1 About this Grammar

1.1 Introduction
This book describes the grammar of Hindko, Panjabi, and Saraiki, three Indo-Aryan
languages of Pakistan, treating their phonology, orthography, morphology, and syn-
tax. The grammar is descriptive, not pedagogical or prescriptive. It is presented in a
theory-neutral way to the greatest extent possible. The three languages described here
represent closely related, geographically contiguous language varieties. In some cases,
it may be hard to determine, for example, where one type of Panjabi ends and Hindko
begins. As they share many common features, we have decided to present them to-
gether in a single work where general patterns that hold for all three can be described
in detail and then language-specific patterns can be added to the general description.
This kind of approach further recommends itself as many potential users of the cur-
rent work with an interest in Hindko or Saraiki will already be familiar with Panjabi;
so comparing this with the description of the other varieties will hopefully make them
more accessible.
This grammar may be used in several ways:

• as a reference tool for understanding the major grammatical constructions in Hind-

ko, Panjabi, and Saraiki;

• as a linguistic record of documentation of Hindko, Panjabi, and Saraiki;

• as a template for writing similar grammars of other languages;

• as a resource which is easily converted into computational tools.

While Panjabi is a major language as measured by number of speakers—having per-

haps the world’s twelfth-highest number of first-language speakers—published gram-
matical descriptions of it are surprisingly few, and those that do exist are often out of
date. References for the related Hindko and Saraiki languages are even fewer. We hope
that, with this grammar, we have made a contribution to the description of Hindko,
Panjabi, and Saraiki. This is also the first major English-language grammar to provide
exemplification of these languages in Perso-Arabic script.

1.2 Scope of the present work

This Descriptive Grammar of Hindko, Panjabi, and Saraiki focuses, where possible, on
the variety of Hindko spoken in Abbottabad, the variety of Panjabi spoken in Lahore,
and the variety of Saraiki spoken in Multan—all in Pakistan. It covers the orthography,
phonology, morphology, and syntax of the languages. It is meant as a reference tool;
however, the coverage of grammatical constructions is by no means exhaustive. As

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noted in Chapter 2, there is significant variation from dialect to dialect and even from
speaker to speaker within dialects. The current work does not attempt to describe the
full range of variation, but rather presents a necessarily simplified “snapshot” of par-
ticular instantiations of each named variety.
Since Lahore is the largest urban center of Punjab, it has attracted people from
all parts of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, though relatively fewer from Sindh and
Balochistan. Thus the Panjabi of Lahore, in addition to being subject to heavy Urdu
and English influence, also contains elements of varieties from farther west or south,
usually associated with Hindko or Saraiki. It is by no means a monolithic or “pure”
variety.

1.3 Past work and references consulted

The current work has consulted several published studies of Panjabi, including refer-
ence materials such as Malik (1995), Gill and Gleason (1969), Bhatia (1993), and Cum-
mings and Bailey (1912). For Hindko, the following sources were consulted: Hallberg
and O’Leary (1992); Rensch, Hallberg, and O’Leary (1992); Shackle (1980); Shackle
(1983); Varma (1936); Bahri (1962); and Bahri (1963). For Saraiki, the main published
sources referenced are Shackle (1976) and Zahoor (2009).
Pedagogical materials have also been consulted, including Bhardwaj (1995), Ah-
mad (1992), Shackle (1972), and Kalra, Purewal, and Tyson-Ward (2004 [1999]).
Additionally, we have made use of the following dictionaries: Bashir and Kazmi
(2012), Khan (2009), and Advanced Centre for Technical Development of Punjabi Lan-
guage (2012). For Hindko, the Sakoon (2002) dictionary has been helpful; and for Sa-
raiki, we have consulted Mughal (2010).
Linguistic work on the languages covered here is sparse. A few further publica-
tions are mentioned in the “References Cited or Consulted” section.

1.4 Sources
Each example is labeled with the language illustrated: Hk for Hindko, Pj for Panjabi,
and Sr for Saraiki. The source of each example is indicated in parentheses following
the example.
Each of the authors has made different contributions to the grammar. Thomas Con-
ners and Brook Hefright wrote the draft chapters on Panjabi. These chapters were re-
viewed and edited by Elena Bashir. Elena Bashir wrote the sections on Hindko and
Saraiki. These were reviewed and edited by Thomas Conners. Elena Bashir’s collected
field notes and knowledge represent a significant source that has been relied upon as
a reference for the present work, including the source of some examples. Examples
provided by her are marked with (EB).

