Lahnda language

Lahnda
Western Punjabi
شاہ مکھی پنجابی
Region Pakistan
Ethnicity Punjabis
Native speakers
 ca. 25 million (1993–2013)[1]
Standard forms
Hindko (emerging)
Shahmukhi (Extended Perso-Arabic)
Language codes
ISO 639-2 lah
ISO 639-3 lah – inclusive code
Individual codes:
jat – Jakati
hno – Northern Hindko (Kagani)
phr – Pahari-Potwari
skr – Seraiki
hnd – Southern Hindko (Hindko)
xhe – ? Khetrani
(Note: What Ethnologue includes as "Western Punjabi" is the Eastern Punjabi of Pakistan)
Glottolog lahn1241[3]

Lahnda /ˈlɑːndə/[4] or Western Punjabi (Shahmuhki: شاہ مکھی پنجابی) are those Indo-Aryan varieties in parts of Pakistani Punjab that are transitional between Eastern Punjabi and Sindhi. The literary language of Lahnda speakers has traditionally been Standard Punjabi.[5]:2

Name

Lahnda means "western" in Punjabi. It was coined by William St. Clair Tisdall (in the form Lahindā) probably around 1890 and later adopted by a number of linguists—notably George Abraham Grierson—for a dialect group that had no general local name.[6]:883 The southern varieties are locally called Saraiki, and northwestern varieties Hindko or Panjistani. The main identifier of Lahnda is use of 'aha' in the past instead of the standard Punjabi "si, seegay."

Classification

Since Sindhi, Punjabi, and Hindustani are spoken in a region that has witnessed significant ethnic and identity conflict, all have been exposed to the dialect-versus-language debate. Recently, Saraiki and Hindko are being cultivated as literary languages.[7] The development of the standard written language began after the founding of Pakistan in 1947, driven by a regionalist political movements.[8]:838[9] The national census of Pakistan has counted Saraiki and Hindko speakers since 1981.[10]:46

Varieties

The varieties of Lahnda are:[11]

Khetrani is commonly included, but may be a remnant Dardic language.[11] Some of the northern dialects of what has for geographical reasons been considered Gujarati are actually closer to Lahnda. There is also a Lahnda language in Afghanistan and Ukraine in the form of Jakati.

Lahnda has several traits that distinguish it from Punjabi, such as a future tense in -s-. Like Sindhi, Siraiki retains breathy-voiced consonants, has developed implosives, and lacks tone. Hindko, also called Panjistani or (ambiguously) Pahari, is more like Punjabi in this regard, though the equivalent of the low-rising tone of Punjabi is a high-falling tone in Peshawar Hindko.[7]

Sindhi, Lahnda, Punjabi, and Western Pahari form a dialect continuum with no clear-cut boundaries. Ethnologue classifies the western dialects of Punjabi as Lahnda, so that the Lahnda–Punjabi isogloss approximates the Pakistani–Indian border.[12] However, this does not accord with linguistic description, and is not accepted by specialists.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lahnda at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Jakati at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Northern Hindko (Kagani) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Pahari-Potwari at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Seraiki at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Southern Hindko (Hindko) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    ? Khetrani
    (Note: What Ethnologue includes as "Western Punjabi" is the Eastern Punjabi of Pakistan) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Ernst Kausen, 2006. Die Klassifikation der indogermanischen Sprachen (Microsoft Word, 133 KB)
  3. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Lahnda". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  4. ↑ "Lahnda". Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2005. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ↑ Tolstaya, Natalya I. (1981). The Panjabi Language. Routledge. ISBN 9780710009395.
  6. ↑ Grierson, George A. (1930). "Lahndā and Lahndī". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 5 (4): 883–887. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00090571.
  7. 1 2 Shackle, Christopher (2010). "Lahnda". In Brown, Keith; Ogilvie, Sarah. Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World. Oxford: Elsevier. p. 635. ISBN 9780080877754.
  8. ↑ Rahman, Tariq. 1997. Language and Ethnicity in Pakistan. Asian Survey, 1997 Sep., 37(9):833-839.
  9. ↑ Shackle, C. 1977. Saraiki: A Language Movement in Pakistan. Modern Asian Studies, 11(3):379-403.
  10. ↑ Javaid, Umbreen (2004). "Saraiki political movement: its impact in south Punjab" (PDF). Journal of Research (Humanities) (Lahore: Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of the Punjab) 40 (2): 45–55. External link in |journal= (help) (This PDF contains multiple articles from the same issue.)
  11. 1 2 Masica (1991)
  12. ↑ Lahnda language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Western Punjabi edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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