| Hindko | |
|---|---|
| ہندکو | |
 Hindko inShahmukhi | |
| Native to | Pakistan |
| Region | Hazara Division,Peshawar,Kohat,Pothohar Plateau |
| Ethnicity | Punjabis andPashtuns[a] |
Native speakers | 5–7 million (2017–2020)[1] |
| Dialects | |
| Shahmukhi | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:hnd – Southern Hindkohno – Northern Hindko |
| Glottolog | hind1271 |
 The proportion of people with Hindko as theirmother tongue in each PakistaniDistrict as of the2017 Pakistan Census | |
Hindko (ہندکو,romanized:Hindko,IPA:[ˈɦɪndkoː]) is a cover term for a diverse group ofLahnda dialects spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds in several areas in northwesternPakistan, primarily in the province ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa and northwestern regions ofPunjab.[2]
The name "Hindko" means "the Indian language" or "language of Hind",[b][6][3][7][4] and refers to the Indo-Aryan speech forms spoken in the northern Indian subcontinent,[3][8][5] in contrast to the neighbouringPashto, anIranic language spoken by the Pashtun people.[4][8][9] An alternative local name for this language group isHindki.[c][10] A speaker of Hindko may be referred to asHindki,Hindkun, orHindkowan (Hindkuwan).[11]
Like other Lahnda varieties, Hindko is derived from theShauraseni Prakrit.[12][13] Hindko to some extent is mutually intelligible withPunjabi andSaraiki,[14] and has more affinities with the latter than with the former.[15]
There is a nascent language movement,[16] and in recent decades Hindko-speaking intellectuals have started promoting the view of Hindko as a separate language.[14] There is a literary tradition based onPeshawari,[17] the urban variety ofPeshawar in the northwest, and another one based on the language ofAbbottabad in the northeast.[18] In the 2023 census of Pakistan, 5.6 million people declared their language to be Hindko,[19] while a 2020 estimate placed the number of speakers at 7 million.[1]
Varieties of Hindko are primarily spoken in a core area in the district ofAttock in the northwestern corner of the province of Punjab, and in two neighbouring regions: in Peshawar to the north-west, andHazara to the north-east, both in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province). The Hindko of Hazara also extends east into nearby regions ofAzad Kashmir.
The central dialect group comprisesKohati (spoken in the city ofKohat and a few neighbouring villages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and the three closely related dialects of Attock District, Punjab:Chacchi (spoken inAttock andHaripur Tehsils),Ghebi (spoken to the south inPindi Gheb Tehsil) andAwankari (spoken inTalagang Tehsil, now part ofChakwal District).[20][21] Rensch's classification based on lexical similarity[d] also assigns to this group the rural dialects ofPeshawar District.[22] Shackle, however, sees most[e] of them as closely related to the urban variety of Peshawar City.[23]
In a group of its own is Peshawari,[f] theprestigious urban variety spoken in the city of Peshawar and the one that is promoted as a standardised literary language.[24] It has a wide dialectal base[25] and has undergone the influence ofUrdu andStandard Punjabi.[22][26]
A separate group is formed in the northeast by the relatively homogeneous dialects of theHazara region,[27][28] which are collectively known asHazara Hindko orNorthern Hindko, with the variety spoken inKaghan Valley known asKaghani,[1] and the variety ofTanawal known variously asTanoli Hindko,Tanoli orTinauli.[29]Hindko is also spoken further east into Kashmir. It is the predominant language of theNeelum Valley, in the north of Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir, where it is locally known asParmi (orPārim; the name likely originated in the Kashmiri wordapārim 'from the other side', which was the term used by the Kashmiris of theVale of Kashmir to refer to the highlanders, who spoke this language).[30] This variety is also spoken across theLine of Control into Indian-administeredJammu and Kashmir.[31]
The whole dialect continuum of Hindko is partitioned byEthnologue into two languages: Northern Hindko (ISO 639-3 code: hno)[1] for the dialects of Hazara, and Southern Hindko (ISO 639-3: hnd)[32] 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.[33]
Hindko dialects gradually transition into other varieties of Lahnda and Punjabi to the south. For example, to the southwest across theSalt Range are found dialects of Saraiki,[34] and at least one of these – the one spoken in theDera Ismail Khan District – is sometimes also referred to as "Hindko".[35] To the southeast, Hindko is in a dialect continuum withPahari–Pothwari, with theGalyat region of Abbottabad district and the area ofMuzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir approximately falling on the boundary between the two.[36]
There are Hindkodiasporas in major urban centres likeKarachi,[37] as well as in some neighbouring countries.
