(Redirected from Potwari)
The '
Pothwari' or 'Pothohari language' in
Urdu otherwise known as '
Mirpuri' or 'Potwari' is an
Indo-European language spoken from the
Potwar district around
Rawalpindi,
Pakistan to the Cease-fire Line '(LoC)' of
Indian administered Kashmir de-facto border in the
Mirpur district of the ''
Jammu'' area in Pakistan administered Kashmir . It is closely related to
Panjabi and
Romani (Gypsy), but is distinct from these languages.
There is some
dialect continuum with
Hindko and the Jhelumi dialect of Panjabi. Pothohari speakers may understand Panjabis both from India and Pakistan, but these groups may not understand Pothohari- the reason being that
Panjabi is the second-most spoken language in the subcontinent as a whole and in both India & Pakistan respectively whilst Pothohari is highly concentrated in the North of Pakistan. Also, Punjab and Kashmir ("the crown" and "jewel", so to speak, of the subcontinent) have always shared strong links on several levels - trade, nobility & neighbourhood.
Every language is a "mongrel" language to some degree or another. 'Pothohari' is no different, with the majority of its modern-language roots being connected to
Panjabi primarily and
Romani (Gypsy).
Prevalence
Pothohari is the second largest language of
Kashmir after
Kashmiri.
In the
UK, over 70% of British Pakistanis speak Pothohari as their first language. Over 2/3 of these originate from
Mirpur in
Azad Kashmir (the area of
Kashmir under Pakistani administration).
Every second
Muslim in
Britain speaks Pothohari as their first language. Every third
South Asian person in Britain is a Pothohari speaker.
99.9% British Pakistanis of Punjabi background hailing from Pakistan administered Kashmir only speak Pahari as their mother tongue.
‘
Aapna Channel’ is the first ever TV channel in the Pothohari language. The core audience of Apna Channel is the second largest
linguistic group in the
United Kingdom after
English.