Hindko and Gujari. c - SIL International

PREFACE
The northern area of Pakistan occupies a unique position on
the cultural and historical map of the world. Its cultural diversity
and ethnic richness make it one of the most fascinating areas for
researchers and scholars. It is, however, its multi-lingual
character that concerns the present study.
These five volumes of the Sociolinguistic Survey of
Northern Pakistan are devoted to the study of its multi-lingual
features. It is slightly more ambitious than the usual studies of
this nature: it attempts to study the various languages and
dialects of this area from a synchronic descriptive approach with
regard to the issue of language versus dialect. In order to verify
the diversity and similarity within these languages and dialects,
linguistic and sociolinguistic data has been used to throw some
light on the relative levels of diversity within and between the
identified varieties. This has been done particularly in the cases
of Gujari with Hazara Hindko, Indus and Swat varieties of
Kohistani and Shina with its linguistic neighbours.
At a macro level, this work is definitely an improvement
over Grierson’s Linguistic Survey of India and the subsequent
studies by various scholars. However, though ambitious in scope,
the study does not claim to be exhaustive and comprehensive in
every respect. The study also discusses the impact of external
linguistic families on the linguistic evolution of this area. The
unmistakable imprint of Tibeto-Burman languages, the Iranian
languages, the Indo-European family and the Indo-Aryan family
testify to the fact that the northern areas of Pakistan serve as a
bridge between South Asia, Central Asia, China, and Iran.
Another dimension has also been added to the study of so
many languages and dialects in close proximity: degree of
proficiency in the neighbouring languages. This has been done
through interviews, questionnaires, tests, and observations. The
patterns associated with the proficiency of the neighbouring
languages and the national language, Urdu, are treated in terms
of inter-ethnic contacts, the regional dominance of certain
linguistic groups, and the impact of education and media. It is