Editing Azad Kashmir (section)

===Languages===
{{Pie chart
| thumb = right
| caption = Languages by approximate number of speakers<ref name="SYB 2020">{{Cite book|url=https://www.pndajk.gov.pk/uploadfiles/downloads/Statistical%20Year%20Book%202020.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.pndajk.gov.pk/uploadfiles/downloads/Statistical%20Year%20Book%202020.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|access-date=3 March 2022|title=Statistical Year Book 2020| place = Muzaffarabad| publisher = AJ&K Bureau Of Statistics| pages = 131, 140}}</ref>
| label1 = [[Pahari-Pothwari]]/[[Punjabi dialects and languages|Punjabi]]
| value1 = 68
| color1 = Green
| label2 = [[Gujari language|Gojri]]
| value2 = 19
| color2 = blue
| label3 = [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]]
| value3 = 5
| color3 = yellow
| label4 = Others
| color4 = Grey
| value4 = 8
}}
The official language of Azad Kashmir is [[Urdu]],{{sfn|Rahman|1996|p=226}}<ref group="note">{{harvnb|Snedden|2013|loc=p. 176}}: On p.&nbsp;29, the census report states that Urdu is the official language of the government of Azad Kashmir, with Kashmiri, Pahari, Gojri, Punjabi, Kohistani, Pushto, and Sheena 'frequently spoken in Azad Kashmir'. Yet, when surveyed about their 'mother tongue', Azad Kashmiris' choices were limited to selecting from Pakistan's major languages: Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushto, Balochi, Saraiki, and 'others'; not surprisingly, 2.18 million of Azad Kashmir's 2.97 million people chose 'others'.</ref> while [[English in Pakistan|English]] is used in higher [[Domain of language use|domains]]. The majority of the population, however, are native speakers of other languages. The foremost among these is [[Pahari–Pothwari]] (a dialect of [[Punjabi dialects and languages|Punjabi]]) with its various dialects. There are also sizeable communities speaking [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]] (mostly in the north), [[Gujari language|Gujari]] (throughout the territory), and [[Dogri language|Dogri]] (in the south), as well as pockets of speakers of [[Kundal Shahi language|Kundal Shahi]], [[Shina language|Shina]] and [[Pashto]]. With the exception of Pashto and English, those languages belong to the [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]] language family.

The dialects of the [[Pahari-Pothwari]] (a [[Punjabi dialects and languages|Punjabic]] dialect in of itself) language complex cover most of the territory of Azad Kashmir. Those are also spoken across the Line of Control in the neighbouring areas of Indian Jammu and Kashmir and are closely related both to [[Punjabi language|Majhi Punjabi]] to the south, other [[Lahnda|Lahnda Punjabi]] dialects and [[Northern Hindko|Hindko]] to the northwest. The language variety in the southern districts of Azad Kashmir is known by a variety of names – including ''Mirpuri'', ''Pothwari'' and ''Pahari'' – and is closely related to the Pothwari dialect proper spoken to the east in the [[Pothohar region]] of Punjab. The dialects of the central districts of Azad Kashmir are occasionally referred to in the literature as ''Chibhali'' or ''Punchi'', but the speakers themselves usually call them ''Pahari'', an ambiguous name that is also used for [[Pahari language (name)|several unrelated languages]] of the lower Himalayas. Going north, the speech forms gradually change into Hindko. Today, in the [[Muzaffarabad District]] the preferred local name for the language is ''Hindko'', although it is still apparently more closely related to the core dialects of Pahari.<ref>The preceding paragraph is mostly based on {{harvtxt|Lothers|Lothers|2010}}. For further references, see the bibliography in [[Pahari-Pothwari]].</ref> Further north in the [[Neelam Valley]] the dialect, locally also known as ''Parmi'', can more unambiguously be subsumed under Hindko.{{sfn|Akhtar|Rehman|2007|p=68|ps = . The conclusion is based on lexical similarity and the comparison is with the Hindko of the [[Kaghan Valley]] and with the Pahari of the Murree Hills.}}

Another major language of Azad Kashmir is [[Gujari language|Gujari]]. It is spoken by several hundred thousand<ref group="note">{{harvtxt|Hallberg|O'Leary|1992|p=96}} report two rough estimates for the total population of Gujari speakers in Azad Kashmir: 200,000 and 700,000, both from the 1980s.</ref> people among the traditionally nomadic [[Gujars]], many of whom are nowadays settled. Not all ethnic Gujars speak Gujari, the proportion of those who have shifted to other languages is probably higher in southern Azad Kashmir.{{sfn|Hallberg|O'Leary|1992|pp=96, 98, 100}} Gujari is most closely related to the [[Rajasthani languages]] (particularly [[Mewati language|Mewati]]), although it also shares features with Punjabi.{{sfn|Hallberg|O'Leary|1992|pp=93–94}} It is dispersed over large areas in northern Pakistan and India. Within Pakistan, the Gujari dialects of Azad Kashmir are more similar, in terms of shared basic vocabulary and mutual intelligibility, to the Gujar varieties of the neighbouring [[Hazara region (Pakistan)|Hazara region]] than to the dialects spoken further to the northwest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and north in [[Gilgit District|Gilgit]].{{sfn|Hallberg|O'Leary|1992|pp=111–12, 126}}

There are scattered communities of [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]] speakers,<ref>{{harvnb|Rahman|2002|p=449}}; {{harvnb|Rahman|1996|p=226}}</ref> notably in the [[Neelam Valley]], where they form the second-largest language group after speakers of Hindko.{{sfn|Akhtar|Rehman|2007|p=70}} There have been calls for the teaching of Kashmiri (particularly in order to counter India's claim of promoting the culture of Kashmir), but the limited attempts at introducing the language at the secondary school level have not been successful, and it is Urdu, rather than Kashmiri, that Kashmiri Muslims have seen as their identity symbol.<ref>{{harvnb|Rahman|1996|p=226}}; {{harvnb|Rahman|2002|pp=449–50}}. The discussion in both cases is in the broader context of Pakistan.</ref> There is an ongoing process of gradual [[language shift|shift]] to larger local languages,{{sfn|Rahman|1996|p=226}} but at least in the Neelam Valley there still exist communities for whom Kashmiri is the sole mother tongue.{{sfn|Akhtar|Rehman|2007|pp=70, 75}}

There are speakers of [[Dogri language|Dogri]] in the southernmost [[Bhimber District|district of Bhimber]], where they are estimated to represent almost a third of the district's population.<ref name="SYB 2020"/> In the northernmost [[Neelum District#Languages|district of Neelam]], there are small communities of speakers of several other languages. [[Shina language|Shina]], which like Kashmiri belongs to the broad [[Dardic languages|Dardic]] group, is present in two distinct varieties spoken altogether in three villages. [[Pashto]], of the [[Iranian languages|Iranian subgroup]] and the majority language in the neighbouring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is spoken in two villages, both situated on the Line of Control. The endangered [[Kundal Shahi language|Kundal Shahi]] is native to the eponymous village and it is the only language not found outside Azad Kashmir.{{sfn|Akhtar|Rehman|2007}}