Pothohari language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Potwari پوتوری
Spoken in:	Pakistan: Areas of Pakistani administered Kashmir, Rawalpindi, United Kingdom
Total speakers:	4,680,000
Language family:	Indo-European  Indo-Iranian   Indo-Aryan    Northern zone     Western Pahari      Potwari
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	none
ISO 639-3:	phr
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

The Pothowari or Pothohari language in Urdu otherwise known as Mirpuri or Potwari is an Indo-European language spoken from the Potwar district around Rawalpindi, Pakistan to the Cease-fire Line (LoC) of Indian Occupied Kashmir de-facto border in the Mirpur district of the Jammu area in Pakistan administered Kashmir (PAK). It is closely related to Panjabi and Romani (Gypsy), but is distinct from these languages.

There is some dialect continuum with Hindko and the Jhelumi dialect of Panjabi. Pothohari speakers may understand Panjabis both from India and Pakistan, but these groups may not understand Pothohari- the reason being that Panjabi is the second-most spoken language in the subcontinent as a whole and in both India & Pakistan respectively whilst Pothohari is highly concentrated in the North of Pakistan. Also, Punjab and Kashmir ("the crown" and "jewel", so to speak, of the subcontinent) have always shared strong links on several levels - trade, nobility & neighbourhood.

Every language is a "mongrel" language to some degree or another. Pothowari is no different, with the majority of its modern-language roots being connected to Panjabi primarily and Romani (Gypsy).

[edit] Prevalence

70% of the immigrant community that is known as Pakistanis in Great Britain speak Pahari (Pothowari) as their first language.

Over 2/3 of perceived British born Pakistanis most of whom are Overseas Pakistanis actually are from ‘Azad Kashmir’, the Pakistani controlled part of the divided state of Jammu and Kashmir; that is under India’s occupation.

Pahari is the second largest language of Kashmir after Kashiri.

Every second Muslim in Britain speaks Pahari as their first language.

Every third South Asian person in Britain is a Pahari speaker.

99.9% British Pakistanis of Kashmiri ethnic background only speak Pahari as their mother tongue.

Over 90% Pakistani Kashmiris of British nationality only speak Pahari at home and of course abroad.

‘Apna Channel’ is the first ever TV channel in Pahari languages.

The core audience of Apna Channel is the second largest linguistic group in the United Kingdom after English.