Pahari language & the writing Systems

by
Dr. Mohsin Shakil

The most primitive writing system which we identify in our region is rock
carving found in Mirpur (Chittar parri) and Chilas, these are pictorial in
character and represent the writings of gatherer, hunters society. With further
development of the society especially with the development of agriculture,
industrial production and trade the syllable scripts of the languages started
developing. Indus script was first to emerged in this region which was replaced
by Brahmi to devNagri and now by ShahMukhi script. In the following section
this transition is reviewed with few observations.

In ancient time, the people in this region as the part of Indus Civilization spoke
the language which in its written form is labelled as Harruppan. Artefacts from
Harrappa and MoinJudaro show the script of this language but all the attempt to
decipher it have proven inconclusive so far. Most often it is considered as
‘’Dravidian’’ language. Quite recently interesting claims have been made that
Punjabi (western) has developed from Harruppan language , Akhtar Imam
Rizvi has also identified two sound of Dravidian language in Pahari-Potwari1
such claim needs more research but it’s quite possible that some Harruppan
words are still echoing in modern languages of this region.

Rock carving of CittarParri (Mirpur) and Chilas are the expressions of the
Languages older then Harruppan and were spoken in the same region many
millennia before highly developed Harrappan.

The Indus Language & Script

(Alte. name: Harappan Language)

This is ancient writing systems not yet deciphered completely, attempts have
made to decipher it in its Dravidian context especially by Aska Parpola2 and
Iravathan Mahadevan3 .
According to Mohammad Riaz Khan4, during the later period of Indus
civilization, the pictorial signs were replaced by the more phonemic symbols i.e.,
only 22 syllable are identified with 2 additional pictorial symbols as compared
to early period when 34 syllable and 28 pictorial symbols were in used. He
identifies 16 common symbols between Indus and Brahmi script and declared 17
symbols common between Sami and Indus. He considers Indus (Harappan),
Brahmi (Sanskrit) and Sami as the international languages of the ancient time
with considerable interaction and exchange.
Common characters

Sanskrit
Language

Sanskrit is a classical and liturgical language. The name Sanskrit means

"refined", "consecrated" and "sanctified". It has always been regarded as the 'high'
language and used mainly for religious and scientific discourse.
Vedic Sanskrit, the pre-Classical form of the language and the liturgical language
of the Vedic religion, is one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-
European language family. The oldest known text in Sanskrit, the Rig-Veda, a
collection of over a thousand Hindu hymns, composed during the 2nd
millennium BC.
Some time in the 3rd millennium BC or before, Peoples known as Aryan began
migrating from Central Asia into India, and eventually spread across all of North
India from present day Pakistan to Bengal. One group of Aryan called Khashas
settled in mountain region of Kashmir to Nepal. It includes Azad Jammu
Kashmir, parts of Hazara, Pothohar, Southern slope of Pir Panjal range in Jammu
Kashmir and Hamachal Pardesh. The Khashas spoke an old Aryan language
related to Sanskrit. It is considered as the part of the Indo-European Language
family. So it is related to the languages spoken across a broad region extending
from India to Europe. More specifically it is part of Indo-Aryan family which
include most languages of South Asia like Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Oriya, Bengali
and Punjabi5.
Over the centuries, the Language of Khashas underwent language change like
elsewhere to a degree that Vernaculars (plain, every day, ordinary language) and
literary language( Sanskrit) ceased to be inter-comprehensible and Sanskrit had
to be learned as a separate language, rather than a distinguished or noble register
of the popular language. This transition was completed by the Early Middle
Ages (Middle Indic), but a significant number of the elite remained fluent in
Sanskrit.
The vernaculars that were still considered a "lower" variant of Sanskrit were
called Prakrit. The vernaculars that had become too far removed from Sanskrit to
be considered as variants of the same language became referred to as
Apabhramsha.
Many of the Sanskrit dramas suggest that it coexisted along with prakrits,
spoken by those with better education. Prakrit/Pali dominated in Magadh, the
eastern part of India during the time of Buddha and Mahavira, but, apparently
In Gandhara, the language (Prakrit/Gandhari) remained close to Sanskrit for a long
time. Mahmud, the Gazanavi used Sanskrit on his coins, and Sanskrit was in use
as an official language during early Muslim rule in Kashmir.

Presently the languages being spoken in this region are known as Hindku, Pahari-
Pothohari, Gojri, Dogri and Mirpuri Punjabi according to available linguistic
literature.

