Hindko and Gujari. c - SIL International

Hindko 49
(3.7) Scores of Sherpur Men on Pashto Sentence Repetition Test
Men
No 1-5 6-10 11+ Total by
Age education years years years age groups
group n ave RPE n ave RPE n ave RPE n ave RPE n ave RPE
13-19 1 16 1+ 0 18 30 2+ 2 33 3 21 30 2+
20-29 0 1 28 2+ 3 31 3 6 36 3 10 34 3
30-39 0 0 1 28 2+ 2 41 3+ 3 37 3+
40-49 0 0 0 0 0
Total 1 16 1+
by educ.
groups
1 28 2+ 22 30 2+ 10 36 3 34
When the results of Pashto bilingualism testing in Sherpur
are compared with those of Urdu bilingualism testing, several
factors become evident: First, it is clear that the Hindko-speaking
men of Sherpur, in spite of their regular interaction with Pashto
mother-tongue speakers in the community, do not have the same
level of proficiency in Pashto that they have in Urdu. There are
many more men with low scores in Pashto; even the group with
the highest score in Pashto, RPE 3, is lower than most of the
groups in Urdu which averaged at RPE 3+.
Also, the average scores in Pashto increase as the age group
of the subjects increases. This is to be expected when a language
is learned informally, as is the case with Pashto in Sherpur. It is
interesting to note that the average scores also increase as the
average educational level of the subjects increases. This might
not hold true if the testing were to be extended to include larger
numbers of subjects at the lower educational levels. However, if
it were to prove true that those subjects with higher educational
levels consistently have higher Pashto SRT scores, it may be that
their increased Pashto proficiency actually results from other
contact opportunities, such as interactions with Pashto-speaking
classmates, or occupation-related travel, which are only an
indirect consequence of education.