
and the variety of
Tanawal known variously as ''Tanoli Hindko'', ''Tanoli'' or ''Tinauli''.
Hindko is also spoken further east into Kashmir. It is the predominant language of the
Neelum Valley, in the north of Pakistan-administered
Azad Kashmir
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee:
*
*
* and constituting the western portion of the larger K ...
, where it is locally known as ''Parmi'' (or ''Pārim''; the name likely originated in the Kashmiri word 'from the other side', which was the term used by the Kashmiris of the
Vale of Kashmir to refer to the highlanders, who spoke this language). This variety is also spoken across the
Line of Control
The Line of Control (LoC) is a military control line between the Indian and Pakistanicontrolled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir—a line which does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary, but serv ...
into Indian-administered
Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to:
* Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent
* Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory
* Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...
.
The whole dialect continuum of Hindko is partitioned by
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ...
into two languages: Northern Hindko (
ISO 639-3
ISO 639-3:2007, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages'', is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. It defines three-letter codes for ...
code: hno)
for the dialects of Hazara, and Southern Hindko (ISO 639-3: hnd) for the remaining varieties. This grouping finds support in the results of the intelligibility testing done by Rensch, which also found out that the southern dialects are more widely understood throughout the Hindko area than are the northern ones.
Hindko dialects gradually transition into other varieties of Lahnda and Punjabi to the south. For example, to the southwest across the
Salt Range
The Salt Range ( pnb, ) is a mountain range in the north of Punjab province of Pakistan, deriving its name from its extensive deposits of rock salt. The range extends along the south of the Potohar Plateau and the north of the Jhelum River. Th ...
are found dialects of
Saraiki, and at least one of these – the one spoken in the
Dera Ismail Khan District
Dera Ismail Khan District ( ps, ډېره اسماعیل خان ولسوالي, bal, ڈیرہ عِسمائیل خان, ur, , skr, ; often abbreviated as D.I. Khan) is a district in Dera Ismail Khan Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in ...
– is sometimes also referred to as "Hindko". To the southeast, Hindko is in a dialect continuum with
Pahari–Pothwari
The Indo-Aryan language spoken on the Pothohar Plateau in the far north of Pakistani Punjab, as well as in most of Pakistan's Azad Kashmir and in western areas of India's Jammu and Kashmir, is known by a variety of names, the most common of whic ...
, with the
Galyat region of Abbottabad district and the area of
Muzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir approximately falling on the boundary between the two.
There are Hindko
diaspora
A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...
s in major urban centres like
Karachi
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...
, as well as in some neighbouring countries. Some Hindu Hindkowans and Sikh Hindowans migrated to
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
after the partition of India in 1947.
These Hindko speakers in India identify with the broader
Punjabi community.
There is also a small diaspora in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...
, which includes members of the
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
and
Sikh community who became established there during the Sikh Empire in the first half of the 19th century. Most of them have emigrated since the rise of the Taliban, and the total population of Sikhs, Hindko-speaking or not, is estimated at around 300 families (as of 2018).
Social setting
There is no generic name for the speakers of Hindko because they belong to diverse ethnic groups and tend to identify themselves by the larger families or
castes. However, the Hindko-speaking community belonging to the
Hazara Division of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ...
are sometimes recognised collectively as
Hazarewal. A large number of Hindko speakers in the Hazara Division are Pashtuns.
Some of those speak Hindko as their mother tongue while others as a second language.
These include the
Tahirkhelis,
Swatis,
Yusufzais,
Jadoons and
Tareens.
The other Hindko speakers include the
Sayyids,
Awans,
Mughals,
Tanolis
The Tanoli ( Hindko/ ur, تنولی ,تناولی ,تنولي) are a tribe living mostly in the Hazara area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. They form the majority of the population of Lassan Nawab union council. The Tanoli describe themselves ...
,
Turks,
Qureshis and
Gujjars.
The most common second language for Hindko-speakers in Pakistan is
and the second most common one is
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...
. 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 its neighbours is not one of stable bilingualism. In terms of
domains of use and number of speakers, Hindko is dominant and growing in the north-east; in Hazara for example, it is displacing Pashto as the language in use among the Swati Pathans, and in the Neelam Valley of Azad Jammu & Kashmir it is gaining ground at the expense of the minority languages like Kashmiri. In the cities of Kohat and Peshawar, on the other hand, it is Hindko that is in a weaker position. With the exodus of the Hindko-speaking Hindus and Sikhs after Partitition and the consequent influx of Pashtuns into the vacated areas of the urban economy, there have been signs of a shift towards Pashto.
Phonology
Consonants
Hindko contrasts
stop consonants at the
labial
The term ''labial'' originates from '' Labium'' (Latin for "lip"), and is the adjective that describes anything of or related to lips, such as lip-like structures. Thus, it may refer to:
* the lips
** In linguistics, a labial consonant
** In zoolog ...
,
alveolar,
retroflex,
palatal and
velar places of articulation. The
palatals
Palatals are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called retroflex.
