Potwari (پوٹھوهاری (Perso-Arabic), also known as Pothohari پوٹھواری or Pahari-Pothohari), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the Pothohar Plateau and Azad Kashmir in Pakistan, including the cities of Rawalpindi, Kahuta, Gujar Khan, Jehlum, parts of Gujrat in the south-west; Chakwal in the west, Hazara in the north, and Azad Kashmir in the east. A large overseas population is found in the UK. Potwari is considered a transitional variety between Lahnda, Pahari, Hindko, and Punjabi. Speakers understand much of Punjabi, but comprehension in the reverse direction is difficult. The name Pahari-Potwari is sometimes used, were pahari (mountain) refers to Azad Kashmir. There are slight variations in the vocabulary between the Potohar Plateau in the west and Azad Kashmir in the east.

Written Potwari

Written Potwari is based on a variety of stansted dialect of northern Lanhda as wriiten by Sir George Gierson in his LSI. It is widely spoken in the northern parts of Pakistan and in Kashmir, significant places are Rawalpindi and Mirpur. It is semi-officially written and Perso-Arabic standardised orthography is utilised. Speakers literate in Urdu often write mostly in Perso-Arabic style and do not sometimes regard Potwari as a literary language. When in some cases Potwari is written, the Perso-Arabic orthography is utilised or it is written in Roman Potwari, which is used for the writing of Urdu in Roman script. This is largely the case in the UK where a large percentage of Pahari-Potohari speakers reside, who are found to constitute the majority of the expatriate Pakistani (from the Potohar plateau e.g. Gujar Khan, Rawalpindi, Kahuta etc.) and Jammu & Kashmiri community. Pahari-Potohari is widely spoken and is used in many traditional poetry due to its richness, the most famous of which is by the poet Mian Muhammad Bakhsh, whose poetry is still performed and enjoyed to this present day in Punjab region and Azad Kashmir. Potwari is an interestingly unique dialect that has some resemblance and close relations to Punjabi, but more interestingly has Pashto inflections to the soundings of the words.

It is not the case that Potwari has never been written; during the Buddhist reign Potwari was written using the Laṇḍā script which evolved from the Sharada script. Sharada was invented in the Buddhist university of the same name located in the Neelam Valley in modern day Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Presently, the Perso-Arabic script is standard and has been since the Mughal rule. Potwari has a rich oral tradition, which has been passed down from generation to generation and is used in many famous poetry. This is by in large due to the rampant illiteracy in the communities that uses Potwari as their dialect, which may be due to labour trends/tradition, personal choice or lack of facilities and establishments in the past.

Pahari is also a term used for a language in the Himachal Pradesh region of Northern India. It must be noted that the Pahari-Potohari language is incomprehensible with this dialect.

Dialects

Potwari dialects include :

• Pindwali-Muree (Named after the Muree hills which surround Rawalpindi & Islamabad)
• Mirpuri
• Hahpuri
• Pindwali
• Jhelumi

Some varieties of Potwari may be closer to Punjabi as based on the dialect of Lahore. The Mirpuri dialect in particular shares more in common with standardized Punjabi, where as the Muree and Poonchi dialects are more divergent are more different from Mirpuri, Poonchi and Muree are spoken around Rawalpindi and Jhelum such as Dina which is in the Jhelum district

Modern Potwari arts

Potwari has a rich tradition of sung poetry recital accompanied by Sitar, Tabla, Harmonium and Dholak, these poems are called Sher and are often highly lyrical and somewhat humorous and secular in nature, although there are plenty of religious sher. Please see below in the references section for a famous Potohari sher, 'Saif-ul-Malook'

Examples

Popular phrases (comparison with Punjabi)

Pronunciation

Vowels:

Aspirated consonants:

All consonants followed by a 'h' are aspirated, that is a puff of air follows the sound of the consonant, not aspirating the consonant alters the meaning of the word. E.g. 'tu' and 'thu' have different meanings (you and from respectively). A vowel followed by 'ṇ' is nasalised.

See also

• Indo-Aryan Languages

References

Examples of spoken Pahari-Potwari:

Main Julian England - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0xwm5kbUAk

Nikammay Babu - http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=nqDMtiHZKgg

Mirpuri Boyz - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gSDxwv3NaQ

Muzaffarabad Pahari Poetry - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqqQYUMlBY8

Famous Potohari Sher sung by a Gujrati:

Saif-ul-Malook - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M8TGe4a1KM

External links

• Miki Kharo England - GeoPakistani
• Pahari.org
• Jumtree.co.uk, examples of Potwari Sher (sung poetry)