| Inku | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Afghanistan |
| Region | various |
| Ethnicity | "Jats" (Jalali, Pikraj, Shadibaz, Vangawala) |
| Extinct | after 1990s |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | jat |
| Glottolog | jaka1245 |
Inku is an Indo-Aryan language spoken, at least historically, throughout Afghanistan by four of the country's itinerant communities: the Jalali, the Pikraj, the Shadibaz and the Vangawala. Itinerant communities in Afghanistan, whether Inku-speaking or not, are locally known as "Jats" (not to be confused with the Jats of India and Pakistan), a term which is not a self-designation of the groups but rather a collective, often pejorative name given by outsiders.[1] The reference work Ethnologue has an entry for what could be this language, but under the name Jakati (with the corresponding ISO 639-3 code jat), but that entry is at least partly erroneous.[2]
Each of the four groups speaks a variety with slight differences compared to the others.[3] According to their local tradition, their ancestors migrated in the 19th century from the Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan regions of present-day Pakistan.[4] Such an origin suggests that Inku may be related to the Saraiki language spoken there,[5] though nothing is conclusively known.[6]
The total population of the four Inku-speaking groups was estimated to be 7,000 as of the end of the 1970s.[7] There is no reliable information about their present state, though it is unlikely that many have survived the subsequent upheavals in the country,[1] and according to the entry in Ethnologue, which however may not necessarily refer to this language,[2] the last speakers "probably survived into the 1990s".[8]
Linguistic materials about the varieties spoken by the Shadibaz, Vangawala and Pikraj were collected by Aparna Rao in the 1970s, but they have not been published or analysed yet.[3]