Characteristi ...
have been described as pure stops (/ /) in Awankari, but as
affricates
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pa ...
() in the varieties of Hazara. For the stop consonants of most varieties of Hindko there is a three-way contrast between voiced (), voiceless () and
aspirated (). Awankari, Kohati, and the varieties of Neelum Valley of Kashmir also distinguish
voiced aspirated
Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like ...
stops (). The disappearance of the voiced aspirates from most Hindko varieties has been linked to the development of tone (see
below
Below may refer to:
*Earth
* Ground (disambiguation)
*Soil
*Floor
* Bottom (disambiguation)
*Less than
*Temperatures below freezing
*Hell or underworld
People with the surname
*Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general
*Fred Below ...
).
Fricatives like , and are found in loans (for example from Persian), but also in native words, often as positional allophones of the corresponding stop. Some documented instances include:
*before other consonants in Kohati ( 'saying' versus 'said'),
*in the middle or end of words in Peshawari ( 'swallow (verb)'),
*word-medially after stressed vowels in Abbottabad Hindko ( 'to look'),
*at the ends of words after vowels in the Hindko of Kashmir ( 'write').
Generally, the fricatives can be found in all positions: at the start, the middle, or at the end of the word (Tanoli Hindko: 'spoilt', 'small stick', 'branch'), with relatively few exceptions (one being the restriction on word-final in the Hindko of Kashmir). The
labio-dental
In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
Labiodental consonants in the IPA
The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
The IPA chart shades out ''lab ...
has been explicitly described as the fricative for the Hindko of Kashmir, and Tanawal, but as the
approximant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce ...
// in Awankari.
Apart from and , Hindko dialects distinguish a varying number of other
nasal consonant
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast major ...
s.
The
retroflex nasal is overall shorter than the other nasals, and at least for the Hindko of Abbottabad it has been described as a nasalised
flap: . For the Hindko of Kashmir it has been asserted to be an allophone of the alveolar nasal , but it is phonemic in Awankari and Tanoli; in both dialects it can occur in the middle and at the end of a word, as illustrated by the following examples from Tanoli: 'straight', 'pride'. The
velar nasal is phonemic in Tanoli: 'prayer call', 'fiancée', and in the Hindko of Kashmir, and in both cases it is found only in the middle or at the end of the word. In the main subdialect of Awankari, the velar nasal is only found before velar stops, and similarly, it is not among the phonemes identified for the Hindko of Abbottabad.
Hindko varieties have a single
lateral consonant
A lateral is a consonant in which the airstream proceeds along one or both of the sides of the tongue, but it is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth. An example of a lateral consonant is the English ''L'', as in ''Larr ...
: the alveolar , unlike Punjabi, which additionally has a
retroflex lateral . The Awankari dialect, as spoken by Muslims (and not Hindus) and described by Bahri in the 1930s, has a distinctive retroflex lateral, which, however, appears to be in
complementary distribution with the alveolar lateral. There are two rhotic sounds in Hindko: an
alveolar trill (with a varying number of vibrations dependent on the phonetic context), and a
retroflex flap .
The retoflex nasal , for at least some of the dialects that have it, is realised as a nasalised retroflex flap .
Vowels
Hindko has three short vowels , and , and six long vowels: , , , , and .
The vowels can be illustrated with the following examples from Tanoli: 'big stone', 'pain', 'yesterday', 'button', 'what', 'piece of meat', 'Sunday', 'thief', 'filth'.
Length is strongly contrastive and the long vowels are generally twice as long as the corresponding short vowels.
The Awankari dialect distinguishes between open and close "o" ( 'soft' vs. 'shoe').
Varieties of Hindko also possess a number of
diphthongs (like ). Which of the many (typically around a dozen) overt vowel combinations should be seen as representing an underlying single segment (a diphthong) rather than simply a sequence of two separate underlying vowels, has varied with the analysis used and the dialect studied.
Nasalised vowels
Hindko dialects possess phonemic
nasal vowels (here marked with a tilde above the vowel: ). For example, in the Hindko of Azad Kashmir 'animal disease' contrasts with 'arm', and 'meat cutters' with 'hindrances'. In this variety of Hindko, as well as in the Hindko of Tanawal, there are nasal counterparts for all, or almost all, of the long vowels, but none for the short vowels. In Awankari and the Hindko of Abbottabad, on the other hand, there is contrastive nasalisation for short vowels as well: 'make one play' contrasts with 'scatter' (in Awankari), 'mixing' contrasts with 'knot').
Peshawari and Kohati presumably follow the pattern of Awankari but have historically lost nasalisation from the round vowels (like or ) at the end of the word.
