Dardic languages

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The Dardic languages (also Dardu or Pisaca)[1] are a subgroup of the Indo-Aryan languages natively spoken in northern Pakistan's Gilgit Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northern India's Kashmir Valley and Chenab Valley and parts of Eastern Afghanistan.[2][3] Kashmiri is the most prominent Dardic language, with an established literary tradition; alongside official recognition as one of India's 22 scheduled languages.[2][4][5]

History

The terms "Dardic" and "Dardistan" were coined by G. W. Leitner in the late nineteenth century; derived from the Greek and Latin term Daradae, which is itself derived from the Sanskrit term for the people of the region, Daradas.[6] In Vedic records, Daradas is identified to be the Gilgit region, in the Gilgit-Baltistan region (part of ancient Baloristan)[7][8] along the river Sindhu (Indus). However, these terms are not used endonymically by Dardic people.

George Abraham Grierson (1919), with scant data, postulated a family of "Dardic languages", which he characterised as an independent branch of the Indo-Iranian languages. Grierson's Dardic language family originally encompassed three subfamilies; "Kafiri" (now called Nuristani), "Central" and "Dard" languages. However, Grierson's formulation of Dardic is now considered to be incorrect in its details, and has therefore been rendered obsolete by modern scholarship. However, it continues to be cited as a reference, in various publications.Template:Sfn

Georg Morgenstierne (1961), after a "lifetime of study," came to the view that only the "Kafiri" (Nuristani) languages formed an independent branch of the Indo-Iranian languages separate from Indo-Aryan and Iranian families, and determined that the Dardic languages were unmistakably Indo-Aryan in character.Template:Sfn Template:Quote

Classification

According to a model proposed by Asko Parpola, the Dardic languages are directly descended from the Rigvedic dialect of Vedic Sanskrit.[9]

In general, however, Morgenstierne's scheme corresponds to recent scholarly consensus.Template:Sfn As such, Dardic's position as a legitimate genetic subfamily has been repeatedly called into question; it is widely acknowledged that the grouping is more geographical in nature, as opposed to linguistic.[3] Indeed, Buddruss rejected the Dardic grouping entirely, and placed the languages within Central Indo-Aryan.[10] Other scholars, such as Strand[11] and Mock,[12] have similarly voiced doubts in this regard.

However, Kachru contrasts "Midland languages" spoken in the plains, such as Punjabi and Hindustani, with "Mountain languages", such as Dardic.[13] Kogan has also suggested an 'East-Dardic' sub-family; comprising the 'Kashmiri', 'Kohistani' and 'Shina' groups.[14][15]

The case of Kashmiri is peculiar. Its Dardic features are close to Shina, often said to belong to an eastern Dardic language subfamily. Kachru notes that "the Kashmiri language used by Kashmiri Hindu Pandits has been powerfully influenced by Indian culture and literature, and the greater part of its vocabulary is now of Indian origin, and is allied to that of Sanskritic Indo-Aryan languages of northern India".[13]

While it is true that many Dardic languages have been influenced by non-Dardic languages, Dardic may have also influenced neighbouring Indo-Aryan lects in turn, such as Punjabi,[16] the Pahari languages, including the Central Pahari languages of Uttarakhand,[16][17] and purportedly even further afield.[18][19] Some linguists have posited that Dardic lects may have originally been spoken throughout a much larger region, stretching from the mouth of the Indus (in Sindh) northwards in an arc, and then eastwards through modern day Himachal Pradesh to Kumaon. However, this has not been conclusively established. [20][21][22]

Subdivisions

Dardic languages have been organized into the following subfamilies:[23]

In other classifications, Pashai may be included within Kunar; and Kashmiri within Shina.

The term Kohistani is popularly used to refer to several distinct languages in the mountain areas of Northern Pakistan, including Maiya, Kalami and Torwali. It can be translated as 'mountain language'.

Poguli has been judged to be intermediate between Kashmiri and Western Pahari (Kaul 2006).

Characteristics

The languages of the Dardic group share some common defining characteristics, including the loss of aspirated sounds, in addition to word order that is seemingly unique for Indo-Iranian languages.

