Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 336

26)
ON THE MODERN INDO-ARYAN VERNACULARS
[JUNE, 1931
(sun)-setting,' and hence the west.' As applied to a language it is merely a conventional abbreviation of the P. Lahnde-di boli, or 'the language of the west,' spoken from the point of view of the eastern Panjab. Western Panjabi' has the disadvantage of suggesting that Lahnda is a dialect of Panjabi, whereas it is nothing of the sort. Jatki' means the language of the Jatt tribe, which is numerous in the central part of the L. tract, but L. is spoken by millions of people who are not Jatts, and millions of Jatts of the eastern Panjab do not speak Lahndă. Ucci,' 'the language of the town of Uce' (Uch or Ooch of the maps), is really another name for the Multani dialect of Lahnda. Hindki,' the language of the Hindus (i.e., nonPathāns), is the name given to Lahnda in the west of the Lahnda tract, in which Musalman Pašto-speaking Pathans also dwell.
Lahnda has four dialects, a Central, spoken in the country south of the Salt Range, and considered as the standard, a Southern or Mültäni (Ml.) spoken in the country round Multan, a north-Eastern, or Pōthwäri (Pth.) spoken in the eastern and western Salt Range and to the north-east as far as the borders of Kašmir, and a north-western, or Dhanni, spoken in the central Salt Range and northwards up to the northern extremity of the District of Hazārā, where it meets Siņa. Both ṣina and Kašmiri are Dardic languages.
Beyond ballads and other folksongs, Lahndä has no literature. Its proper written character is the Landa or 'clipped' character mentioned in connexionwith Panjabi, but, owing to its illegibility, this is being superseded by the Persian, or, amongst Europeans, by the Roman character.
1 Not Lahndi. See Grierson, BSOS, vol. V, pp. 883 ff.
* Grierson, ZDMG, lxvi, 75.
26. Sindhi (S.) is the language of Sindh, the country on each side of the River Indus, commencing about Lat. 29° N. and stretching thence down to the sea. In the north it merges into Lahnda, to which it is closely related. Sindh included the ancient Vracada country, and Prakrit Grammarians recorded the existence of both a Vracaḍa Apabhraméa and a Vracaḍa Paisaci.1 Sindhi has five recognized dialects Vicoli, Siraiki, Läri, Tharěli, and Kacchi. The first is spoken in Central Sindh. It is the standard dialect, and that employed in literature. Siraiki is merely a form of Vicoli, and is no real dialect. The only difference consists in its pronunciation being more clearly articulated, and in slight variations of Vocabulary. In Sindhi, the word 'Siro' means the 'head' of any. thing, and Siraiki' hence comes to mean 'upstream,' or 'Northern' from the point of view of the Lar", or Lower Sindh. Siraiki is considered by Sindhis to be the purest form of the language, or, as a local proverb says,. ' a learned man of Laru is an ox in the Sirō.' In this connexion it must be remembered that, as a name of a locality, 'the Siro, or upstream country,' is a relative term, and that its meaning varies according to the locality of the speaker. The lower down the Indus a man lives, the larger the extent of the Siro, and, from the point of view of an inhabitant of the Lar", the term practically includes also the Vicōlō, or Central Sindh. Lari is the language of the Lar" already mentioned, and is considered to be rude and uncouth, but it retains many old forms, and displays one important feature of the Dardic languages,-the disaspiration of sonant consonants, which no longer exists in Vicoli. Thareli and Kacchi are both mixed dialects. The former is spoken in the Thar", or Desert, of Sindh, which forms the political boundary between that province and the Marwar country. It is a transition form of speech, representing Sindhi shading off into Rajasthani (Marwari). Kacchi, on the other hand, is a mixture of Sindhi and Gujarati
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