Beforepartition of India in 1947, a substantial population of Hindkowans wereHindus andSikh. This population migrated en masse to India.[8][38] These Hindkowans have completely assimilated into larger Punjabi-speaking andHindi-speaking speakers in India, with only few elders identifying as hindokowans.[39]
There was also a small Sikh and Hindu Hindkowans diaspora inAfghanistan, who became established there during the Sikh Empire in the first half of the 19th century. Most of them emigrated to India or western countries since the war and subsequent rise of the Taliban, and the total population, being not more than 60 (as of 2024).[40]
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 orcastes. However, the Hindko-speaking community belonging to theHazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is sometimes recognised collectively asHazarewal, while the urban settlers in the cities of Peshawar and Kohat are simply known asPishoris and Kohatis, respectively.[41] A large number of Hindko speakers in the Hazara Division are Pashtuns.[42] Some of those speak Hindko as their mother tongue while others as a second language.[42] These include theTahirkhelis,Swatis,Yusufzais,Jadoons andTareens.[42] The other Hindko speakers include theSayyids,Awans,Mughals,Tanolis, Turks,Qureshis andGujjars.[42]
The most common second language for Hindko-speakers in Pakistan is Urdu and the second most common one is Pashto.[43] 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 ofdomains 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,[44] and in the Neelam Valley of Azad Jammu & Kashmir it is gaining ground at the expense of the minority languages like Kashmiri.[45] 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.[46][47]
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p pʰ | t tʰ | ʈ ʈʰ | c cʰ | k kʰ | |
| voiced | b bʱ | d dʱ | ɖ ɖʱ | ɟ ɟʱ | ɡ ɡʱ | ||
| Fricative | f | s z | ɕ | x ɣ | ɦ | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ɳ | ||||
| Rhotic | r | ɽ | |||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Approximant | ʋ | j | |||||
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Retroflex | Post-alv./ Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p pʰ | t tʰ | ʈ ʈʰ | tʃ tʃʰ | k kʰ | |
| voiced | b | d | ɖ | dʒ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ | x ɣ | ɦ | ||
| Nasal | m | n | (ɳ) | (ŋ) | |||
| Rhotic | r | ɽ | |||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Approximant | j | ||||||
Hindko contrastsstop consonants at thelabial,alveolar,retroflex,palatal andvelar places of articulation. Thepalatals have been described as pure stops (/cɟ/) in Awankari,[48] but asaffricates (/tʃdʒ/) in the varieties of Hazara.[49] For the stop consonants of most varieties of Hindko there is a three-way contrast between voiced (bdɖdʒɡ), voiceless (ptʈtʃk) andaspirated (pʰtʰʈʰtʃʰkʰ).[50] Awankari,[51] Kohati,[52] and the varieties of Neelum Valley of Kashmir also distinguishvoiced aspirated stops (bʱdʱɖʱdʒʱɡʱ).[53] The disappearance of the voiced aspirates from most Hindko varieties has been linked to the development of tone (seebelow).
