Not 'Urdu’, not 'Hyderabadi Hindi’, it’s Dakhni. Understanding our spoken language
By Yunus Y. Lasania
“Nakko”, “Kaiku” and “Hallu” (in pic) are 3 commonly used Dakhni words (can also be called Dakhni Urdu) that we Hyderabadis use in our speech. “Manje/Minjhe” is used by Dakhni speakers in other parts of the Deccan (like Karnataka/MH). (Also, here are links to (what is possibly) the first ever Dakhni rap song and an article on it as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ycg7wcjKeY)
(https://www.siasat.com/bluru-boys-debut-song-takes-dakhi-urdu-to-mainstream-hip-hop-1953689/)
Following image created by author for better understanding:
Typically, “Hyderabadi Hindi” is what north Indians wrongly call Dakhni. Please, DON’T call it Hindi. Many Urdu speakers also mistake it for a form of localized Urdu, which, again, is incorrect. Words like “Haula” (mad), “Hau” (yes) and others, are all imports from Marathi, Kannada and Telugu, which centuries ago mixed with Persian and Dehalvi (Old Urdu), to create Dakhni. (for history, please see previous post).
The creation of Dakhni in the 14-15th centuries also resulted in Dakhni/Urdu (even some Persian/Arabic) words entering vocabularies of regional languages like Telugu. For example, “roju” (day) in Telugu, comes from “roz”(day, in Persian). Today, in Hyd and the Deccan, we speak in Dakhni, but read/write in the standardised modern Urdu, which we don't speak in mostly.
This is an interesting socio-cultural situation. Mohd Quli Qutb Shah(1580-1611), Hyd’s founder, was a great contributor of Dakhni literature, as he wrote about 50,000 lines of poetry in his work ‘Kulliyat’.
Dakhni died a natural death post the 18th century, when, due to Mughal conquests of the Deccan and the creation of modern Urdu, poets started shifting to the latter for patronization.
The Nizams came as Mughal-appointed governors of the Deccan in 1724.
Persian and then Urdu were made the official languages under them, and Dakhni died as a written language, but remained a spoken language, even till today. Currently, it is widely used across urban and rural areas of states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, AP, Telangana and Tamil Nadu (Vellore).You can learn more from my Beyond Charminar, a podcast I host for Suno India
The history:
Dakhni (or Deccani) is usually mistaken to be a ‘dialect’ of Urdu, especially among northern Urdu speakers. In Hyderabad (and across the Deccan), we speak in Dakhni (our version can be called Hyderabadi, which is heavier with Urdu), but learn the standardised Urdu, which has created an interesting situation. Words like ‘Kaiku’, ‘Nakko’, ‘Manjhe’, ‘Haula’, etc, are all imports from other regional languages (Marathi, Kannada, Telugu) to create Dakhni.
The timeline:
Both Dakhni and Urdu have roots in Dehalvi (also known as ‘Old Urdu’), which existed in Delhi about a 100 years before it reached the Deccan areas in the 14th century through conquests of the Deccan by Mohd Bin Tughlaq (with him shiftingbcapital to Tughlaqabad in Maharashtra). Picture of the Bahamani empire’s initial area (source: Wiki)
Sufis had used Dehalvi freely, but that spoken idiom was unestablished. Dakhni was born in the mid 14th century (post conquest) when that spoken idiom mixed with Marathi, and later with Kannada and Telugu, especially under the Bahmani empire, which was carved out of Tughlaq's territory in 1347.
Dakhni is a mix of Persian, Old Urdu(Dehlavi), Kannada, Marathi and Telugu. It was created when Dehalvi mixed with the 3 aforementioned languages, especially under the Bahamani empire at Gulbarga(1st capital). Later at Bidar(2nd capital) around 1460, 'Kadam Rao Padam Rao' by by Nizami was the first written literature to be recorded.
For better understanding, Bidar is about 30 Kms from Zaheerabad in Telangana and also close to the Maharashtra border, thereby in a central location where those 3 languages mixed with Persian (and Dehalvi) to create Dakhni. It was the main language in Hyderabad and Bijapur, where Mohd Quli Qutb Shah (Hyd’s founder) and Ibrahim Adil Shah-2 patronized the langauge. Following is a picture of the Mahmud Gawan (a former PM under the Bahamani empire) mosque and the Chaukhandi (tomb of Persian Sufi saint Shah Khaliullah Kirmani) in Bidar.
Dakhni today is spoken in cities like Hyderabad, Bidar, Gulbarga, Mysore,Vellore etc, and is prevalent in rural areas of states like, Telangana, AP, and even in Tamil Nadu (Chennai/Vellore). Modern Urdu, in comparison, developed on its own in the north and was fully developed in the early 18th century.
18th century poet Ahmed Wali Dakhni is credited with taking his poetry to the north and laying base for the modern Urdu language that we know of today. The word Urdu translates to army camp in Turkish and is believed to have come from the army of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, after Persian and Hindi speaking mixed.
The modern Urdu that developed in the north came to the south after the Mughals fully conquered the Deccan, after Hyderabad (Golconda empire) was the last one to fall in 1687. The entire Deccan area eventually came under the Mughal-appointed Nizams in 1724 (with Aurangabad as its capital), who first made Persian and later Urdu the official languages* eventually replacing Dakhni, which however continued to be a spoken language, till today.
PS: There seems to be some debate/confusion about the word "Nakko", which means "no/don’t" in Dakhni, about whether it has been taken from the Persian word "Nakon" which means "don’t", or from Marathi (which IMHO is the latter). As we know, Dakhni is essentially an amalgamation of Persian, Dehalvi (Old Urdu), Marathi, Kannada and Telugu, which evolved in the 14-15th centuries. Created the below image for better understanding.
It has a heavy influence of Marathi, given that it was the first regional language to mix with Dehalvi (Old Urdu) when it came down to the Deccan after conquests by Mohd Bin Tughlaq in the 1st half of the 14th century, wherein the initial centre of linguistic contact between the north and south was at Daulatabad, in the Marathi region.
Historian HK Sherwani notes in his work that it was at the initial stages when this happened that Marathi words like "Nakko" became part of Dakhni. In Marathi, "Nakko" refers to "don’t" (while "Naahi" in Marathi means a simple no)
From my understanding, if it was the Persian word "Nakon" (don’t) that "Nakko" was derived from, then it would have also been part of Dehalvi or Urdu, which is more Persianized in its speech/vocabulary.
Hence, the word "Nakko" in Dakhni mostly comes from Marathi, Hope this helps to clear the air over this. (FYI, not writing this as Marathi vs Persian issue, as it’s debated that Marathi itself imported "Nakko" from Persian, but we don’t know for certain. Moreover, the pronounciation of "Nakko" is closer to Marathi than the Persian word which has 'ن' (n) at the end. Anyone is most welcome to disagree also.)
(ends)
