Pahari-Pothwari

Pothwari (پوٹھواری), also spelt Potwari, Potohari and Pothohari (پوٹھوہاری),[11] is spoken in the Pothohar Plateau of northern Punjab,[12] an area administratively within Rawalpindi division.[13] Pothwari is its most common name, and some call it Pindiwal Punjabi to differentiate it from the Punjabi spoken elsewhere in Punjab.[14]

Pothwar scenery with hill backdrop

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.[15] Pothwari has been represented as a dialect of Punjabi by the Punjabi language movement, [5] and in census reports the Pothwari areas of Punjab have been shown as Punjabi-majority.[lower-alpha 4]

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.

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:[lower-alpha 5] Pahari, Mirpur Pahari, Mirpuri,[lower-alpha 6] and Pothwari,[17] while some of its speakers call it Punjabi.[18] Mirpuris possess a strong sense of Kashmiri identity that overrides linguistic identification with closely related groups outside Azad Kashmir, such as the Pothwari Punjabis.[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.[12] 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, [12] 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,[13] and 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[lower-alpha 7] 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 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", but they are not closely related to Pahari–Pothwari.[43]

A long diphthong /ɑi/ can be realized as [äː].[44]

• 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].[44]

The Future tense in Pothwari is formed by adding -s as opposed to the Standard Punjabi gā.[46]

This tense is also used in other Western Punjabi dialects such as Shahpuri and Hindko.[47]

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[48]

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[49]

Similar to Jatki, Hindko, and other Western Punjabi dialects, Pothwari also uses pyā to signify the continuous tense.[50]

Some Majhi sub-dialects also utilize this tense.

The past tense in Pothwari resembles that of Eastern Punjabi, however depending on the dialect, there may be slight variations.

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 (برادری) becomes Bilādrī/Balādarī (بل ادری) in Pahari-Pothwari.

Pahari-Pothwari follows the numbering traditions of Standard Punjabi. A point of departure from Eastern Punjabi dialects occurs in the use of trai (ترَے) instead of tinn (تِنّ) for the number 3. Western Punjabi and Doabi also tend to use trai over tinn.[51]

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.

The possesive pronouns in Pothwari differ from that of Standard Punjabi and other Lehnda dialects.

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:

The genitive marker in Pothwari is represented through the use of nā (ਨਾ / نا) as opposed to dā (ਦਾ / دا).[52]

For example:

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

This also affects some of the possesive 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 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?"

Pothwari has unique forms for nouns in oblique cases. This is not observed in Standard Punjabi, but is seen in Hindko.[53]

A peculiar feature of Pothwari is to end the basic root form of verbs with an "i" sound.[54]

The Pothwari word for "coming" is acchṇā, wheras for "going" gacchṇā, julṇā and jāṇā are used.[54]

The imperative for gacchṇā is both gacch and gau.

Pothwari causative verbs end with -ālnā.[55]

Commonly observed in the Lahnda dialects is the use of Ghinṇā (گھِننا)[56][57] and Aaṇnā (آننا)[58][59] instead of the Eastern Punjabi words Laiṇā (لَینا) and Lyāṇā (لیانا).

Notice how Ghin āo becomes Ghini achho in accordance with Pothwari grammar.

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)