Hindko and Gujari. c - SIL International

Hindko 85
6.3 Hindko Dialects
The Hindko dialect question was examined by comparing
word lists and by dialect intelligibility testing. On the basis of
lexical similarity counts, five major dialect areas have emerged:
Hazara, Attock, Kohat, Peshawar rural and Peshawar city. The
second, third and fourth seem to constitute a central dialect area.
Especially in some of their sub-areas these are rather different
from both Hazara and Peshawar-city dialects.
Testing of inherent intelligibility among Hindko dialects
through the use of recorded text tests has shown that there is a
northern (Hazara) dialect group and a southern dialect group.
The southern dialects are more widely understood throughout the
dialect network than are the northern dialects. The dialects of
rural Peshawar and Talagang are the most widely understood of
the dialects tested; Balakot is the least widely understood.
6.4 Attitudes Toward Hindko and Other Languages
Attitudes of Hindko speakers toward other languages were
probed through interviews conducted in several villages.
Respondents were asked whether they would be willing for their
sons to marry Urdu-speaking or Pashto-speaking women. Their
attitudes toward a possible Urdu-speaking daughter-in-law were
positive in both Sherpur and Balakot. (The responses in the other
two villages did not reveal language attitudes.) The attitudes
toward a Pashto-speaking daughter-in-law were positive in
Sherpur, but quite negative in Balakot.
The respondents were asked to state whether there are
advantages to speaking several possible second languages. Their
responses are indicated in figure (6.8).