Kagani dialect

Hindko
Panjistani
ہندکو
Hindko in Shahmukhi
Native to	Pakistan
Region	Peshawar, Kohat, Hazara Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pothohar Plateau, Punjab, Azad Kashmir
Native speakers	3.7 million (2016)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northwestern Punjabi Lahnda (Western Punjabi) Hindko
Dialects	Peshawari Kohati Awankari, Ghebi, Chacchi Hazara Hindko Tanauli
Writing system	Shahmukhi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:  – Southern Hindko  – Northern Hindko
Glottolog	hind1271

Hindko (ہندکو ALA-LC: Hindko IPA: [hɪnd̪koː]) is a cover term for a diverse group of Lahnda (Western Punjabi) dialects spoken by people of various ethnic backgrounds in several discontinuous areas in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. The various names for this language group include Hindki,Panjistani and the ambiguous .

There is a nascent language movement and in recent decades Hindko-speaking intellectuals have started promoting the view of Hindko as a separate language. There is a literary tradition based on Peshawari, the urban variety of Peshawar in the northwest, and another one based on the language of Abbottabad in the northeast.

Although there is disagreement about the exact etymology of the name "Hindko" (Shackle for example sees it as meaning "the Indian language"), it is generally accepted that the term has developed to refer to the northwestern Indo-Aryan speech forms in contrast to the neighbouring Pashto, an Iranian language. Hindko is mutually intelligible with Punjabi and Saraiki, and has more affinities with the latter than with the former. Differences with other Punjabi varieties are more pronounced in the morphology and phonology than in the syntax.