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The Pothowari or Pothohari language in Urdu otherwise known as Mirpuri or Potwari is an Indo-European language spoken from the Potwar district around Rawalpindi, Pakistan to the Indian-Kashmiri border in the Mirpur district in Pakistan administered Kashmir. It is closely related to Panjabi and Romani (Gypsy), but is distinct from these languages.
There is some dialect continuum with Hindko and the Jhelumi dialect of Panjabi. Pothohari speakers may understand Panjabis both from India and Pakistan, but these groups may not understand Pothohari- the reason being that Panjabi is the second-most spoken language in the subcontinent as a whole and in both India & Pakistan respectively (due to the long-ruling class of India, Rajputs and Ranas, being Panjabi), whilst Pothohari is highly concentrated in the North of Pakistan. Also, Punjab and Kashmir ("the crown" and "jewel", so to speak, of the subcontinent) have always shared strong links on several levels - trade, nobility & neighbourhood.
Every language is a "mongrel" language to some degree or another. Pothowari is no different, with the majority of its modern-language roots being connected to Panjabi primarily and Romani (Gypsy). Linguists have yet to determine the true age and roots of this tongue but it has been established that Pothowari is different from the traditional Kashmiri language and the likelist truth is that Pothowari is a dialect Kashmiri rather than Panjabi.
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