Hindko Academy says next edition of dictionary under process

PESHAWAR: The Gandhara Hindko Board and Academy Peshawar continue to work on the next edition of the Hindko dictionary, and the publication will be brought out as soon as the task is completed, said an official.

“ We published the first Hindko-Urdu dictionary in March 2003. A noted Hindko language scholar from the Abbottabad district of the Hazara division, Sultan Sakoon, had compiled the publication. It was followed by a more comprehensive Hindko-Urdu dictionary, prepared by Prof Dr Elahi Bakhsh Awan, a renowned linguist and lexicographer from Peshawar. The board published this dictionary during his lifetime. The board and academy have published a total of four editions of this dictionary so far, in 2008, 2017, 2019, and 2022,” said Muhammad Ziauddin, general secretary of the board and head of the executive committee of the academy, while speaking to a delegation of young language and culture activists who visited the academy’s resource library.

Ziauddin said the last edition of the Gandhara Hindko-Urdu dictionary comprised 2,032 pages and included over 100,000 words. “Efforts are ongoing to include even more words in the dictionary and publish it as soon as the work is completed,” he added, highlighting that research activities have continued at the academy despite the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government stopped funding three years ago.

Paying rich tributes to Prof Dr Elahi Bakhsh Awan, he said the late research scholar had dedicated his life to the promotion of the Hindko language and literature. “This noted scholar and linguist made significant contributions to the Hindko language, particularly in the fields of linguistics and literature,” he explained.

Ziauddin said Dr Elahi Bakhsh Awan pioneered linguistic research on Hindko language in the 1960s. “He was among the first scholars to carry out systematic linguistic studies on Hindko, the second largest spoken language of Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa and the sixth main regional language of the country.

His PhD thesis, titled Hindko Phonology, is considered groundbreaking. It analyzed the phonological structure (sound system) of the Hindko language, provided a scholarly framework for comparing Hindko with related languages, and laid the foundation for standardizing Hindko from a linguistic perspective,” said Ziauddin.

He elaborated that Dr Elahi Bakhsh Awan earned his PhD in linguistics after enrolling in the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 1968, where he worked on Hindko language phonology.

“His work has had a lasting impact on the academic and literary recognition of Hindko. He passed away before the establishment of the Gandhara Hindko Academy in 2015, but his early academic works inspired and laid the groundwork for institutions like it,” said Ziauddin, adding that his research was frequently cited in Hindko linguistic and literary projects carried out by the academy and others.

The academy official said Dr Elahi Bakhsh Awan raised the academic status of Hindko. “His work continues to be a reference point for researchers and language activists advocating for Hindko language rights and preservation,” he concluded.