Hindko and Gujari. c - SIL International

Hindko 33
visit. Another contributing factor is the larger bazaar area of
Abbottabad as compared with the nearer town of Mansehra.
Repeated travel by Sherpur residents to Rawalpindi, Lahore
and Karachi doubtless enhances their use of Urdu. However,
only small percentages of the respondents have gone to these
cities as many as twenty times and in general their stays have
been brief. Once again, we find the pattern that those who have
traveled as far as Karachi have remained longer. Forty percent of
those who have traveled to Karachi have remained for more than
three months whereas that is true of only eight percent of those
who have traveled to Lahore and of none who have traveled to
Rawalpindi.
The common use of Pashto in their home area probably is at
least a partial explanation for why Hindko-speaking residents of
Sherpur travel frequently to Peshawar. One-third of those who
report having visited there have gone more than twenty times.
Twenty-one percent of those who have gone report that they
have stayed for more than six months on their longest visit.
Again, this contrasts with the infrequency of visits which
residents of Singo Di Garhi make to Peshawar. Even though both
groups identify themselves as Swati Pathans, the more
widespread use of Pashto in Sherpur seems to correlate with the
more frequent and longer visits which Sherpur residents make to
Peshawar.
The sample of Sherpur women interviewed in connection
with bilingualism testing suggests that they, like men from
Sherpur, have lived and traveled extensively outside their area.
Eight of the twenty-six women interviewed (31 percent) have
lived for long periods in cities outside the area. These eight have
lived an average of 4 years in Lahore, 5.4 years in Rawalpindi
and 12 years in Karachi. Eighteen of the twenty-six women (69
percent) report having traveled, sometimes for months, to
Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi.
2.4 Language Use in Balakot
Balakot is located in the hills of eastern Mansehra District at
the base of the Kaghan Valley. In that community forty-eight