The proportion of people with Hindko as their mother tongue in each Pakistani District as of the 2017 Pakistan Census
A Hindko speaker.
Hindko (ہندکوIPA:[ˈɦɪnd̪koː]) 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 parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 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] In a sense, both Hindko, as well as other Lahnda varieties, and Standard Panjabi are "dialects" of a "Greater Punjabi" macrolanguage.[10]
The word Hindko, commonly used to refer to a number of Indo-Aryan dialects spoken in the neighborhood of Pashto, likely originally meant "the Indian language" (in contrast to Pashto).[11] An alternative local name for this language group is Hindki.[12][a] A speaker of Hindko may be referred to as Hindki, Hindkun, or Hindkowan (Hindkuwan).[13]
Like other Lahnda varieties, Hindko is derived from the Shauraseni Prakrit.[14][15]
Due to the effects of dominant languages in Pakistani media such as Urdu, Standard Punjabi, and English and the religious impact of Arabic and Persian, Hindko, like other regional varieties of Pakistan, is continuously expanding its vocabulary base with loan words.[16]
^ ab"TABLE 11 - POPULATION BY MOTHER TONGUE, SEX AND RURAL/ URBAN" (PDF). Retrieved 26 December 2022.
^ abHindko, Northern at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
^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)
^Shackle 1979, p. 198.
^ abRahman 1996, p. 211.
^Shackle 1980, pp. 486, 497, 509: Peshawari is the basis of "an incipient literary standard for the different varieties of NWFP 'Hindko'".
^Rahman 1996, pp. 211–14.
^Shackle 1979, pp. 200–1.
^Shackle 1980, p. 486.
^Rahman, Tariq (1995-01-01). "The Siraiki Movement in Pakistan". Language Problems and Language Planning. 19 (1): 16. doi:10.1075/lplp.19.1.01rah. ISSN 0272-2690.
^Shackle 1980, p. 482; Rensch 1992, pp. 3–4. See there for alternative etymologies.
^Rensch 1992, p. 4.
^Nawaz 2014, p. 5; Shackle 1980, p. 482.
^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. 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 .
^Kudva, Venkataraya Narayan (1972). History of the Dakshinatya Saraswats. Samyukta Gowda Saraswata Sabha. p. 218. 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.
^Shams, Shammim Ara (2020). "The Impact of Dominant Languages on Regional Languages: A Case Study of English, Urdu and Shina". Pakistan Social Sciences Review. 4 (III): 1092–1106. doi:10.35484/pssr.2020(4-III)79.
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Hindko (ہندکو IPA: [ˈɦɪnd̪koː]) is a cover term for a diverse group of Lahnda dialects spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds...
live among the neighbouring Pashtuns, particularly the speakers of various Hindko dialects of Western Punjabi (Lahnda). The origins of the term refer merely...
speakers each include Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki, Urdu, Balochi, Hindko, Pahari-Pothwari and Brahui. There are approximately 60 local languages...
multi-ethnic predominantly Hindko and Shina speaking community belonging to the Hazara region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Hindko speaking Hazarewals include...
resemblance to the Hindko of neighbouring Kaghan Valley than to the Pahari spoken in the Murree Hills. Unlike other varieties of Hindko, Pahari or Punjabi...
Abbottabad District (Hindko, Urdu: ضِلع ایبٹ آباد) is a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is part of the Hazara Division and...
Kohāṭī is a Western Punjabi dialect of Hindko, spoken in the Kohat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is spoken in the city of Kohat as well...
The Tanoli (Hindko/Urdu: تنولی، تناولی) are a Hindkowan tribe living mainly in the Hazara area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. They form the majority...
5% as Hindko, 14.5% as Pashto and 1.8% as Urdu. In the previous census of 1998, the multiple-choice question did not have an option for Hindko; the percentages...
Language Environment of Hindko-Speaking People". In O'Leary, Clare F.; Rensch, Calvin R.; Hallberg, Calinda E. (eds.). Hindko and Gujari. Sociolinguistic...
career in 1971 in a Pashto television play and worked in several Pashto, Hindko and Urdu-language plays. Rasheed Naz was born on 9 September 1948 in Peshawar...
Haripur District (Hindko, Urdu: ضلع ہری پور) is a district in the Hazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Before obtaining the status of a district...
2017 censuses respectively, speakers of the Western Punjabi's Saraiki and Hindko varieties were no longer included in the total numbers for Punjabi, which...
25,324,637 Saraiki speakers and 5,065,879 Hindko speakers. Saraiki was added to the census in 1981, and Hindko was added in 2017, prior to which both were...
Punjab by about 26 million people), Jatki dialects, the diverse varieties of Hindko (with almost five million speakers in north-western Punjab and neighbouring...
Ghebī is a dialect of Hindko spoken in Punjab, Pakistan. In the early 20th century Grierson assigned it to his "North-Eastern Lahnda" group, whereas Shackle...
Peshawar (/pəˈʃɑːwər/; Pashto: پېښور [peˈχəwər] ; Hindko: پشور; [pɪˈʃɔːɾ] ; Urdu: پشاور [pɪˈʃɑːʋər] ) is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with...
as Chibhali or Poonchi, it is locally known as Hindko. Its speakers tend to identify more with the Hindko spoken to the west, even though perceiving their...
time of the 2011 census, 83.85% of the population spoke Pashto, 12.87% Hindko, 1.24% Urdu and 1.19% Punjabi as their first language. Kohat is one of the...
forms gradually change into Hindko. Today, in the Muzaffarabad District the preferred local name for the language is Hindko, although it is still apparently...
Mansehra District (Urdu, Hindko: ضلع مانسہرہ) is a district in the Hazara Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern Pakistan. Mansehra city serves as the...
other languages are spoken. In the central districts like Poonch, etc., the Hindko and Gujari languages are spoken, and in the southern districts, the culture...
Abbottabad (/ˈæbətəbɑːd/; Urdu, Hindko: ایبٹ آباد, romanized: aibṭabād, pronounced [ɛːbʈəˈbaːd̪]) is the capital city of Abbottabad District in the Hazara...
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