Potwari language

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason specified. Please add a |reason= parameter to this template. Please help improve this article if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. (April 2009)

Potwari
Pothohari, Potowari, Potohari, Pahari-Pothohari پوٹھوهاری
Spoken in	Pakistan and  Azad Kashmir Most migrant speakers in:  United Kingdom
Region	Pothohar region and Azad Kashmir
Native speakers	4,680,000 in Azad Kashmir, 3,250,000 in Rawalpindi, 1,000,000 in UK.  (date missing)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan North-Western Zone Lahnda Potwari
Language codes
ISO 639-3	phr

Indo-Aryan languages, grouping according to SIL Ethnologue, Potwari is among the languages of the Northwestern zone:

  Central zone

  Northern zone

  Northwestern zone

  Eastern zone

  Southern zone

  Insular (Southern)

Potwari (پوٹھوهاری (Perso-Arabic), also known as Pothohari پوٹھواری or Pahari-Pothohari), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants in the Pothohar Plateau in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir. Some of the cities includes Rawalpindi, Kahuta, Gujar Khan, Jehlum, parts of Gujrat in the south-west and Chakwal in the West, Hazara in the north and in Azad Kashmir in the east. A large overseas population of the language is found overseas in the UK. It is considered a transitional language between with similarities with the Lahnda languages, Pahari languages, Hindko and Punjabi, as spoken in Pakistan. Semi Dialects include Dhundi-Kairali, Chibhali, Mirpuri, Jhelumi, Pindiwali and Punchhi (Poonchi). Speakers of the language understand much of the Punjabi language, however the opposite is difficult in terms of comprehension. The word Paharai-Potwari is sometimes used, were the Pahari part is translated as 'mountain', referring to Azad Kashmir. There are slight variations in the vocabulary with regards to the Potwari speakers of the west on the Potohar plateau and the speakers on the east in Azad Kashmir.

Typical Potohar scenery with 'pahar' backdrop

Typical Azad Kashmir scenery from Kotli

Written Potwari

Written Potwari is based on a variety of stansted dialect of northern Lanhda as wriiten by Sir Geroge Gierson in his LSI. It is widely spoken in the northern parts of Pakistan and in Kashmir, significant places are Rawalpindi and Mirpur. It is semi-officially written and Perso-Arabic standardised orthography is utilised. Speakers literate in Urdu often write mostly in Perso-Arabic style and do not sometimes regard Potwari as a literary language. When in some cases Potwari is written, the Perso-Arabic orthography is utilised or it is written in Roman Potwari, which is used for the writing of Urdu in Roman script. This is largely the case in the UK where a large percentage of Pahari-Potohari speakers reside, who are found to constitute the majority of the expatriate Pakistani (from the Potohar plateau e.g Gujar Khan, Rawalpindi, Kahuta etc.) and Jammu & Kashmiri community. Pahari-Potohari is widely spoken and is used in many traditional poetry due to its richness, the most famous of which is by the poet Mian Muhammad Bakhsh, whose poetry is still performed and enjoyed to this present day in Punjab region and Azad Kashmir. Potwari is an interestingly unique dialect that has some resemblance and close relations to Punjabi, but more interestingly has Pashto/Hindko inflections to the soundings of the words.

It is not the case that Potwari has never been written; during the Buddhist reign Potwari was written using the Laṇḍā script which evolved from the Sharada script. Sharada was invented in the Buddhist university of the same name located in the Neelam Valley in modern day Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Presently, the Perso-Arabic script is standard and has been since the Mughal rule. Potwari has a rich oral tradition, which has been passed down from generation to generation and is used in many famous poetry. This is by in large due to the rampant illiteracy in the communities that uses Potwari as their dialect, which may be due to labour trends/tradition, personal choice or lack of facilities and establishments in the past.

Pahari is also a term used for a language in the Himachal Pradesh region of Northern India. It must be noted that the Pahari-Potohari language is incomprehensible with this dialect.

Dialects

Potwari as a dialect of Punjabi has many different varieties and many different sub-dialects, They include :

-Poonchi -Muree (Named after the Muree hills which surround Rawalpindi & Islamabad) -Mirpuri

The above dialects are the main dialects within the Potwari "language" or dialect, each of the dialects vary in vocabulary and pronunciation. Some varieties of potwari can be more closer to proper Punjabi or standardized Punjabi which is based on the dialect of Lahore. The Mirpuri dialect in particular shares more in common with standardized Punjabi, where as the Muree and Poonchi dialects are more divergent are more different from mirpuri, Poonchi and Muree are spoken around Rawalpindi and Jhelum such as Dina which is in the Jhelum district

Modern Potwari Arts

Potwari has a rich tradition of sung poetry recital accompanied by Sitar, Tabla, Harmonium and Dholak, these poems are called Sher and are often highly lyrical and somewhat humorous and secular in nature, although there are plenty of religious sher. Please see below in the references section for a famous Potohari sher, 'Saif-ul-Malook'

Examples

Popular Phrases (Comparison with Punjabi)

Pronunciation

Vowels:

Aspirated consonants:

All consonants followed by a 'h' are aspirated, that is a puff of air follows the sound of the consonant, not aspirating the consonant alters the meaning of the word. E.g. 'tu' and 'thu' have different meanings (you and from respectively). A vowel followed by 'ṇ' is nasalised.

See also

• Indo-Aryan Languages

References

Examples of spoken Pahari-Potwari:

Main Julian England - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0xwm5kbUAk

Nikammay Babu - http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=nqDMtiHZKgg

Mirpuri Boyz - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gSDxwv3NaQ

Muzaffarabad Pahari Poetry - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqqQYUMlBY8

Famous Potohari Sher sung by a Gujrati:

Saif-ul-Malook - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M8TGe4a1KM

External links

• Miki Kharo England - GeoPakistani
• Pahari.org
• Jumtree.co.uk, examples of Potwari Sher (sung poetry)

Potwari language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

v t e Languages of Pakistan Official languages Urdu English Provincial languages Punjabi Pashto Sindhi Balochi Regional languages Brahui Chitrali Dari Hindko Kashmiri Persian Potwari Saraiki Shina Related topics Dardic languages Iranic languages Indo-Aryan Languages Pakistani Sign Language Arabic