Hindko

For the people, see Hindkowans and Hazarewal.
Not to be confused with Hindki.
Hindko
ہندکو
Hindko in Shahmukhi
Native toPakistan
RegionHazara Division, Peshawar, Kohat, Potohar
EthnicityHindkowans and Hazarewal
Native speakers
5–7 million (2017–2020)[1][2]
Dialects
Shahmukhi
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
hnd – Southern Hindko
hno – Northern Hindko
Glottologhind1271
The proportion of people with Hindko as their mother tongue in each Pakistani District as of the 2017 Pakistan Census
A Hindko speaker.

Hindko (ہندکو, romanized: Hindko, IPA: [ˈɦɪndkoː]) 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]

  1. ^ a b "TABLE 11 - POPULATION BY MOTHER TONGUE, SEX AND RURAL/ URBAN" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 January 2024. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  2. ^ a b Hindko, Northern at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
  3. ^ For the heterogeneity of the dialects, see Rensch (1992, p. 53); Masica (1991, pp. 18–19); Shackle (1980, p. 482): the term Hindko is a "collective label" which "embraces dialects of very different groups, not all of which are even geographically contiguous.". For the ethnic diversity, see Rensch (1992, pp. 10–11)
  4. ^ Shackle 1979, p. 198.
  5. ^ a b Rahman 1996, p. 211.
  6. ^ Shackle 1980, pp. 486, 497, 509: Peshawari is the basis of "an incipient literary standard for the different varieties of NWFP 'Hindko'".
  7. ^ Rahman 1996, pp. 211–14.
  8. ^ Shackle 1979, pp. 200–1.
  9. ^ Shackle 1980, p. 486.
  10. ^ a b c Venkatesh, Karthik (6 July 2019). "The strange and little-known case of Hindko". Mint. Archived from the original on 30 June 2022. Retrieved 10 October 2019. 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.
  11. ^ a b c West, Barbara A. (2010). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 285. ISBN 9781438119137. 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.
  12. ^ a b Sumra, Mahar Abdul Haq (1992). The Soomras. Beacon Books. p. 36. 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.
  13. ^ Shackle 1980, p. 482.
  14. ^ Christophe Jaffrelot (2004). A History of Pakistan and Its Origins. Anthem Press. ISBN 9781843311492. Hindko could mean 'Indian language' as opposed to Pashto, which belongs to the Iranian group.
  15. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference GeijbelsAddleton was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Shackle 1980, p. 482; Rensch 1992, pp. 3–4
  17. ^ Rensch 1992, p. 4.
  18. ^ Nawaz 2014, p. 5; Shackle 1980, p. 482.
  19. ^ Mesthrie, Rajend (2018-09-14). Language in Indenture: A Sociolinguistic History of Bhojpuri-Hindi in South Africa. Routledge. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-429-78579-5. Archived from the original on 2023-08-31. Retrieved 2022-08-13. 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 .
  20. ^ Kudva, Venkataraya Narayan (1972). History of the Dakshinatya Saraswats. Samyukta Gowda Saraswata Sabha. p. 218. Archived from the original on 2023-08-31. Retrieved 2022-08-05. 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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