Dardic languages · Lablypedia

The region where Dardic languages are spoken has sometimes been referred to as Dardistan. There is no ethnic unity among the speakers of these languages, nor can the languages be traced to a single ancestor. The extinct Gandhari language, spoken in the ancient Gandhara, was Dardic in nature. Linguistic evidence has linked Gandhari with some living Dardic languages, particularly Torwali and other Kohistani languages.

History

Leitner's Dardistan, in its broadest sense, became the basis for the classification of the languages in the north-west of the Indo-Aryan linguistic area (which includes present-day eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, and Kashmir). George Abraham Grierson, with scant data, borrowed the term and proposed an independent Dardic family within the Indo-Iranian languages. However, Grierson's formulation of Dardic is now considered to be incorrect in its details, and has therefore been rendered obsolete by modern scholarship.

Georg Morgenstierne, who conducted an extensive fieldwork in the region during the early 20th century, revised Grierson's classification and came to the view that only the "Kafiri" (Nuristani) languages formed an independent branch of the Indo-Iranian languages separate from Indo-Aryan and Iranian families, and determined that the Dardic languages were unmistakably Indo-Aryan in character.

Dardic languages contain absolutely no features which cannot be derived from old [Indo-Aryan language]. They have simply retained a number of striking archasisms, which had already disappeared in most Prakrit dialects... There is not a single common feature distinguishing Dardic, as a whole, from the rest of the [Indo-Aryan] languages... Dardic is simply a convenient term to denote a bundle of aberrant [Indo-Aryan] hill-languages which, in their relative isolation, accented in many cases by the invasion of Pathan tribes, have been in varying degrees sheltered against the expand influence of [Indo-Aryan] Midland (Madhyadesha) innovations, being left free to develop on their own.

Due to their geographic isolation, many Dardic languages have preserved archaisms and other features of Old Indo-Aryan. These features include three sibilants, several types of clusters of consonants, and archaic or antiquated vocabulary lost in other modern Indo-Aryan languages. Kalasha and Khowar are the most archaic of all modern Indo-Aryan languages, retaining a great part of Sanskrit case inflexion, and retaining many words in a nearly Sanskritic form. For example driga "long" in Kalasha is nearly identical to dīrghá in Sanskrit and ašrú "tear" in Khowar is identical to the Sanskrit word.

French Indologist Gérard Fussman points out that the term Dardic is geographic, not a linguistic expression. Taken literally, it allows one to believe that all the languages spoken in Dardistan are Dardic. It also allows one to believe that all the people speaking Dardic languages are Dards and the area they live in is Dardistan. A term used by classical geographers to identify the area inhabited by an indefinite people, and used in Rajatarangini in reference to people outside Kashmir, has come to have ethnographic, geographic, and even political significance today.

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Classification

Georg Morgenstierne's scheme corresponds to recent scholarly consensus. As such, the historic Dardic languages' position as a legitimate genetic subfamily has been repeatedly called into question; it is widely acknowledged that the grouping is more geographical in nature, as opposed to linguistic. Richard Strand has argued that the term should be abandoned, citing both the lack of justification for a distinct Dardic subgroup and the problematic history of the label, and instead proposes classifying the languages directly into smaller genealogical groups within Indo-Aryan. Mock has similarly voiced doubts in this regard.

In response to the ambiguity of the term, several alternative geographical labels have also been proposed to replace Dardic. Henrik Liljegren has used Hindu-Kush Indo-Aryan, while Richard Strand has proposed the term Far-Northwestern Indo-Aryan. Both terms are increasingly used in recent scholarship as replacements for Dardic.

However, Anton Kogan has suggested an 'East-Dardic' sub-family; comprising the 'Kashmiri', 'Kohistani' and 'Shina' groups.