Fricatives like/f/,/x/ and/ɣ/ are found in loans (for example from Persian), but also in native words, often as positional allophones of the corresponding stop.[54] Some documented instances include:
Generally, the fricatives can be found in all positions: at the start, the middle, or at the end of the word (Tanoli Hindko:/xrɑːb/ 'spoilt',/ləxxət/ 'small stick',/ʃɑːx/ 'branch'),[58] with relatively few exceptions (one being the restriction on word-final/ɦ/ in the Hindko of Kashmir).[59] Thelabio-dental has been explicitly described as the fricative/v/ for the Hindko of Kashmir,[60] and Tanawal,[61] but as theapproximant /ʋ/ in Awankari.[62]
Apart from/m/ and/n/, Hindko dialects distinguish a varying number of othernasal consonants.Theretroflex nasal is overall shorter than the other nasals,[63] and at least for the Hindko of Abbottabad it has been described as a nasalisedflap:/ɽ̃/.[64] For the Hindko of Kashmir it has been asserted to be an allophone of the alveolar nasal/n/,[65] but it is phonemic in Awankari[66] 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:/tɑːɳɑ̃ː/ 'straight',/mɑːɳ/ 'pride'.[67] Thevelar nasal/ŋ/ is phonemic in Tanoli:/bɑːŋ/ 'prayer call',/mɑːŋ/ 'fiancée',[68] and in the Hindko of Kashmir, and in both cases it is found only in the middle or at the end of the word.[69] In the main subdialect of Awankari, the velar nasal is only found before velar stops,[66] and similarly, it is not among the phonemes identified for the Hindko of Abbottabad.[70]
Hindko varieties have a singlelateral consonant: the alveolar/l/, unlike Punjabi, which additionally has aretroflex lateral/ɭ/.[71] 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 incomplementary distribution with the alveolar lateral.[72] There are two rhotic sounds in Hindko: analveolar trill/r/ (with a varying number of vibrations dependent on the phonetic context), and aretroflex flap/ɽ/.[73]
| Front | Central | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iː | uː | |||
| ɪ | ʊ | ||||
| Mid | eː | oː | |||
| æː | |||||
| ə | |||||
| Open | ɑː |
Hindko has three short vowels/ɪ/,/ʊ/ and/ə/, and six long vowels:/iː/,/eː/,/æː/,/ɑː/,/oː/ and/uː/. The vowels can be illustrated with the following examples from Tanoli:/tʃɪpp/ 'big stone',/dʊxx/ 'pain',/kəll/ 'yesterday',/biːɽɑː/ 'button',/keː/ 'what',/bæːrɑː/ 'piece of meat',/tɑːr/ 'Sunday',/tʃoːr/ 'thief',/kuːɽɑː/ 'filth'.[75]Length is strongly contrastive and the long vowels are generally twice as long as the corresponding short vowels.[76]The Awankari dialect distinguishes between open and close "o" (/poːlɑː/ 'soft' vs./pɔːlɑː/ 'shoe').[77]
Varieties of Hindko also possess a number ofdiphthongs (like/ai/). 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.[78]
Hindko dialects possess phonemicnasal vowels (here marked with a tilde above the vowel:ɑ̃). For example, in the Hindko of Azad Kashmir/bɑː/ 'animal disease' contrasts with/bɑ̃ː/ 'arm', and/toːkeː/ 'meat cutters' with/toːkẽː/ 'hindrances'.[79] In this variety of Hindko, as well as in the Hindko of Tanawal, there are nasal counterparts for all, or almost all,[g] of the long vowels, but none for the short vowels.[80] In Awankari and the Hindko of Abbottabad, on the other hand, there is contrastive nasalisation for short vowels as well:/kʰɪɖɑː/ 'make one play' contrasts with/kʰɪ̃ɖɑ/ 'scatter' (in Awankari),[81]/ɡəɖ/ 'mixing' contrasts with/ɡə̃́ɖ/ 'knot').[82]Peshawari and Kohati presumably follow the pattern of Awankari but have historically lost nasalisation from the round vowels (like/u/ or/o/) at the end of the word.[83]
