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Most of the
languages of Pakistan are part of the family
of Indo-European languages and span the
Indo-Iranian range of that family with the
Indo-Aryan languages predominant in the east
and the Iranian languages the most
significant in the west as well as Dardic
languages in the north and northwest.
History
Urdu, a
standardized register of Hindustani, is the
national language of Pakistan and has
historical significance as a language
developed during the Islamic conquests in
the Indian Subcontinent during the period of
the Mughal Empire and was chosen as a
neutral language to unite the various groups
of modern Pakistan. However, the language of
the government and commerce is English. Most
secondary educational institutes and almost
all universities use English as the medium
of instruction. Many other languages are
spoken in Pakistan, including the following
regional tongues from largest to smallest:
Punjabi, Pashtu, Sindhi,Balochi, Seraiki
(sometimes included within Punjabi, also
called Seraiki, Sira'iki, Lahndi, Multani -
from the city of Multan, Derawali, Southern
Punjabi, and Western Punjabi), Hindko,
Brahui, Burushaski, Balti, Shina, and Khowar
(see Dardic languages). Brahui is a
Dravidian language, its closest relatives
being spoken primarily in southern India,
far removed from Pakistan. Balti is
Sino-Tibetan and Burushaski is a language
isolate.
In
addition, according to Ethnologue, Pakistan
has a million speakers of Persian, a few of
whom are refugees from Afghanistan (mainly
Tajiks and Hazaras) whose dialects vary from
the Hazaragi-speaking population, while
others include an ethnic group called the
Dehwaris. Smaller groups include the Uzbeks
and there is a large Kashmiri speaking
population, largely refugees as well who
fled from the Vale of Kashmir.
Arabic and
Persian are still taught as classical
languages to a small number of students.
Arabic is popular due to its religious
significance, but some Pakistanis do not
learn to speak Arabic beyond that required
to read and recite Islamic prayers. Persian
is an important literary language in
Pakistan.
Azad Kashmir- languages spoken=
Mirpuri-Hindko, Pashto, Urdu
Languages
According
to the census, Pakistanis identified the
following languages as their mother tongues
[figures rounded to nearest percent]:
Punjabi 44%, Pashto 15%, Sindhi 14%, Seraiki
11%, Urdu 8%, Balochi 4%, others 4%
The
majority of Pakistanis can speak or
understand two or more languages.
»
Major languages
The
official language of Pakistan is English.
Urdu is the national language and lingua
franca. ~44% speak Punjabi as a first
language, 15% Pashto, and 31% other
languages such as (Sindhi, Seraiki, Balochi,
Hindkospoken in northern Pakistan and Azad
Kashmir also Mirpuri (AJK), and Brahui.)
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Urdu (National Language)
Urdu is the
national language, the lingua franca of the
people. It is widely used, both formally and
informally, 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. It is the first language
of most Muhajir. Urdu is Pakistan's national
language and has been promoted as a token of
national unity, though less than 8% of
Pakistanis speak it as their first language
but it is spoken fluently as a second
language by all literate Pakistanis. Urdu by
origin is an "Islamic version" of Hindi
language which was spoken for centuries in
the neighborhood of Delhi and it was known
as Western Hindi, Hindvi, Dehlvi, Reekhta
and Hindustani. It is written in a modified
form of the Arabic alphabet and its
basically Indic vocabulary has been enriched
by borrowings from Arabic, Persian, English
and other Indian languages. Urdu has drawn
inspiration from Persian literature and has
now an enormous stock of words. The first
poetry in Urdu was by the Persian poet Ameer
Khusru (1253-1325) and the first Urdu book "Woh
Majlis" was written in 1728 and the first
time the word "Urdu" was used by
Saraj-ud-din Aarzoo in 1751. Urdu was an
official language in British India since
1835 and in India since 1947, where it is
spoken by Muslim population, is one of the
15 national languages recognized by the
constitution.
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English (Official Language)
English is
the official language, being widely used
within the government, by the civil service
and the officer ranks of the military.
Pakistan's Constitution and laws are written
in English. Many schools, and nearly all
colleges and universities, use English as
the medium of instruction.
