QuoteReplyTopic: Indeginous pakistani languages and dialects Posted: 18-Sep-2006 at 19:09
I know the main ones but I am interested to know what the lesser known languages are. I have heard of:
Pothwari: Spoken in northern panjab/south kashmir area
Brahui: Spoken in balochistan?..not related to pashto or farsi or is it?
Saraiki: Spoken in south panjab...maybe a mix of pashto and panjabi?
Hindko: Related to pashto and panjabi? I think it might be another mix not sure
Memoni: karachi. Who are the memons...are they some special type of mohajir?
Balti, Barushki: Hunza Valley? Baltistan?
Kalashi: Obvious.
Anyone have more details on the history of any one of these languages? How they formed and who speaks them and for how long they have been around and where? You just don't hear much about them.
Potohari is similarn to punjabi, but typically is classified as a differnt language. Seriaki is more like Sindhi. Hindko a seperate language of its own.
How linked are these languages to the now extinct language of Pratriki what was common 2000 years ago in pakistan? Was pratriki linked most strongly to sanskrit? Panjabi?
All these languages except brahui have come from Prakrit, which itself has come from Sanskrit.
Brahui is more related to telugu, an south Indian language & is a part of the dravidian family of languages.
Memons speak a Gujrati dialect & are a part of the Memon community which was a community of Gujrati Hindu traders which was converted to muslim during the muslim invasions.
I have heard Hindko being spoken, but i do not see much of a similarity between, it, and the Pashto language, i would class it to be more close to Punjabi than to our Pashto.
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