Reconstructing the relationship between Hindi-Urdu and Dakani: a diachronic dialectological approach

Abstract This paper reconstructs the historical relationship between Hindi-Urdu and Dakani, a closely related variety spoken in peninsular India, through a diachronic dialectological approach that integrates wave-based and cladistic models of language change. It argues that both varieties descend from the early 14th-century Khari Boli of Delhi. Dakani’s divergent features, which earlier scholars attributed to mixing or to shared descent from a broader proto-variety, are shown to be conservative retentions from Old and Middle Indo-Aryan that northern Khari Boli subsequently lost through geographically diffused innovations. Transplanted to the Deccan, Dakani was isolated from these subsequent changes, while northern Khari Boli remained embedded in the north Indian dialect continuum. Given this history, an approach that reconstructs historical isogloss movements in north India – a dialectological analysis – can be employed to aid in cladistic reconstruction. The paper applies this approach to three features of classical Dakani – the sigmatic future, consonant-stem past participle in -y- , and unextended present participle – demonstrating that each represents a conservative reflex misinterpreted by earlier scholars. Drawing on historical texts, dialect geography, and Indo-Aryan philology, the study offers an evidence-based framework for tracing isogloss movements over time and reconstructing earlier linguistic states.