Additionally, vowels get nasalisedallophonically 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:[dõːn] 'washing',[bẽːn] 'crying'.[84] In the Hindko of Abbottabad, a vowel at the end of some words can be nasalised if it follows a nasal consonant.[85] 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 (seeAwankari dialect § Vowels for more details).[81]
Unlike many Indo-Aryan languages, but in common with other Punjabi varieties, Hindko dialects have a system ofpitch accent, which is commonly referred to astone.[86] In Punjabi, pitch accent has historically arisen out of the loss of voiced aspirates (/bʱdʱɖʱdʒʱɡʱɦ/. Thus inStandard 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:/dʒiːbʱ/ >/dʒíːb/ '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:/ɡʱoːɽaː/ >/kòːɽaː/ 'horse'.[87] The same pattern has been reported for Hazara Hindko, with a low rising tone after historically voiced aspirates (/kòːɽaː/ 'horse' </ɡʱoːɽaː/), a high falling tone before historic voiced aspirates (/kóːɽaː/ 'leper' </kóːɽʱaː/), and level tone elsewhere (/koːɽaː/ 'bitter'). According to preliminary observations on the Hazara Hindko variety of Abbottabad, the low tone is less prominent than inMajhi Punjabi, and a trace of the aspiration is preserved: for example 'horse' would be/k(h)òːɽaː/.[88]
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 Majhi and Hazara Hindko,[45] and it has similarly been reported in the villages on the Indian side.[89]
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/ʋə́d/ 'more' (<vədʱ), but/dʱiː/ 'daughter'.[90] This tone is realised as high falling in Kohati[54] and the eastern subdialect of Awankari, but as high in the northwestern Awankari subdialect.[91] 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 Majhi, with a similar loss of aspiration and voicing. But in contrast to Majhi, this tone is also high falling, and it is distinguished by the accompanyingglottalisation:/tˀîː/ 'daughter',/vəˈtˀɑ̂ːiː/ 'congratulations'.[92]
Hindko is generally written in a variety of thePunjabi alphabet.[93] It was created byRehmat Aziz Chitrali atKhowar Academy Chitral.
| Letter | Name of Letter | Transcription | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| آ | waḍḍi alif | ā | /ə/ |
| ا | alif | a | /a/ |
| ب | be | p | /b/ |
| پ | pe | b | /p/ |
| ت | te | t | /t/ |
| ٹ | ṭe | ṭ | /ʈ/ |
| ث | se | s | /s/ |
| ج | jīm | j | /d͡ʒ/ |
| چ | če | č | /t͡ʃ/ |
| ح | he | h | /h/ |
| خ | xe | x | /x/ |
| ڇ | ʄe | ʄ | /ʄ/ |
| د | dāl | d | /d/ |
| ڈ | ḍāl | ḍ | /ɖ/ |
| ذ | zāl | (z) | /z/ |
| ر | re | r | /r/ |
| ڑ | ṛe | ṛ | /ɽ/ |
| ز | ze | z | /z/ |
| ݬ | ce | c | /ɕ/ |
| س | sīn | s | /s/ |
| ش | šīn | š | /ʃ/ |
| ص | svād | (s) | /s/ |
| ض | zvād | (z) | /z/ |
| ط | to'e | (t) | /t/ |
| ظ | zo'e | (z) | /z/ |
| ع | ‘ain | (‘/'), (a), (e), (ē), (o), (i), (u) | /∅/,/ə/,/e/,/ɛ/,/o/,/ɪ/,/ʊ/ |
| غ | ǧain | ǧ | /ɣ/ |
| ف | fe | f | /f/ |
| ق | qāf | q | /q/ |
| ڨ | vāf | v | /v/ |
| ک | kāf | k | /k/ |
| گ | gāf | g | /g/ |
| ل | lām | l | /l/ |
| م | mīm | m | /m/ |
| ن | nūn | n | /n/ |
| ں | ñun | ñ | /ɲ/ |
| ݩ | ñun | ñ | /ɲ/ |
| ݩگ | ngun | ng | /ŋ/ |
| ݨ | ṇūn | ṇ | /ɳ/ |
| و | wāw | w | /ʋ/ |
| ؤ | waw-e-hamza | 'w | /ʔu/ |
| ٷ | waw-e-humza-e-dumma | u | /ʊ/ |
| ہ | coṭī he | h | /ɦ/ |
| ھ | do cašmī he | _h | /◌ʰ/,/◌ʱ/ |
| ء | hamza | ' | /ʔ/ |
| ی | coṭī ye | y, ī | /j/,/i/ |
| ئ | hamza-e-yeh | ai | /æː/ |
| ے | waḍḍi ye | e, ē | /e/,/ɛ/ |
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.
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 theUniversity of London. He is the author of Sarzamin e Hindko, and Hindko Sautiyat. His three booklets on Hindkophonology were published by theUniversity of Peshawar in the late 1970s.
