Languages[edit]

Several languages are spoken natively in the district. The predominant one is Hindko. It is the
language of wider communication in the area, and is spoken at a native or near-native level by
almost all members of the other language communities, many of whom are abandoning their
language and shifting to Hindko.[12] This language is usually called Parmi (or Parimi, Pārim), a name
that likely originated in the Kashmiri word apārim 'from the other side', which was the term used by
the Kashmiris of the Vale of Kashmir to refer to the highlanders, who spoke this language. The
language is also sometimes known as Pahari, although it bears closer resemblance to the Hindko of
neighbouring Kaghan Valleythan to the Pahari spoken in the Murree Hills.[13] Unlike other varieties of
Hindko, Pahari or Punjabi, it has preserved the voiced aspirated consonants at the start of the word:
for example gha 'grass' vs. Punjabi kà, where the aspiration and voicing have been lost giving rise to
a low tone on the following vowel. This sound change however is currently spreading here as well,
but it has so far only affected the villages situated along the Neelam highway.[12] This variety of
Hindko is also spoken in nearby areas of India-administered Kashmir. Since Partition, the language
varieties on either side of the Line of Control have diverged in a number of ways. For example, in the
Neelam Valley there is a higher proportion of Urdu loanwords, while the variety spoken across the
Line of Control has retained more traditional Hindko words.[14]
The second most widely spoken language of the Neelam Valley is Kashmiri. It is the majority
language in at least a dozen or so villages, and in about half of these it is it the sole mother tongue.
It is closer to the variety spoken in northern Kashmir (particularly Kupwara) than to the Kashmiri of
the city of Muzaffarabad.[15] The third largest ethnic, though not linguistic,[16] group are the Gujjars,
whose villages are scattered throughout the valley. Most of them have switched to Hindko, but a few
communities continue using the Gujari language at home. Gujari is more consistently maintained
among the Bakarwal, who travel into the valley (and beyond into Gilgit-Baltistan) with their herds in
the summer and who spend the winters in the lower parts of Azad Kashmir and in Punjab.[17]