Hindko and Gujari. c - SIL International

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Calvin R. Rensch
below seventy percent (figure 4.1). However, even though
Jammun shows high lexical similarity with all the other four
representative dialects, it is not well understood in Kohat, as
shown by intelligibility testing scores (71 percent). Perhaps
lexical similarity is a significant factor in explaining why, on the
average, Wad Pagga is understood best, by a slight margin, in the
other four dialect areas.
The dialects of Jammun and Kohat were also understood
over a wide area, but noticeably less well than those of Talagang
and Wad Pagga. The dialect of Balakot was, on the average,
considerably less well understood by speakers of other dialects
than any other.
4.3 Comparison of Lexical Similarity and
Dialect Intelligibility Results
Lexical similarity counts suggest five Hindko dialect areas:
Hazara, Attock, Kohat city, Peshawar rural and Peshawar city.
Dialect intelligibility testing also clearly indicates the separation
of the northern (Hazara) group of dialects from the group of
dialects farther south and west. Somewhat lower scores on the
northern dialect tests by Peshawar city subjects may suggest the
existence of a separate Peshawar city area. However, since the
Peshawar city test was not administered in many test points, the
evidence from dialect intelligibility testing for a separate
Peshawar city area is not clear.
Lexical counts show Jammun to be lexically the most
central of the five dialects. That is, it has the highest average
percentage of lexical similarity with the other four dialects.
Intelligibility testing, however, shows the dialects a bit farther
south and west, i.e., Talagang and Wad Pagga, to be more central
in terms of intelligibility. 24 From both standpoints the northern
Hazara dialect of Balakot is the most peripheral.
24 At one point in the field work sixteen respondents from four
communities in Hazara Division were asked to listen to a recorded text from
Wad Pagga (not the recorded text used for the RTT) and one from Talagang.
The respondents were asked whether they understood the texts. All respondents
stated that they understood the text from Wad Pagga. With the exception of
four respondents from Sherpur, who said that they did not understand