The Idara-e-Faroghe Hindko based in Peshawar is another body that is promoting Hindko.Riffat Akbar Swati 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 magazineFaroogh 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 inFarogh monthly. He is organiser of Hindko Falahi Forum.
Many organisations like Bazm-e-Ilm-o-Fun Abbottabad and Halqa-e-Yaraan Shinkyari promote 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.
An excerpt from theKalām ofAhmad Ali Saayein:[94]
الف اول ہے عالم ہست سی او
ہاتف آپ پکاریا بسمہ اللہ
فیر قلم نوں حکم نوشت ہویا
ہس کے قلم سر ماریا بسمہ اللہ
نقشہ لوح محفوظ دے وچ سینے
قلم صاف اتاریا بسمہ اللہ
اس تحریر نوں پڑھ کے فرشتیاں نے
سائیاں شکر گزاریا بسمہ اللہ
Transliteration:Alif-Awal hai Alam e hast sī o
Hātif āp pukārā Bismillah
Fīr Qalam nū̃ hukum e Nawišt hoyā
Hus ke qalam sir māriyā Bismillah
Naqšā Loh e Mahfūz dai wic sine
Qalam sāf utāriyā Bismillah
Is Tahrīr nū̃ paṛah ke Farištiyā̃ ne
Sāiyā̃ Šukar guzāriyā 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"
Hindko has a rich heritage of proverbs (Hindkomatlaan, sg.matal).[95][96] An example of a proverb:
جدھر سر ادھر سرہانڑا
Transliteration:Jidur sir udur sarhanra
Translation: "Good person gains respect everywhere."
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 theHazara 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 termHindko 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.
Shackle suggests Hindko simply means "Indian language" and describes it as a "collective label for the variety of Indo-Aryan dialects either alongside or in vicinity of Pushto in the northwest of the country". Hindko is the most significant linguistic minority in the NWFP, represented in nearly one-fifth (18.7%) of the province's total households. ... The Influence of Pushto on Hazara appears to have become more pronounced, due in part to an Influx of Pashtuns replacing the Hindko-speaking Sikhs and Hindus who formerly held key trading positions and who departed at independence.
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.
In India, Hindko is little known, and while there are Hindko speakers in parts of Jammu and Kashmir as well as among other communities who migrated to India post Partition, by and large it has been absorbed under the broad umbrella of Punjabi...There is also a strong sense of a Hindko identity, as the Pakistani state realized when the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) was renamed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2010. The loudest opposition to the renaming came from Hindkowans who feared being submerged in the Pashtun identity of the newly named state. It also prompted calls for a separate state for Hindko speakers.
Members of a variety of ethnic groups speak the language called Hindko. A large number of Hindko speakers in Hazara Division (Mansehra and Abbottabad Districts) are Pashtoons. Some of those speak Hindko as a second language; many others speak it as their mother tongue. These include the Tahir Kheli Pashtoons, who claim to have migrated to Hazara Division from Afghanistan during the eighteenth century. Many other mother- tongue speakers of Hindko are Swati Pathans, who are said to have formerly spoken Pashto while living in the lower Swat valley. After migrating across the Indus River into Hazara Division, which Ahmed dates around A.D. 1515, the Swatis adopted the Hindko language. There are also Pashtoons belonging to three other groups, the Yusufzai, the Jadun and the Tarin, who have replaced Pashto with Hindko. Many speakers of Hindko belong to groups other than the Pashtoons: Some of these are Saiyids, said to have come to the area in the early centuries of Islamic history, many of whom live in the Peshawar area. Large numbers of Hindko speakers are Avans, particularly in Attock District and Hazara Division. Still others belong to groups of Moughals, Bulghadris, Turks and Qureshis. In Jammun significant numbers of Gujars have adopted Hindko as their first language.
Shackle suggests Hindko simply means "Indian language" and describes it as a "collective label for the variety of Indo-Aryan dialects either alongside or in vicinity of Pushto in the northwest of the country". Hindko is the most significant linguistic minority in the NWFP, represented in nearly one-fifth (18.7%) of the province's total households. ... The Influence of Pushto on Hazara appears to have become more pronounced, due in part to an Influx of Pashtuns replacing the Hindko-speaking Sikhs and Hindus who formerly held key trading positions and who departed at independence.
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