Loss of voiced aspiration

Virtually all Dardic languages have experienced a partial or complete loss of voiced aspirated consonants.[23][24] Khowar uses the word buum for 'earth' (Sanskrit: bhumi),Template:Ref Pashai uses the word duum for 'smoke' (Hindi: dhuan, Sanskrit: dhum) and Kashmiri uses the word dod for 'milk' (Sanskrit: dugdha, Hindi: dūdh).[23][24] Tonality has developed in some (but not all) Dardic languages, such as Khowar and Pashai, as a compensation.[24] Punjabi and Western Pahari languages similarly lost aspiration but have virtually all developed tonality to partially compensate (e.g. Punjabi kar for 'house', compare with Hindi ghar).[23]

Dardic metathesis and other changes

Both ancient and modern Dardic languages demonstrate a marked tendency towards metathesis where a "pre- or postconsonantal 'r' is shifted forward to a preceding syllable".[16][25] This was seen in Ashokan rock edicts (erected 269 BCE to 231 BCE) in the Gandhara region, where Dardic dialects were and still are widespread. Examples include a tendency to spell the Classical Sanskrit words priyadarshi (one of the titles of Emperor Ashoka) as instead priyadrashi and dharma as dhrama.[25] Modern-day Kalasha uses the word driga 'long' (Sanskrit: dirgha).[25] Palula uses drubalu 'weak' (Sanskrit: durbala) and brhuj 'birch tree' (Sanskrit: bhurja).[25] Kashmiri uses drolidTemplate:Ref 'impoverished' (Sanskrit: daridra) and krama 'work' or 'action' (Sanskrit: karma).[25] Western Pahari languages (such as Dogri), Sindhi and Lahnda (Western Punjabi) also share this Dardic tendency to metathesis, though they are considered non-Dardic, for example cf. the Punjabi word drakhat 'tree' (from Persian darakht).Template:Sfn[26]

Dardic languages also show other consonantal changes. Kashmiri, for instance, has a marked tendency to shift k to ch and j to z (e.g. zon 'person' is cognate to Sanskrit jan 'person or living being' and Persian jān 'life').Template:Sfn Punjabi and Western Pahari share this tendency also, though they are non-Dardic (e.g. compare Hindi dekho 'look' to Punjabi vekho and Kashmiri vuchiv).Template:SfnTemplate:Clarify

Verb position in Dardic

Unlike most other Indo-Aryan (or Iranian) languages, several Dardic languages present "verb second" as the normal grammatical form. This is similar to many Germanic languages, such as German and Dutch, as well as Uto-Aztecan O'odham and Northeast Caucasian Ingush. Most Dardic languages, such as Indus Kohistani, however, follow the usual Indo-Iranian subject-object-verb (SOV) pattern, similar to Japanese.[27]

Language First example sentence Second example sentence
English (Germanic) This is a horse. We will go to Tokyo.
Kashmiri (Dardic) Yi chu akh gur./ Yi thu akh gur. (Kishtwari Kashmiri) As' gatshav Tokiyo.
Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan) Ayám eka áśvaḥ ásti. Vayám Tokyaṃ gámiṣyāmaḥ.
Japanese (Japonic) Kore wa uma de aru. Watashitachi wa Tōkyō ni ikimasu.
Kamkata-vari (Nuristani) Ina ušpa âsa. Imo Tokyo âćamo.
Dari Persian (Iranian) In yak asb ast. Mâ ba Tokyo khâhem raft.
Shina (Dardic) Anu ek aspo han. Be Tokyo et bujun.
Pashto (Iranian) Masculine: Dā yo as day / Feminine: Dā yawa aspa da. Mūng/Mūnẓ̌ ba Ṭokyo ta/tar lāṛshū.
Indus Kohistani (Dardic) Sho akh gho thu. Ma Tokyo ye bum-thu.
Sindhi (Indo-Aryan) Heeu hiku ghoro aahe. Asaan Tokyo veendaaseen.
Hindustani (Indo-Aryan) Ye ek ghora hai.Template:Ref Ham Tokyo jāenge.
Punjabi (Indo-Aryan) Ae ikk kora ai. Assi Tokyo jāvange.
Nepali (Indo-Aryan) Yo euta ghoda ho. Hami Tokyo jānechhau.
Garhwali (Indo-Aryan) Seey/Si/Yi/Ai Yakh Guntt Chh. Aami Tokyo Jaula.
Kumaoni (Indo-Aryan) Yo ek ghoda Chhu. Aami Tokyo Jaal.