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Punjabi (Provincial Language)
Punjabi is
spoken as a first language by ~44% of
Pakistanis, mostly in Punjab as well as by a
large number of people in Karachi. It is an
important language since Punjabi is spoken
by about half of Pakistanis. 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
Seraiki, which some regard as part of
Punjabi and others regard as separate
language. Punjabi is spoken by almost 60% of
the population in Pakistan. The standard
Punjabi dialects is from Lahore, Sialkot,
Gujranwala and Sheikupura districts of the
Pakistani Punjab which was used by Waris
Shah (1722-1798) in his famous book "Heer"
and is also now days langueage of Punjabi
literature, film and music; such as
Lollywood. Other dialects are Multani or
Siraiki in West and South, Pothowari in
North, Dogri in the mountain areas and
Shahpuri in Sargodha area.
Punjabi is very old language and it was
known as Sanskrit in Vedic-period (ca 4000
B.C.), Pali, Prakart and Upbharnash in Ashok-period
(273-32 B.C.) and Hindvi, Lahori and Multani
under Muslim period (711-1857). Punjabi
literature was principally spiritual in
nature and has had a very rich oral
tradition. The Great Sufi/Saint poetry has
been the folklore of the Punjab and still
sung with great love in any part of Punjab.
In India it is the official language of the
state of Punjab, and one of the 15 official
languages recognized by the Indian
constitution. It is also spoken in the
neighboring states of Haryana and Himachal
Pradesh. In addition about 25 percent of the
people living in the New Delhi metropolitan
area speak Punjabi in everyday life. All
told, there are about 25 million speakers in
India.
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Punjabi dialects:
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Majhi
This
dialect is "the standard Punjabi language"
and spoken in the heart of Punjab where most
of the Punjabi population lives. The main
districts are Lahore, Sheikhupura,
Gujaranwala and Sialkot in Pakistani Punjab
and Gurdaspur and Amritsar in Indian Punjab.
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Jhangvi
or Jangli
This
dialects is spoken in the central Pakistani
Punjab, stretches from districts Khanewal to
Jhang and includes Faisalabad and Chiniot.
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Shahpuri
This
dialect is spoken in Sargodha, Khushab and
Mandi Bahawaldin districts.
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Pothowari (regional language)
The area
where Pothowari is spoken extends in the
north from Azad Kashmir (Mirpur) to as far
south as Jhelum, Gujar Khan, Chakwal and
Rawalpindi.
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Hindko
This
dialect is spoken in districts of Peshawar,
Attock, Nowshehra, Mansehra, Abbotabad and
Murree.
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Malwi
Spoken in
the eastern part of Indian Punjab. Main
districts are Ludhiana, Ambala, Bathinda,
Ganganagar, Maleerkotla Fazilka, Ferozepur.
Malwa is the southern and central part of
present day Indian Punjab. Also includes the
Punjabi speaking northern areas of Haryana,
viz. Ambala, Hissar, Sirsa, Kurukhetra etc.
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Doabi
(regional language)
The word
"Do Aabi" means "the land between to rivers"
and this dialects is spoken between the
rivers of Beas and Sutlej. It includes
Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur districts.
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Siraiki
/Multani (regional language)
Siraiki or
Multani (also Lehndi by some) and perhaps
differs from Punjabi more than any other
dialect. Multani becomes more and more
different as you move down south, as the
influence of Sindhi increases, it is also
known as Siraiki there. Siraiki itself is
Sindhi word and means northern. See the map
of Siraiki language: Siraiki Area's City of
Mulatn, Bahawalpur, Rahimyar Khan, Rajanpur,
Dera Ghazi Khan, Bhakkar, Dera Ismail Khan,
Khanewal, Muzafargarh, Sukkur, Jaccobabad,
Layyah and Mianwali.
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Pashto (Provincial Language)
Pashto is
spoken as a first language by 15% of
Pakistanis, mostly in the North-West
Frontier Province, Federally Administered
Tribal Areas and in Balochistan as well as
by immigrants to the eastern provinces who
are often not counted due to census
irregularities. Additionally, Afghan
refugees are often outside the census count,
but appear to be largely Pashto speakers
from Afghanistan. Pashto speakers are almost
8% of Pakistani population and more than 50%
in Afghanistan. Pashto has no written
literary traditions although it has a rich
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 southern
areas. Khushal Khan Khatak (1613-1689) and
Rehman Baba (1633-1708) were some big poets
in Pashto language.