Brahmi, Kharosthi, Sharda and Siddham alphabets were used to write Sanskrit.
Since the late 19th century, Sanskrit has been written mostly with the Devanāgarī
alphabet. Since the late 18th century, Sanskrit has also been written with the
Latin alphabet. The most commonly used system is the International Alphabet of
Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST), which was been the standard for academic work
since 1912.

Brahmi6
Alphabet

Origin; The Brahmi alphabet is the ancestor of most of the 40 or so modern

Indian alphabets, and of a number of other alphabets, such as Khmer and
Tibetan. It is thought to have been modelled on the Aramaic or Phoenician
alphabets, and appeared in India sometime before 500 BC.
Another theory is that Brahmi developed from the Indus or Harappa script,
which was used in the Indus valley until about 2,000 BC.
The earliest known inscriptions in the Brahmi alphabet are those of King Asoka
(c.270-232 BC), third monarch of the Mauryan dynasty.
Brahmi was used to write a variety of languages, including Sanskrit and Prakrit.
Notable features
The structure of the Brahmi alphabet is similar to that of modern Indian
alphabets: each letters represents a consonant with a inherent vowels /a/. Other
vowels were indicated using a variety of diacritics and separate letters. Letters
are grouped according to the way they are pronounced. Many letters have more
than one form.

Descendants of Brahmi

The descendants of the Brahmi alphabet include: Sharda, Bengali, Devanāgarī,

Gujarāti, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Khmer, Malayalam, Oriya, Sinhala, Tamil,
Telugu, Tibetan

Brahmi Consonants

Brahmi Vowels
Sharda6
Alphabet

Origins: The Sharda or Sharada alphabet developed from the Brahmi script
during the second half of the 8th century AD. The earliest known inscription in
the Sharda alphabet dates from 774 AD and was discovered in a village called
Hund in the west of Pakistan. Today only a small group of Brahmins continue to
use the Sharda alphabet for writing and calculating astrological and ritual
formulations.

Notable features: This is a syllabic alphabet. Each consonant has an inherant

vowel which is changed using vowel diacritics.

Used to write: Kashmiri, Sanskrit and a number of other languages in the

northwest of India, the Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and in parts of Central Asia.

Sharda Consonants

Sharda Vowels
Devanāgarī6
Aalphabet for Sanskrit

Since the late 19th century, Sanskrit has been written mostly with the Devanāgarī alphabet. Since
the late 18th century, Sanskrit has also been written with the Latin alphabet. The most commonly
used system is the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST), which was
been the standard for academic work since 1912.

Devnagri Vowels and vowel diacritics

Devnagri Consonants
Gurmukhi6
Alphabet
Origin The Gurmukhi alphabet was devised during the 16th century by Guru Nanak, the
first Sikh guru, and popularised by Guru Angad, the second Sikh guru. It was modelled on the

Landa /Takri alphabet a script derived from Sharda The name Gurmukhi means "from the
mouth of the Guru".

Notable Features : This is a syllabic alphabet in which all consonants have an inherent vowel.

Diacritics, which can appear above, below, before or after the consonant they belong to, are
used to change the inherent vowel.
When they appear at the beginning of a syllable, vowels are written as independent letters.
When certain consonants occur together, special conjunct symbols are used which combine the
essential parts of each letter.
Punjabi is a tonal language with three tones. These are indicated in writing using the voiced
aspirates consonants (gh, dh, bh, etc) and the intervocal h.

Used to write: Panjabi or Punjabi, an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 60 million people
in Pakistan and the Indian state of Panjab.
In Pakistan Panjabi is written with a version of the Arabic script known as Shahmukhi (see
below)

Gurmukhi Vowels
Gurmukhi Consonants

Shah Mukhi Alphabet

Saraiki
Shah Mukhi alphabet

Sindhi
Shah Mukhi Alphabet
Urdu6
Alphabet
is written Perceo-Arabic script since 12 century.
Pahari7
Shah Mukhi

‫خ‬ ‫ح‬ ‫چ‬ ‫ج‬ ‫ث‬ ‫ٹ‬ ‫ت‬ ‫پ‬ ‫ب‬ ‫ﺁ‬ ‫ا‬

[x] [h] [ʧ] [ʤ] [s] [ʈ] [t] [p] [b] [ɑ:] [o,a]