See also

Notes

1.Template:NoteThe Khowar word for 'earth' is more accurately represented, with tonality, as buúm rather than buum, where ú indicates a rising tone.
2.Template:NoteThe word drolid actually includes a Kashmiri half-vowel, which is difficult to render in the Urdu, Devnagri and Roman scripts alike. Sometimes, an umlaut is used when it occurs in conjunction with a vowel, so the word might be more accurately rendered as drölid.
3.Template:NoteSandhi rules in Sanskrit allow the combination of multiple neighboring words together into a single word: for instance, word-final 'ah' plus word-initial 'a' merge into 'o'. In actual Sanskrit literature, with the effects of sandhi, this sentence would be expected to appear as Eṣá ékóśvósti. Also, word-final 'a' is Sanskrit is a schwa, Template:IPA (similar to the ending 'e' in the German name, Nietzsche), so e.g. the second word is pronounced Template:IPA. Pitch accent is indicated with an acute accent in the case of the older Vedic language, which was inherited from Proto-Indo-European.
4.Template:NoteHindi-Urdu, and other non-Dardic Indo-Aryan languages, also sometimes utilize a "verb second" order (similar to Kashmiri and English) for dramatic effect.[28] Yeh ek ghoṛā hai is the normal conversational form in Hindi-Urdu. Yeh hai ek ghoṛā is also grammatically correct but indicates a dramatic revelation or other surprise. This dramatic form is often used in news headlines in Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi and other Indo-Aryan languages.

Sources

Academic literature from outside South Asia

  • Morgenstierne, G. Irano-Dardica. Wiesbaden 1973;
  • Morgenstierne, G. Die Stellung der Kafirsprachen. In Irano-Dardica, 327-343. Wiesbaden, Reichert 1975
  • Decker, Kendall D. Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, Volume 5. Languages of Chitral.

Academic literature from South Asia

  • The Comparative study of Urdu and Khowar. Badshah Munir Bukhari National Language Authority Pakistan 2003. [No Reference]
  • National Institute of Pakistani Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University & Summer Institute of Linguistics

References

  1. ↑ http://www.britannica.com/topic/Dardic-languages
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 One thousand languages: living, endangered, and lost. University of California Press.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Template:Cite encyclopaedia
  4. ↑ Routledge dictionary of language and linguistics. Taylor & Francis.
  5. ↑ The Written Languages of the World: A Survey of the Degree and Modes of Use, Volume 2: India. Les Presses De L'Université Laval.
  6. ↑ Dardestan, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Retrieved 2016-06-10].
  7. ↑ Petroglyphs as Evidence for Religious Configurations?. Retrieved 2017-07-15.
  8. ↑ [{{{url}}} Bolor & Dardistan]. National Institute of Folk Heritage(1980)..
  9. ↑ Parpola, Asko (1999), "The formation of the Aryan branch of Indo-European", in Blench, Roger & Spriggs, Matthew, Archaeology and Language, vol. III: Artefacts, languages and texts, London and New York: Routledge.
  10. ↑ Linguistic Research in Gilgit and Hunza. Journal of Central Asia({Template:Year).
  11. ↑ Strand, Richard (2001), "The Tongues of Peristân"
  12. ↑ Mock, John (2011), "http://www.mockandoneil.com/dard.htm"
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Kashmiri Literature. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.
  14. ↑ Kogan, Anton (2013), "https://jolr.ru/index.php?article=130"
  15. ↑ Kogan, Anton (2015), "https://jolr.ru/index.php?article=157"
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Template:Harvnb: ... [Chaterji] agreed with Grierson in seeing Rajasthani influence on Pahari and 'Dardic' influence on (or under) the whole Northwestern group + Pahari. Template:Harvnb: Throughout the northwest, beginning with Sindhi and including 'Lahnda', Dardic, Romany and West Pahari, there has been a tendency to [the] transfer of 'r' from medial clusters to a position after the initial consonant.
  17. ↑ Profiles in Indian languages and literatures. Indian Languages Society.
  18. ↑ Essays on Konkani language and literature: Professor Armando Menezes felicitation volume. Konkani Sahitya Prakashan.
  19. ↑ The origin and growth of Sindhi language. Institute of Sindhology.
  20. ↑ Elements of the science of language. University of Calcutta.
  21. ↑ Kumaun: the land and the people. Indus Publishing.
  22. ↑ Racial affinities of early North Indian tribes. Munshiram Manoharlal.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 Concise encyclopedia of languages of the world. Elsevier.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 A new version of the Gandhari Dharmapada and a collection of previous-birth stories. University of Washington Press.
  26. ↑ The phonology and morphology of Panjabi. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers.
  27. ↑ Aspects of the theory of clitics: Volume 11 of Oxford studies in theoretical linguistics. Oxford University Press.
  28. ↑ Hindi: language, discourse, and writing, Volume 2. Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University.

Bibliography

  • [{{{url}}} Encyclopaedia of the Linguistic Sciences: Issues and Theories]. Allied Publishers.
  • The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge University Press(1993).

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