Hindko and Gujari. c - SIL International

Gujari 93
1.2 Language Classification
Grierson (LSI IX:10,925) describes Gujari as closely related
to the Rajasthani dialects spoken mainly in northwestern India.
Bailey (1903) pointed out the similarity of Gujari to Mewari.
Grierson (LSI IX:925) states that the grammar is almost identical
to another Rajasthani dialect, Mewati, differing in only one or
two details and at those points it agrees with Mewari. He notes
that Gujari appears to be a more archaic form than Mewati; many
Gujari words are at an older stage of development. Grierson also
notes (LSI IX:10) that one clan of the Gujars in Swat Valley,
northwestern Pakistan, is called Chauhan; the dominant race in
Mewar also belongs to the Chauhan clan of Rajputs. This affinity
between two language groups, separated by hundreds of miles
and several different languages, raises a number of historical
questions as to who the Gujars are and where they came from. 2
Before turning to historical origins of Gujars, however, the
relationship between Gujari and some of the other Indo-Aryan
languages of Pakistan needs to be addressed. Scholars have had
difficulty classifying Northern Hindko, Western Panjabi, and
Gujari. Some classifications have followed Grierson in labeling
Northern Hindko as part of the Lahnda family although the
usefulness of the term “Lahnda” has been disputed. (See Rensch
this volume. Also Shackle 1980, Varma 1936.)
The linguistic boundaries between Western Panjabi and
Northern Hindko have not been fully established by clear
comparative evidence. Many scholars, beginning with Grierson,
have noted the inappropriateness of assuming that they are as
distinct as is implied by their assignations to separate subbranches
of Indo-Aryan. 3 Although Gujari has been classified as
2 These questions of historical origin were recorded in Grierson (LSI
IX:10ff) who quotes long passages from Smith on this point.
3 Grierson himself states that the Lahnda group of dialects to the west of
Panjabi “merges so gradually into that form of speech [Panjabi] that it is
impossible to fix any clear dividing line between the two” (LSI VIII.1:233).
However, even in his revised classification (1931), he places Panjabi in the
Central group of Indo-Aryan, while Lahnda is in the Northwestern group. In