CHAPTER II
SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF PANJABI LANGUAGE AND PROSODY
Language, in individualization, is a matter of phonetics; and phonetics, of race, climate and dietary. In the case of derivative and composite languages of common parentage; once in literary speech an author, inclined to pedantry, turns to the original, parent pronunciation it becomes difficult to distinguish his language from a sister tongue.
What was the speech of the Pre-Aryan Panjabis ? What changes did it undergo on its contact with Sanskrit and later with tho Turanian languages ? Whereto was it driven upon the conquest of India by Sanskrit culture, Col, Bhola Nath from his personal observation told the present writer that the spoken tongue of Kafiristan (and Dardistan,! too,) presented strong semblances with Sind-Sagari. How is that to be accounted for? Do the Pahari dialects of the hills and mountains in the West, North and North-East of the Panjab also preserve some traces of pre-Aryan native Panjabi vocabulary ? What is tho exact nature and position of the language of tho Jangli tribes in tho Central Panjab Bare or wooded areas and of the gypsies or Jhugiyanwallas ? These are queries which with the pre- sent reach of our knowledge must go unanswered.
In view of the four clearly discernible strands in the web of Panjabi literature, the epithet Panjabi is in this work employed as a generic term, excluding Kashmiri and covering :-
(a) “Sahaskriti” or the language appropriate for a Gatha, or Old Hindwi. This is the literary dialoot of a goodly portion of Chand’ and of a fow Shabads and
1 Vide C, R. 1872, The Languages and Races of Derdista.
2 Panjabi as a generic term covering Lahndi. Central Panjabi or Sikkhi or Panjabi proper, and Eastern Panjabi-cum-Nirmelayi was first used by Insha in his Darya-o-Latafat (Annazir Press, Lucknow, Ist edition, page 3), written in collaboration with Qatil in 1802 A. D. For Awadhi he uses Purbi, and for Braj Bhakha or Bhasha, Braji. Al the threo tongues Panjabi, Purbi_ and Braji he covers by Hindi (page 3). Insha recognized the im- portant part played by Lahore, Maltan, Patiala, Sialkot and Wazirabad, ete., in the evolution of both Panjabi and Urdu,—by the Muslim ralers and writers of those placos as well as by the Hindu and Sikh dalals or traders and talangas or soldiers, The other Panjabi towns he men- tions are Emanabad, Kalanaur, Sodhra, Barsarwar (?), Aurangabad, Hetpuri, Satghare, Sultan- par, Belan, Rahon, Kamodar, Kadi Bajhiyan, Bhallowul, Kapurthala and Kashmir (? Srinagar. He shows himself fully aware of the sdjacent tributaries of Diblawi, namely, Zaban-i-Rohtak, Zaban-i-Sonipat, Zaban-Merath which are now together named as Harianvi or Marathi or Vernceuler Hindustani. The Kohi (or Pahari) along with Dakhni and Bangali tonguea he condemns as altogether against the phonetic genius of Urdu for any assimilation by it. He also mentions Marwati or Rajisthani, and Bundhelkhandi, It may be noticed that Rekhti, the cockney speech of Moghul Purdah women, exemplified in the ghazals, eto. of Rangin, Chirkin and Ja’tar Zatalli (the last-named hailing from the Panjab} contains the largest percentage of words still in use in Lahndi, in their phonetically Moghulized form, Tasha algo includes in his list Suryani, The word Urdu with the signification of the Military Bazer oocurs first in the Hir in Lahndi by Damodar, seventeenth century.
3 The following on Chand is from the Proceedings of the Asiatic Soviety of Bengal, 1868, January-December, pp. 242-243. Mr, J. Beams said, “Chand’s dialect, however, is very peculiar, it is the Bhatti dialect of Sirsa and Hansi-Hissar forming the genitive often by zp, %, @ instead of #7, %, ai and abounding in unnecessary and inorganic anusva-ras in which respect it approaches more to Panjabi and Sindhi.” The Secratery of the Society remarked : Philologically it (Chand’s work) was also of great value, being the oldest specimen of Hindwi known, and, as the hitherto missing link between the old Pali and
