Dhundi-Kairali language

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The Dhundi-Kairali language ^[1] is spoken throughout Abbottabad District, and the adjoining Murree Hills and Galyat areas. ^[2] The Dhund Abbasi and Kareal Tribe form 80% of the population. More than 1.5 million people speak this language from the north of Islamabad to the Kaghan Valley in south and in the east from the right bank of River Jhelum to eastern bank of the Silk Road from Hasanabdal to Abbottabad. Nazim Afaq Abbasi and some General Councillors of Union Council Birote objected to the name Dhundi-Kareali language and passed a resolution on 28th Oct 2006, in which they demanded all linguistics to change it to "Kohsari Language" because this language is not only the language of Dhund Abbasi or Kareal tribes of the area but it is spoken by all tribes of the region.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Ancient History 1.2 Muslim conquest 1.3 Effect on language 2 References

[edit] History

The linguist Rev. T. Grahame Bayley had contributed in the 1901 census of India report on the "dialects spoken in the hills between Murree and Kashmir"^[3]. And Bayley was the first to study the language, which he published in his book "Languages of the Northern Himalayas Studied in the Grammar of twenty-six Himalayan Dialects", published the by Royal Asiatic Society London in 1908. With reference of Grahame Bailey, Grearson narrated the nature and translation of Sattiali language in Linguistic Survey of India (Linguistic Survey of Pakistan Vol IV) published from Lahore in 1980. Linguists consider the Dhundi-Kareali language to be the same as Pahari (Dhondi), Pothwari (Potwari), Chibhali, Punchhi (Poonchi), Mirpuri, varying slightly in dialect. This language belongs to the Western Pahari language family - which is a branch of the Indo-Iranian language - Indo-Iranian (also known as Aryan) being a branch of the Indo-European family of languages.

[edit] Ancient History

The earliest known roots of the language go back to 5,000 BCE when Indo-Aryan priests wrote the Vedas on the high brinks of Mukeshpuri and Murree hills. The Sattiali Language evolved from an ancient Prakrit in 3,500 BCE and by the first century emerged as Sharda language. This language developed and changed into Sharda language of Kashmir, the official language Buddhist University of Taxila's Sharda Campus sixteen century before invasion of Huns from Central Asia. Kautilya and Pāṇini were the great scholars of this language.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Muslim conquest

After the Muslim conquest of Kashmir in twelfth century - many Muslim tribes such as Satti, Awan, Seyed, Dhund Abbasies^[4], Kareal (They were already occupied in Bakote and they embraced Islam among Kethwals by Seyed Ali Hamdan), Gakhers (Main feudal lords of area) and many more came in Kashmir with Mahmud of Ghazni, they partly changed the social and political culture as well as Sharda language of Kashmir.

[edit] Effect on language

This influx, resulted in a new linguist influences on the language, like the impact of Norman French had on English, this dramatically altered the language, literature, poetry, philosophy and some 35% of the vocabulary and created another version of Sharda language. In the mid of second millennium some social changes occurred, Gakhers displaced the Kareal tribe from Bakote to Galyat and promoted Dhunds as their allies. Gakhers granted Circle Bakote and Murree Hills jagirs to Rattan Khan (Abd-u-Rehman)- the grand grandson of Shah Wali Khan (Dhond Khan) as a sub-feudal chief under Gakhers rule as a reward. This jagir was geographically a hilly and mountainous area, that was developed by Katwals, Satties, Gujars and lastly Kareals through centuries. Today a pure form of this language is spoken by Satties, resultantly, the language is now referred to as Sattiali in this area.

[edit] References