Inku is an Indo-Aryan language spoken, at least historically, throughout Afghanistan by four of the country's itinerant communities: the Jalali, the Pikraj, the Shadibaz and the Vangawala. Itinerant communities in Afghanistan, whether Inku-speaking or not, are locally known as "Jats" (not to be confused with the Jats of India and Pakistan), a term which is not a self-designation of the groups but rather a collective, often pejorative name given by outsiders.[1] The reference work Ethnologue has an entry for what could be this language, but under the name Jakati (with the corresponding ISO 639-3 code jat), but that entry is at least partly erroneous.[2]
| Inku | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Afghanistan |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | jat |
| Glottolog | jaka1245 |
Each of the four groups speaks a variety with slight differences compared to the others.[3] According to their local tradition, their ancestors migrated in the 19th century from the Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan regions of present-day Pakistan.[4] Such an origin suggests that Inku may be related to the Saraiki language spoken there,[5] though nothing is conclusively known.[6]
The total population of the four Inku-speaking groups was estimated to be 7,000 as of the end of the 1970s.[7] There is no reliable information about their present state, though it is unlikely that many have survived the subsequent upheavals in the country,[1] and according to the entry in Ethnologue, which however may not necessarily refer to this language,[2] the last speakers "probably survived into the 1990s".[8]
Linguistic materials about the varieties spoken by the Shadibaz, Vangawala and Pikraj were collected by Aparna Rao in the 1970s, but they have not been published or analysed yet.[3]
Example text
editThe following is an extract of a text narrated in 1978 by a man of the Chenarkhel subgroup of the Vangawala:[9]
asona
listen(?)
dyana.
attention
asāñ
we
ta
then
bewatan
countryless
te
and
bezamīñ
landless
bejedad
propertyless
eñ.
are
as
our
sāṛe
ḍāḍe
ancestors
is
this
vatan
country
kono
to
āeñ
came
Balučistān
Baluchistan
koloñ.
from
as
our
sāṛe
ḍāḍe
ancestors
Balučistān
Baluchistan
koloñ
from
āeñ.
came
te
and
is
this
vatan
country
vič
in
asāñ
we
taqriban
about
sō
100
ḍiḍ sō
150
varā
years
thi
has/have
gaiñ.
become
sō
100
ḍiḍ sō
150
warā
years
thi
has/have
gayā
become
asā
we
bejedād
propertyless
bezamīn
landless
vadiyeñ.
are in trouble
References
editBibliography
edit- Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Jakati". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). SIL International.
- Hanifi, M. Jamil (2012). "Jāt". Encyclopædia Iranica.
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2022). "Inku". Glottolog (4.6 ed.). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- Kieffer, Charles (1983). "Afghanistan: V. Languages". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. I. pp. 501–516.
- Rao, Aparna (1986). "Peripatetic Minorities in Afghanistan: Image and Identity". In Orywal, Erwin (ed.). Die ethnischen Gruppen Afghanistans. Wiesbaden: L. Reichert. pp. 254–83. ISBN 3-88226-360-1.
- Rao, Aparna (1995). "Marginality and language use: the example of peripatetics in Afghanistan". Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. 5 (2): 69–95.