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Sindhi (Provincial Language)
Sindhi is
spoken as a first language by 14% of
Pakistanis, in Sindh and parts of
Balochistan. Sindhi has very rich literature
and is used in schools. Sindhi langugae
contains Arabic words and is affected by
Arabic language to a great extent. The
reason being Arab ruled Sindh for more than
150 years. Muhammad bin Qasim entered Sindh
and conquered it in 712 AD. He remained here
for three years and set up Arabic rule in
the area. According to historians, the
social fabric of Sindh comprises elements of
Arabic society. Sindhi is spoken in Pakistan
and is also one of the constitutional
languages of India. It is spoken by about 20
million people in the southern Pakistani
province of Sindh, Southern Pakistan, and by
about 2½ million more across the border in
India. In Pakistan it is written in the
Arabic script with several additional
letters to accommodate special sounds. The
largest Sindhi-speaking city is Hyderabad,
Pakistan. Sindhi literature is also
spiritual in nature and Shah Abdul Latif
Bhattai (1689-1752) was one of its legendry
poet who wrote Sassi Punnu, Umar Marwi in
his famous book "Shah jo Rasalo".
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Seraiki (Regional Language)
Seraiki is
related to Punjabi and Sindhi (See
Classification, below) Spoken as a first
language by 11% of Pakistanis, mostly in
southern districts of Punjab (see Seraikis).
All most 10% of the population of Pakistan
speak Siraiki language. Dialects tend to
blend into each other, into Punjabi to the
east, and Sindhi to the south. Until
recently it was considered to be a dialect
of Punajbi. 85% lexical similarity with
Sindhi; 68% with Odki and Sansi. Dialects
are Derawali, Khatki, Jangli or Jatki and
Riasti or Bahawalpuri.
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Balochi (Provincial Language)
Balochi is
spoken as a first language by 4% of
Pakistanis, mostly in Balochistan, Sindh and
southern Punjab. Baluchi language is spoken
by almost 3% of the Pakistani population and
is very close to the Persian language
itself. The name BALUCHI or BALOCHI is not
found before the 10th Century. It is
believed that the language was brought to
its present location in a series of
migrations from Northern Iran, near the
Caspian Shores. Rakshani is the major
dialect group in terms of numbers. Sarhaddi,
is a sub dialect of Rakshani. Other sub -
dialects are qalati, Chagai-kharani,
Panjguri. Eastern Hill Baluchi or Northern
Baluchi is very different from the rest.
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Gujarati (Regional Language)
Gujarati is
spoken by 100,000 Pakistanis who reside in
Lower Punjab and Sindh. All Parsi (5,000),
many Ismaili Muslims, and many Hindus
(10,000 to 100,000) speak Gujarati. Many
Parsi and Ismaili Muslims are literate in
Gujarati.
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Other languages
Numerous
other languages are spoken by relatively
small numbers of people, especially in some
of the more remote and isolated places in,
for example, the Northern Areas of Pakistan
[1]. These inlude: 1) Burshaski - Spoken in
Hunza 2) Shina - spoken in Baltistan 3)
Khowar - Spoken is Chitral 4) Kalash -
spoken the Kalash Valley
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Indo-Aryan
Most of
Pakistan's languages are Indo-Aryan
languages (80%). However, nearly all of
Pakistan's languages are Indo-European
languages.
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Lahnda dialects
Punjabi,
Hindko and Seraiki, all mutually
intelligible, are classified by linguists as
dialects of Lahnda [2], also spelled as
Lehnda. These are also, to a lesser extent,
mutually intelligible with Urdu. Added
together, speakers of these
mutually-intelligible languages make up
nearly two-thirds of Pakistan's population.
Seraiki also is similar to the Sindhi
language.
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Iranian family of languages
Pashto and
Balochi are classified as members of the
Iranian family of languages. [3] If
combined, Iranian peoples who speak Pashto,
Balochi, Dari (Afghan refugees speak both
Pashto and Afghan Persian dialect of Dari),
Persian, and Wakhi comprise over 20% of the
population of Pakistan. Persian was official
language of Muslim states for more than
thousand years before the British colonial
rule. It is taught and understood in many
schools in Pakistan.
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Semitic
Arabic is
widely taught and understood in Pakistan.
The Arabic is language of Islam and nearly
all Pakistani children learn it in schools
or Madrasahs (religious schools).
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Dravidian
Brahui
belongs to the Dravidian language family.
Brahui is a major language of western
Pakistan. Brahui is heavily influenced by
Baluchi and Sindhi, languages in which many
Brahui speakers are necessarily bilingual.
Although its Dravidian descent is still
obvious, Brahui now has rather few inherited
Dravidian words in its lexicon
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