‫ژ‬ ‫ز‬ ‫ڑ‬ ‫ر‬ ‫ذ‬ ‫ڈ‬ ‫د‬

[ʒ] [Z] [ɽ] [ɾ ] [Z] [ɖ] [d ]

‫غ‬ ‫ع‬ ‫ظ‬ ‫ط‬ ‫ض‬ ‫ص‬ ‫ش‬ ‫س‬

[ɣ] [ʔ,a,ø] [ Z ] [t] [ Z] [S] [ʃ] [S]

‫ڻ‬ ‫ن‬ ‫م‬ ‫ل‬ ‫گ‬ ‫ﮎ‬ ‫ق‬ ‫ف‬

[ɳ] [n] [m] [l] [g] [k] [k] [f]

ÈI ‫ه‬ ‫ﮦ‬ ‫و‬ ‫ں‬ ‫ں‬

ُ
[aɦ] [h] [h,ø] [v,u,o] [N} [u:]
‫ے‬ Ô
[j,e,ɛ ] [ii:j eɛ]
 ÈU ÈU ÈI ÈM ÈI ÈI

[c h] [ ʤʱ ] [ʈ h] [th ] [ph] [ b ʱ]

È· È· Çi Çi Çe Çe

[g ʱ] [kh] [ ɽh ] [ɾh] [ɖ ʱ] [dʱ]

ÈÃ È¿ È»
[nh] [mh] [lh]

ÈJ· ÈJI ÈJI

[k o h] [peh] [bah]
Observation

- Almost all the alphabet s ranging from Brahimi (oldest) to Pahari Shah mukhi
(very recent) are similar in identification and expression of the sounds to be
conveyed in shape of writable symbols with exception of Urdu/Punjabi Shah
mukhi scripts.
- Urdu Shah Mukhi was developed and adopted in 12th century AD. Punjabi
Gurmuki was adopted and developed in 16th century , it was based upon
Landa/Takri alphabet, a relatively recent form of Sharda, And become the
standard alphabet of Punjabi Language which has religious significance
attached to this script.
- In development of Sindhi Shah Mukhi all the sounds were taken care of and
appropriate symbols were allocated.
- Shah mukhi script was also adopted by a section of Punjabi speaking
population mainly Muslims, as they were more comfortable with this script
then Gurmukhi.. But unfortunately f ew minor but important modification
were not undertaken as Urdu Shah Mukhi don’t includes the sound of [ ɳ ]
ÆÌI of Sindhi Shah mukhi. Similarly the sound of (ah) as per International
Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) was not recognized creating more
difficulty in writing many world of the language. According to convention
writer is asked to write (water) [ pani ] ÏÃBI and read [pa ɳ i] ‫ﭘﺎﭨﯽ‬

in case of horse [g h0ɽa] AiÌ · and read AiÌ J· [kohɽa].

Conclusion

In this way the phenomenon of development of the differences between

written and spoken language has started leading to loss of preservation of
pronunciation. People feel the difference between the quality of Punjabi
accent and pronunciation among the speakers of Gurmukhi and Shah
Mukhi based scripts.

Recently developed Arabio–Percian script for Pahari-Potwari [phr] and

Mirpuri [pur] languages by Alami Pahari Adabi Sangat has resolve
problems in writing Lahnda languages in Shah Mukhi.
References:

1- Akhtar Imam Rizvi, Pahari-Potwari ki Lasani Tashkilat:page20, Chitka millennium

number, 2004
2- Asko Parpola, Deciphering the Indus Script, Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press, 1994, pp. 275-277 (adapted).
3- Iravatham Mahadevan, Terminal Ideograms in the Indus Script, in Gergeory L.
Possehl, Harappan Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective, Oxford & IBH
Publishing Co., 1982, p. 316 (adapted). More details on Mahadevan's derivations.,
4- Initial Pictoral Alphabet(Riaz Ahmed Khan), ( RChitka Millenium number, APAS,
Mirpur/Bradford/2005, page 26-28.
5- Jeremy D. Brightbil, Scot D. Turner, page 7 (1.4), A Sociolinguistic Survey of Dogri
Language, Jammu Kashmir
6- Simon Ager, Collection of writing system of the world http://www.omniglot.com/
7- As adopted by ( International Pahari Literacy Society ) Alami pahari Adabi Sangat
,Chitka Millenium number, Bradford/Mirpur, 2004.