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 Examples | 3

Additionally, Elena Bashir conducted field work for four months in 2015 specif-
ically working on data collection for the Hindko and Saraiki sections of the current
work. During this time, she worked with two native speakers, Abdul Wajid Tabassum
for Hindko and Umaima Kamran for Saraiki. Examples that are due to them are marked
(AWT) and (UK), respectively. Additionally, the entire manuscript was reviewed by
Nasir Abbas Syed. Without their significant contributions, the coverage of Hindko and
Saraiki would not have been possible.
The authors take collective responsibility for all aspects of the grammar.

1.5 Acknowledgements
Elena Bashir would like to acknowledge the informal but extensive contributions of
Nasir Abbas Syed and Ali Hussain Birahimani on Saraiki, and of Maqsood Saqib on
Panjabi during the course of the writing of this book.
Thomas Conners and Brook Hefright have benefited from the insight of their co-
author, Elena Bashir, and the assistance provided by a number of colleagues at the Uni-
versity of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language. In particular, they would
like to thank Mohini Madgavkar, with whom they studied and analyzed Panjabi and
Urdu; Michael Maxwell, Aric Bills, Evelyn Browne, Shawna Rafalko, and Nathaniel
Clair, who dedicated many hours preparing the manuscript; and Karen Fisher-Nguyen
who played a large role in providing their original understanding of Panjabi—we thank
them all.
The authors also thank Amalia Gnanadesikan for her dedication and attention to
detail as the Series editor overseeing this volume.

1.6 Chapter organization

Each chapter of the current work covers in detail a specific aspect of the grammar of
Hindko, Panjabi, and Saraiki, such as Phonology or Nouns. The initial section in each
chapter discusses features common to Hindko, Panjabi, and Saraiki. After this, differ-
ences among the languages are discussed. In cases where we do not have sufficient
information, a note is added.

1.7 Examples
In this grammar, we make use of both in-line text examples and interlinear text ex-
amples. In-line text examples are used when a single form is being referenced or ex-
plicated in the text. The format is as follows: the first section is in Perso-Arabic script,
the second section renders it in phonemic transcription (between slashes), and the

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4 | About this Grammar

third section provides an English gloss (in single quotation marks). This is illustrated
in Figure 1.1.

Perso-Arabic
script Gloss

/mũḍā/ ‘boy’

Phonemic
transcription

Figure 1.1: In-line text example

The format for an interlinear example is as follows: the first line is in Perso-Arabic
script, the second line renders it in phonemic transcription, the third line provides a
morpheme-by-morpheme gloss (including any grammatical category labels) and the
fourth line gives a free translation into English.

Perso-Arabic script

Phonemic transcription mæ̃ katāb nū̃ vekh-iā e

Gloss I book[F] ACC see-PP.SG.M be.PRES.3SG
Free translation ‘I have seen the book.’

Figure 1.2: Interlinear example

1.8 Glossing and formatting conventions

Where possible, we have followed the Leipzig Glossing Conventions, which can be
found at http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/resources/glossing-rules.php.
The following formatting conventions are used throughout the grammar:
Simple italics are used to indicate emphasis, often when contrasting two or more
technical points.
Bold is used in the transcription and gloss lines to draw attention to the grammat-
ical form being illustrated.

1.9 List of abbreviations and symbols

Commonly used abbreviations and symbols in this grammar include the following:

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* ungrammatical form

∼ variation in forms

- morpheme boundary in a transcription or gloss-line; indicates joining

direction for Perso-Arabic character

. a period indicates a mismatch between the number of

Hindko/Panjabi/Saraiki elements and the number of elements in the
English gloss

// phonemic transcription

[] phonetic transcription

<> transliteration

() marginal phoneme or morphological form

ˈ stress on following syllable

ˊ high tone

ˋ low tone

1 first person

2 second person

3 third person

ABL ablative

ACC accusative

ALLIT alliterative element

C consonant

CAT catenative participle

CONN connective participle

CONT continuous

CP conjunctive participle

CS causative

DAT dative

DIR direct

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DIST distal

ECHO echo word

EMPH emphatic

ERG ergative

EZ ezafat

F feminine

FUT future

GEN genitive

GRDV gerundive

HON honorific

HORT hortative

IMP imperative

INF infinitive

IP imperfective participle

LOC locative

M masculine

NEG negative

NMLZ nominalizer

OBL oblique

ONOM onomatopoetic

P perfective

PASS passive

PF present-future stem

PL plural

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POL polite

PP perfective participle

PRES present

PS pronominal suffix

PST past

REDUP reduplication

REFL reflexive

REL relative marker

RHYM rhyming

SBJV subjunctive

SG singular

STAT stative particle

Tnnn reference to entry in Turner (1962–1966)

TOP topicalizer

TOT totalizing (aggregating)

V vowel

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