PAHARI AND POTHWARI - A SOCIOLINGUISTIC SURVEY

Northern Pakistan boasts a rich variety of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Much has been learned about the sociolinguistic situation of this part of the world through recent research, such as the Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan (O’Leary 1992). Cultural societies in various language communities are supporting mother-tongue literacy and production of vernacular literature as a means of preserving the rich ethnic heritage of this area.

 The Punjabi dialect chain in the Indo-Aryan language family includes millions of speakers in northern Pakistan. This is one area where the sociolinguistic situation has not been investigated. Choosing a well-respected and widely understood dialect for development of printed and oral materials is an important factor in literacy and literature development. Knowledge about language vitality and domains of use is important for language planners who make decisions about future education and training.

Pahari, which means “mountainous,” is primarily spoken in the Murree and Kotli Sattian tehsils of the Rawalpindi District in northern Pakistan. The Murree dialect of Pahari ends at the Jhelum River, but another dialect of the same language, also called Pahari as well as Chibhali, extends into Azad Kashmir. As one travels from Murree to Abbottabad, one passes through a transitional region between Ayubia and Nathiagali, where the language gradually changes from Pahari to Hindko. 

Pothwari is spoken in the plateau south of the Pahari dialect area. Its southern border is formed by the Salt Range; from there the area runs northward to Rawalpindi and eastward to the Jhelum River. As one travels from Rawalpindi to Murree, the language transitions from Pothwari to Pahari around Bharakao, approximately where the Murree Hills begin. Mirpuri is spoken in the district of Mirpur in Azad Kashmir. People who live in this area refer to their language sometimes as Mirpuri but also as Pahari. Hundreds of thousands of those living in this district have immigrated to the UK and other countries (Lothers and Lothers 2003).

Michael Lothers and Laura Lothers published a survey report in 2010, comprised of 262 pages. This report gives a snapshot of the Pahari-Pothwari language complex. It addresses questions of dialect versus language and the number of dialects through synchronic, descriptive means rather than a historical, phonological comparison. The survey team used oral interviews, questionnaires, wordlists, comprehension testing, and our own observation from the two and a half years we lived in Murree, Pakistan.

The Pahari-Pothwari language complex includes three major but mutually intelligible dialects: Pahari, Pothwari and Mirpuri. Those speaking the latter, Mirpuri, also refer to their language as Pahari.

CLICK HERE TO READ "PAHARI AND POTHWARI: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC SURVEY"

FAR-WESTERN HIMALAYAN PAHARI LANGUAGE, ITS ORIGIN AND EVALUATION

This Pahari language, like other languages of the world, has its own distinct features which depict the evolutionary images of masses. This language is shared by million of people spread across disputed borders in the region. This war like permanent situation in the region poses an additional danger to the extinction of this language. There is an urgent need to establish cross cultural ties among people in this age with modern communication for the preservation, progress and peace of humanity and their heritage. There is a lot more to do in this regard. 

                                                 Written by : Dr Jahangir Satti

  Click here to read "Far-Western Himalayan Pahari Language, Its Origin and Evaluation

SATTIALI LANGUAGE of Circle Bakote

                                                                                       By : MOHAMMED OBAIDULLAH ALVI                                                                                                  Journalist, Anthropologist and Historian 


Human being related to any Geography, civilization, culture is not mute. They have their own language, full of passions of joy and grieves. This language is also a mirror of  past and road map of their future. They sleep and enjoy their dreams in their native or mother languages. I have studied my mother language since 1996 and compile a dictionary of 2.5 thousands of words, idioms with reference of local past and present back ground. I am translating Holy Quraan in this language first time in history.

The Dhundi-Karlali language is spoken throughout Abbottabad District, and the adjoining Murree Hills and Galyat areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.The Dhund Abbasi and Karlal Tribe form 80% of the population that uses this language. More than 1.5 million people speak this language from the north of Islamabad to the Kaghan Valley in the south, and in the east from the right bank of the Jhelum River to the Silk Road from Hasanabdal to Abbottabad.