Additionally, vowels get nasalised
allophonic
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ' ...
ally when adjacent to a nasal consonant. In the varieties of Tanawal and Kashmir both long and short vowels can be nasalised in this way, but only if they precede the nasal consonant: 'washing', 'crying'. In the Hindko of Abbottabad, a vowel at the end of some words can be nasalised if it follows a nasal consonant. In the Awankari dialect, vowels can be allophonically nasalised both before and after a nasal consonant, but in either case the effect will depend on the position of stress (see for more details).
Tone
Unlike many Indo-Aryan languages, but in common with Punjabi, Hindko varieties have a system of
pitch accent
A pitch-accent language, when spoken, has word accents in which one syllable in a word or morpheme is more prominent than the others, but the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by loudness ...
, which is commonly referred to as ''tone''. In Punjabi, pitch accent has historically arisen out of the loss of voiced aspirates (. Thus in Standard Punjabi, if a voiced aspirate preceded the stressed vowel, it would lose its aspiration and cause the appearance of a high tone on that vowel: > 'tongue'. If it followed the stressed vowel, then it would lead to a high tone and lose its aspiration and, if word-initial, its voicing: > 'horse'. The same pattern has been reported for Hazara Hindko, with a low rising tone after historically voiced aspirates ( 'horse' < ), a high falling tone before historic voiced aspirates ( 'leper' < ), and level tone elsewhere ( 'bitter'). According to preliminary observations on the Hazara Hindko variety of Abbottabad, the low tone is less prominent than in Punjabi, and a trace of the aspiration is preserved: for example 'horse' would be .
The variety spoken to the north-east, in Neelam Valley, has preserved voiced aspirates at the start of the word, so presumably the low tone is not established there. However, there are observations of its appearance in the speech of the residents of the main villages along the highway, likely under the influence of Punjabi and Hazara Hindko, and it has similarly been reported in the villages on the Indian side.
The southern Hindko varieties have similarly developed tone, but only when the voiced aspirate followed the stressed vowel; voiced aspirates preceding the stress have remained unchanged: thus 'more' (< ), but 'daughter'. This tone is realised as high falling in Kohati and the eastern subdialect of Awankari, but as high in the northwestern Awankari subdialect. Like Kohati, the variety of Peshawar has high falling tone before historic voiced aspirates. However, it has also developed a distinct tone on stressed vowels after historic voiced aspirates, like northern Hindko and Punjabi, with a similar loss of aspiration and voicing. But in contrast to Punjabi, this tone is also high falling, and it is distinguished by the accompanying
glottalisation: 'daughter', 'congratulations'.
Alphabet
Hindko is generally written in a variety of the
Punjabi alphabet. It was created by
Rehmat Aziz Chitrali at
Khowar Academy Chitral
Khowar () or Chitrali, is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in Chitral and surrounding areas in Pakistan.
Khowar is the lingua franca of Chitral, and it is also spoken in the Gupis-Yasin and Ghizer districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, as we ...
.
Literature
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
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...
. He is the author of Sarzamin e Hindko, and Hindko Sautiyat. His three booklets on Hindko
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
were published by the
University of Peshawar
The University of Peshawar ( ps, د پېښور پوهنتون; hnd, پشور یونیورسٹی; ur, ; abbreviated UoP; known more popularly as Peshawar University) is a public research university located in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ...
in the late 1970s.
The Idara-e-Faroghe Hindko based in Peshawar is another body that is promoting the Hindko.
Riffat Akbar Swati
Riffat Akbar Swati is a former member of the provincial assembly from Mansehra District, in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
She was born on 20 October 1946 into a Kashmiri Rajput family. They moved to Abbottabad after partition of I ...
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.
Poetry example
An excerpt from the ''Kalām'' of Ahmed Ali Saaein:
Transliteration: ''Alif-Awal hai Alam e hast si o''
''Hatif aap pukara Bismillah''
''Fir Qalam nu hukm e Nawisht hoya''
''Hus k qalam sir mariya Bismillah''
''Naqsha Loh e Mehfooz dy wich sine''
''Qalam saaf utariya Bismillah''
''Is Tehreer nu parh ke Farishtian ne''
''Saaiyan Shukar guzariya Bismillah''
Translation: "He is the foremost from the world of existence
Voice of the unseen exclaimed Bismillah
The pen was ordered to write
Pen carried out the order to write Bismillah
When angels read this composition
Saaieaan, they showed their thankfulness with Bismillah"
Proverbs
Hindko has a rich heritage of proverbs (Hindko ''matlaan'', sg. ''matal'').
An example of a proverb:
Transliteration: ''Jidur sir udur sarhanra''
Translation: "Good person gains respect everywhere."
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
* A detailed study based on the dialect of the city of Peshawar. A version was published in 1994 by Idara Farogh-e-Hindko, Peshawar.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
* 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.
* 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
* (based on the Hindko of Peshawar)
External links
Gandhara Hindko Board
{{Authority control
Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages
Punjabi dialects
Languages of Punjab, Pakistan
Languages of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Languages of Azad Kashmir
Languages of Jammu and Kashmir