Jatki
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Jatki (जटकी) is a name of a dialect group of Western Punjabi. Jatki consists of the Jhangvi, Shahpuri, and Dhani sub-dialects. It is one of the Jat Languages. Jatki dialect is akin to Hindi and spoken by Jats.[1]
Variants
Extent
Jhangvi, Shahpuri, and Dhani sub-dialects of Jatki are spoken in the broader Bar region, which includes the following districts: Chakwal, Talagang, Jhelum (only Pind Dadan Khan and Khewra), Attock (southern parts), Khushab, Sargodha, Mandi Bahauddin, Hafizabad (western parts), Chiniot, Jhang, Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh, Okara, Sahiwal, Pakpattan, Bahawalnagar (northeastern parts) and Vehari (northeastern parts).
Jatki was used in 19th-century British sources for what would later be called Saraiki, as well as for Khetrani.[2] Jaṭkī is also attested in local use in Balochistan as a name for these two languages as well as for Sindhi.[3] Jataki was used by 19th-century British writer Richard Francis Burton for a variety of the Saraiki language.[4]
Jakati is a possibly spurious name used in the Ethnologue encyclopedia for either a Romani (Gypsies) variety of Ukraine, or for the Inku language of Afghanistan. Hammarström, Forkel & Haspelmath 2020 has an entry Jakati [jat] which is said be to spoken by 29,300 people in Ukraine. The alternative names, which include 'Jat', the classification of the language as Indo-Aryan, and a note indicating 'nomadic' suggests that the denotation is an itinerant population with roots on the Indian subcontinent, i.e., 'Gypsy' in loose terminology. 29,300 is a plausible number of Gypsies, or Roma, in Ukraine related to the Roma in countries to the west, but these Roma speak and identify as a variety of Vlax [rmy].[5]
Jatki/Jātki: are two small distinct dialects of Sindhi language, one is spoken by Sindhi Jats of southern Sindh. The other is spoken by some northern Sindhi Jats, which is also spoken in Balochistan province.[6]
Linguistic Characteristics
Jatki dialects share significant mutual intelligibility with other Lahnda and Western Punjabi varieties while retaining distinct phonological and morphological features. Key characteristics include:
- Vocabulary and Lexicon: Retains a rich stock of pastoral and agricultural vocabulary traditionally used by rural communities and cattle-herding Jat clans in the Punjab and Bar regions.
- Pronunciation: Features characteristic retroflex sounds and distinctive vowel shifts typical of the transition zone between Punjabi and Sindhi/Saraiki linguistic clusters.
- Grammar: Employs specific pronominal suffixes and verb conjugations that align closely with Jhangvi and Shahpuri grammar structures.
Historical Context and Usage
Historically, the term "Jatki" was applied broadly by colonial administrators and linguists—such as Andrew Jukes and Richard Francis Burton—to describe the vernaculars spoken by the Jat pastoralists and agriculturalists across the Indus plains, stretching from the Punjab through upper Sindh and parts of Balochistan. Over time, many of these administrative designations evolved into distinct recognized literary and regional languages such as modern Saraiki and regional dialects of Punjabi and Sindhi.
External links
See also
- The Blessing of Kolu: An Ancestor of the Bajwa Clan - English Poetic Interpretation of the Original Jatki Verses by Muddassir Bajwa.
- Khetran
References
- ↑ Ram Sarup Joon: History of the Jats/Chapter I, p.5-7
- ↑ Wagha, Muhammad Ahsan (1990). The Siraiki language : its growth and development. Islamabad: Derawar Publications. p.6
- ↑ Wagha 1990, p. 7.
- ↑ Wagha 1990, p. 7.
- ↑ Aleksej P. Barannikov 1934: 24-44, Marushiakova, Elena and Vesselin Popov 2014.
- ↑ Rahman, Tariq (2004). Language and Education: Selected Documents, 1780-2003. Chair on Quaid-i-Azam & Freedom Movement National Institute of Pakistan Studies Quaid-i-Azam University. p. 461. ISBN 978-969-8329-08-2.
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