Ancient History

The earliest known roots of the language go back to 5,000 BCE when Indo-Aryan priests wrote the Vedas on the high brinks of the Mukeshpuri and Murree hills. The Dhundi language evolved from an ancient Prakrit in 3,500 BCE and by the first century emerged as the Sharda language. This language developed and changed into the Sharda language of Kashmir, the official language of the Buddhist University at Taxila's Sharda Campus sixteen centuries before the invasion of the Huns from Central Asia. Kautilya and Pāṇini were the great scholars of this language

  

Muslim conquest

After the Muslim conquest of Kashmir in the twelfth century, many Muslim tribes such as Satti, Awan, Sayed, Dhund Abbasis, Karlal, and Gakhars (the main feudal lords of area), and many more came to Kashmir with Mahmud of Ghazni and his invading forces; they partially changed the social and political culture as well as the Ghindi language of Kashmir.

Effect on language

This influx resulted in new linguist influences; this dramatically altered the language, literature, poetry, philosophy and some 35% of the vocabulary. This created another version of the Sharda language. In the middle of the second millennium some social changes occurred: Gakhars displaced the Kareal tribe from Bakote to Galyat and promoted the Dhunds as their allies. Gakhars granted Abbottabad District and Murree Hills as jagirs(territorial grants) to Rattan Khan (Abd-u-Rehman), the great-grandson of Shah Wali Khan (Dhond Khan) as a reward. This jagir was geographically a hilly and mountainous area that has been developed by Katwals, Sattis, Gujjars and Kareals through the centuries.

Today a pure form of this language is spoken by Sattis. the language is now referred to as Sattiali in this area.

New History

The linguist Rev. T. Grahame Bayley contributed in the 1901 census of India report on the "dialects spoken in the hills between Murree and Kashmir". Bayley was the first to study the language, which he included in his book Languages of the Northern Himalayas Studied in the Grammar of Twenty-Six Himalayan Dialects, published the by Royal Asiatic Society London in 1908. Grearson detailed the nature and translation of the Sattiali language in the linguistic survey of India (Linguistic Survey of Pakistan Vol IV) published in Lahore in 1980. Linguists consider the Dhundi-Kareali language to be the same as Pahari (Dhondi), Pothwari (Potwari), Chibhali, Punchhi (Poonchi), and Mirpuri, varying slightly in dialect. This language belongs to the Western Pahari language family, which is a branch of the Indo-Iranian language. Indo-Iranian (also known as Aryan) is a branch of the Indo-Europeanfamily of languages. (For details read Mohabbat Husain Awan of Birote Kalan book ASSAN NAY NABI PAK HOR (Our Holy Prophet) first book on Dhundi-Kairali language, published in 2006 in Karachi and won Seerat Award in 2008.The book preface research article was written by Mohammed Obaidullah Alvi and covers five millenniums history and literature of Dhundi-Kairali language. Gulfiraz Abbasi, a lecturer of Murree College is also written a research thesis about this subject in 2010.

References

1. ^ Ethnologue report for language code:phr
2. ^ Location of Birot - Falling Rain Genomics
3. '^ H.H. Risley and E.A. Gait, (1903), Report on the Census of India, 1901, Calcutta, p. 247
4. ^ Formerly known as Qurashies, as narrated by Akram Abbasi in his book Aena-e-Qurashand Noor Alahi Abbasi in Tareekh-e-Murre
5. Awan, Mohabbat Husain, Asan nay Nabi Pak hor (Our Holy Prophet), preface and language by Mohammed Obaidullah Alvi 
6. Colin P. Masica, 1991, The Indo-Aryan Languages
7. Bailey, Rev. T. Grahame. 1904. Panjabi Grammar. Lahore: Punjab Government Press.
8. Rahman, Tariq. 1997. Language and Ethnicity in Pakistan. Asian Survey, 1997 Sep., 37(9):833-839.

  External Links

•  http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/Dhundi-Kairali%20language
• Pothohari reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
• Javaid, Umbreen. 2004. Saraiki political movement: its impact in south Punjab. Journal of Research (Humanities), 40(2): 55–65. Lahore: Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of the Punjab. (This PDF contains multiple articles from the same issue.)
• Miki Kharo England - GeoPakistani
• Pahari.org
• Jumtree.co.uk, examples of Potwari Sher (sung poetry)