Scholars have differed in their assessment of the internal subgrouping of the languages traditionally labelled Dardic. Some proposed groupings appear comparatively stable, while others have been substantially revised or remain uncertain. Buddruss removed Domaki from the 'Shina' group entirely, and identified it as belonging to Central Indo-Aryan. Rambani and Sarazi have likewise been excluded from Kashmiri and classified under Western Pahari. The 'Chitrali', 'Kashmiri' and 'Pashai' are often treated as especially cohesive; by contrast, 'Kohistani' is frequently viewed as a looser regional grouping, and some quantitative analyses do not separate Kohistani' and 'Shina' cleanly.

While it is true that many Dardic languages have been influenced by non-Dardic languages, Dardic may have also influenced neighbouring Indo-Aryan lects in turn, such as Punjabi, the Pahari languages, including the Central Pahari languages of Uttarakhand, and purportedly even further afield. Some linguists have posited that Dardic lects may have originally been spoken throughout a much larger region, stretching from the mouth of the Indus (in Sindh) northwards in an arc, and then eastwards through modern day Himachal Pradesh to Kumaon. However, this has not been conclusively established.

Subdivisions

Dardic languages have been organized into the following subfamilies:

Kashmiri languages: Kashmiri, Poguli, Kishtwari
Shina languages: Shina, Brokskad, Kalkoti, Kohistani Shina, Kundal Shahi, Palula, Savi, Ushoji
Kohistani languages: Maiya (Indus Kohistani), Bateri, Chilisso, Gawri, Gawro, Torwali, Mankiyali, Wotapuri-Katarqalai, Tirahi

Chitrali languages: Kalasha (Urtsuniwar), Khowar
Pashai languages
Kunar languages: Dameli, Gawar-Bati, Nangalami (Grangali), Shumashti

Characteristics

Loss of voiced aspiration

Virtually all Dardic languages have experienced a partial or complete loss of voiced aspirated consonants. Khowar uses the word buum for 'earth' (Sanskrit: bhumi),¹ Pashai uses the word duum for 'smoke' (Urdu: dhuān, Sanskrit: dhūma) and Kashmiri uses the word dọd for 'milk' (Sanskrit: dugdha, Urdu: dūdh). Tonality has developed in most (but not all) Dardic languages, such as Khowar and Pashai, as a compensation. Punjabi and Western Pahari languages similarly lost aspiration but have virtually all developed tonality to partially compensate (e.g. Punjabi kàr for 'house', compare with Hindustani ghar).

Dardic metathesis and other changes

Both ancient and modern Dardic languages demonstrate a marked tendency towards metathesis where a "pre- or postconsonantal 'r' is shifted forward to a preceding syllable". This was seen in Ashokan rock edicts (erected 269 BCE to 231 BCE) in the Gandhara region, where Dardic dialects were and still are widespread. Examples include a tendency to spell the Classical Sanskrit words priyadarshi (one of the titles of Emperor Ashoka) as instead priyadrashi and dharma as dhrama. Modern-day Kalasha uses the word driga 'long' (Sanskrit: dirgha). Palula uses drubalu 'weak' (Sanskrit: durbala) and brhuj 'birch tree' (Sanskrit: bhurja). Kashmiri uses drạ̄lid² 'impoverished' (Sanskrit: daridra) and krama 'work' or 'action' (Sanskrit: karma). Western Pahari languages (such as Dogri), Sindhi and Punjabi also share this Dardic tendency to metathesis, though they are considered non-Dardic, for example the Punjabi word 'prakaramā' vs Sanskrit 'parikramā' and the Punjabi word drakhat 'tree' (from Persian darakht).

Dardic languages also show other consonantal changes. Kashmiri, for instance, has a marked tendency to shift k to ch and j to z (e.g. zon 'person' is cognate to Sanskrit jan 'person or living being' and Persian jān 'life').

Verb position in Dardic

Unique among the Dardic languages, Kashmiri presents "verb second" as the normal grammatical form. This is similar to many Germanic languages, such as German and Dutch, as well as Uto-Aztecan O'odham and Northeast Caucasian Ingush. All other Dardic languages, and more generally within Indo-Iranian, follow the subject-object-verb (SOV) pattern.