Saraiki language

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Saraiki
Spoken in: Pakistan, India[1], Afghanistan[2]
Total speakers: ~30,000,000
Language family: Indo-European
 Indo-Iranian
  Indo-Aryan
   NW zone
    Lahnda
     Saraiki 
Writing system: Arabic alphabet,[3] Gurmukhi script,[3] Devanagari script[3]
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: inc
ISO 639-3: skr
Indic script
 This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Saraiki (Perso-Arabic: سراییکی, Gurmukhi: ਸਰਾਇਕੀ), also called Multani (Perso-Arabic: ملتانی, Gurmukhi: ਮੁਲਤਾਨੀ, Devanagari: मुल्तानी), is an Indo-Aryan (Indic)[4] language mostly spoken in Southern Punjab and northern Sindh in central Pakistan by about 80 million people (according to 1998 census) as well as by about 506,096 people in India,[5] and by a small minority in Afghanistan.[2]

Contents

[edit] Classification

Saraiki is part of a dialect continuum with Punjabi and Sindhi. Saraiki, Punjabi and Sindhi are members of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family. sindhi language is a dialect of seraiki and many words are derived from seraiki as Seraiki is much older.

[edit] Geographic distribution

Saraiki is widely spoken and understood as a second language in northern and western Sindh down to the suburbs of Karachi and in the Kachhi plain of Balochistan. It is also known as Derawali in Derajat area. Saraiki is also spoken in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and it is third popular language after Pashtu and Punjabi. Saraiki is widely spoken in southern NWFP areas specially in Dera Ismail Khan, Kulachi and in Tank District and also spoken widely in Lakki Marwat. It is mostly spoken in the south of Punjab in Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Mailsi, Mianwali, Vehari, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajan Pur and Bahawalpur in Pakistan.

In India, it is known as Multani[6] and is spoken by the Multanis who settled mostly in the urban areas of the states of Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Gujarat after the partition of India in 1947. Their population in mainly concentrated in Delhi and in the towns of Haryana, such as Rohtak, Kaithal, Jind, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Fatehabad and Hissar.[4]

In Afghanistan, Kandahari, a dialect of Multani/Saraiki is a mother tongue of Afghan Hindus.[2]

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

Saraiki has three short vowels, seven long vowels and six nasal vowels.

[edit] Consonants

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Stops and
affricates		 Voiceless p pʰ t̪ t̪ʰ t tʰ ʧ ʧʰ k kʰ ʔ
Voiced b bʰ d̪ d̪ʰ d dʰ ʤ ʤʰ ɡ ɡʰ
Implosives ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ
Nasals m mʰ n nʰ ɳ ɲ ŋ
Fricatives Voiceless f s ʃ x h
Voiced v z ʒ ɣ
Trills r rʰ
Flaps ɽ ɽʰ
Laterals l lʰ
Semivowel j

[edit] Writing system

There are two writing systems for Multani / Saraiki. One is a variant of the Arabic script, which is in vogue today. Very few Saraiki speakers are literate in their own language, however, although some may be able to write other languages. However, the Hindus, especially the traders, wrote a script called Lahnda, which was written from left to right.[7][3][8] It is no longer used in present-day Pakistan, but there are still people of the generation that learned the script before the partition of India, when they had to flee, settle, and assimilate in different regions and linguistic territories of India and other places of the world. Some Indian Multanis also write in the Devanagari script.[9][3][10]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Siraiki Language, Literature, Art and Culture. Siraikipoint. Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
  2. ^ a b c Introduction. Afghan Hindu. Retrieved on 2007-12-08.
  3. ^ a b c d e An Article about Siraiki Scripts. Siraiki Language. Retrieved on 2007-12-08.
  4. ^ a b Seraiki. Ethnologue. Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
  5. ^ Abstract of speakers’ strength of languages and mother tongues – 2001, Census of India (retrieved 19 March 2008)
  6. ^ The Multani of India. Bethany World Prayer Center. Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
  7. ^ People and Languages in the Pre-Islamic Indus Valley. University of Texas. Retrieved on 2007-12-08.
  8. ^ ਮੁਲਤਾਨੀ. Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Retrieved on 2007-12-08.
  9. ^ Multani poets relive memories of struggle. Indian Express. Retrieved on 2007-12-08.
  10. ^ Multani Writing. The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia. Retrieved on 2007-12-08.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Ahsan, Wagha (1990). The Seraiki Language: Its Growth and Development. Islamabad: Dderawar Publications. 
  • Gardezi, Hassan N. (1996). Seraiki Language and its poetics: An Introduction. London: Sangat Publishers. 
  • Shackle, Christopher (1976). The Seraiki Language of Central Pakistan: A Reference Grammar. London: School of Oriental and African Studies. 
  • Shackle, Christopher (1977). "Siariki: A Language Movement in Pakistan". Modern Asian Studies 11 (3): 279–403. 

[edit] External links