Regional Languages Of Pakistan Introduction: Pakistan is a multi-lingual country. No less than 24 languages and dialects are spoken by the people of Pakistan.
There are five regional languages. Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, and Kashmiri. These languages are rich in literature, poetry, folk songs, and spiritual quotes of their respective saints and contribute greatly to the culture of Pakistan. The regional languages, though distinct from each other in their forms, dialects and expressions of thoughts, have several common factors in them.
They cultivate in them love, respect and a firm adherence to the Pakistan Ideology. National Language Urdu: Urdu is the national language, and one of two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English). Although only about 8% of Pakistanis speak it as their first language, it is spoken as a second and often third language by nearly all Pakistanis. Its introduction as the lingua franca was encouraged by the British upon the capitulation and annexation of Sindh and Punjab with the subsequent ban on the use of Persian.
The decision to make the language change was to institute a universal language throughout then British Raj in South Asia as well as minimize the influence of Persia, Ottoman Empire, Afghanistan and Central Asia had on this transitional region. Urdu is a relatively new language in the contemporary sense but has undergone considerable modifications and development borrowing heavily on the traditions of older languages like Persian, Arabic, Turkish and local South Asian languages all of which can be found in its vocabulary. It began as a standardized register of Hindi and in its spoken form.It is widely used for personal letters as well as public literature, in the literary sphere and in the popular media.
It is a required subject of study in all primary and secondary schools. As Pakistan’s national language, Urdu has been promoted to promote national unity. It is written with a modified form of the Perso-Arabic alphabet, usually in Nastaliq script, and its basic Hindustani vocabulary has been enriched by words from Persian, Arabic, Turkic languages and English. Urdu has drawn inspiration from Persian literature and has now an enormous stock of words from that language.
In recent years, the Urdu spoken in Pakistan has gradually been influenced by many of the native languages including Pashto, Punjabi and Sindhi in terms of intonation, as well as incorporating terminology from those languages. As such the language is constantly developing and has acquired a particularly "Pakistani" flavour to it distinguishing itself from that spoken in ancient times and in India. The first poetry in Urdu was by the Persian poet Amir Khusro (1253–1325) and the first Urdu book "Woh Majlis" was written in 1728; the first time the word Urdu was used was by Sirajuddin Ali Khan Arzoo in 1741.The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir spoke Urdu fluently as did his descendants while his ancestors mostly spoke Persian and Turkish.
Provincial languages Punjabi: Punjabi is spoken as a first language by more than 44% of Pakistanis, mostly in Punjab as well as by a large number of people in Karachi. However, Punjabi does not have any official status in Pakistan. The exact numbers of Punjabi speakers in Pakistan is hard to find since there are many dialects / languages, such as Saraiki, which some regard as part of Punjabi and others regard as separate language.When taking into account Hindko, Potwari, Pahari, Saraiki, Punjabi dialects are thus spoken by almost 60% of the population in Pakistan. The standard Punjabi dialects is from Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala and Sheikhupura districts of the Pakistani Punjab which was used by Waris Shah (1722–1798) in his famous book Heer Ranjha and is also now days the language of Punjabi literature, film and music; such as Lollywood.
Other dialects are Multani or Saraiki in the West and South, Pothowari & Hindko in the North, Dogri in the mountain areas and Saraiki in the Sargodha district.Punjabi is descended from Prakrit in the Vedic period (1700 B. C. ), Pali, Old Persian and Apabhramsha in the Ashoka period (273 B. C.
- 232 B. C. ) and Hindvi, Lahori and Multani in the Muslim period (711 A. D. - 1857 A. D.
) Punjabi literature was principally spiritual in nature and has had a very rich oral tradition. The Great poetry written by Sufi saints has been the folklore of the Punjab and is still sung with great love in any part of Punjab. Major Punjabi dialects in Pakistan: 1. Majhi 2. Jhangochi 3. Shahpuri 4.
Pothowari 5. Hindko 6. Saraiki 7. DhaniPashto: Pashto is spoken as a first language by 15. 5% of Pakistanis, mostly in the NWFP and in Balochistan as well as by immigrants to the eastern provinces who are often not counted due to census irregularities.
The Pashto has rich written literary traditions as well as an oral tradition. There are two major dialect patterns within which the various individual dialects may be classified; these are Pakhto, which is the Northern Peshawar variety, and the softer Pashto spoken in the southern areas. Khushal Khan Khattak and Rahman Baba were the most famous poets in the Pashto language.In the last part of 20th century, Pakhto or Pashto has produced some great poets like Ghani Khan, Khatir Afridi and Amir Hamza Shinwari. There are also many Pakistanis from the adjacent regions of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan who are conversant in Pashto and count it as their second language. They are not included in the overall percentage.
Karachi is the biggest Pashto speaking city in the world although the Pashto speakers constitute only about 20% of Karachi's population. Sindhi: Sindhi is spoken as a first language by 15. 5% of Pakistanis, mostly in Sindh. It has a rich literature and is used in schools.It is an Indo-Aryan (Indo-European) language, derived from Sanskrit, and Arabic languages.
The Arabs ruled Sindh for more than 150 years after Muhammad bin Qasim conquered it in 712 AD, remaining there for three years to set up Arab rule. Consequently, the social fabric of Sindh contains elements of Arabic society. Sindhi is spoken by over 36 million people in Pakistan, and is the official language of Sindh province. It is widely spoken in the Lasbela District of Balochistan (where the Lasi tribe speaks a dialect of Sindhi), many areas of the Naseerabad and Jafarabad districts of Balochistan, and by the Sindhi Diaspora abroad.
Sindhi language has six major dialects: Sireli, Vicholi, Lari, Thari, Lasi and Kachhi. It is written in the Arabic script with several additional letters to accommodate special sounds. The largest Sindhi-speaking cities are Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Dadu, Jacobabad, Larkana and Nawabshah. Sindhi literature is also spiritual in nature. Shah Abdul Latif Bhita'i (1689–1752) is one of its greatest poets, and wrote Sassi Punnun and Umar Marvi, folk stories, in his famous book "Shah Jo Risalo".
Balochi: Balochi is spoken as a first language by about 4% of Pakistanis, mostly in Balochistan province.It is believed that the language was brought to its present location in a series of migrations from the Kurdistan region of northeastern Iraq and northwestern Iran. Rakshani is the major dialect group in terms of numbers. Sarhaddi is a sub-dialect of Rakshani.
Other sub-dialects are Kalati (Qalati), Chagai-Kharani and Panjguri. Eastern Hill Balochi or Northern Balochi is very different from the rest. Balochi language is very close to the Persian itself. The name Balochi or Baluchi is not found before the 10th Century. Rakshani is the major dialect group in terms of numbers.
Sarhaddi, is a sub dialect of Rakshani. Other sub - dialects are Qalati, Chagai Kharani, and Makrani. The Eastern Hill Balochi or Northern Balochi is distinct dialects. The Kethran language in North East Balochistan is also a variant of Balochi. It is one of the 9 distinguished languages of Pakistan. Since Balochi is a very poetic and rich language and have a certain degree of affinity to Persian and Urdu, Balochi poets tend to be very good poets in Urdu as well and Ata Shaad, Gul Khan Nasir and Noon Meem Danish are excellent examples of this.
Made by: Haider Piracha Prep III S
