Siraiki 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...

Seraiki (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

Classification

Seraiki 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.

Features

Dialects of Siraiki

  • Central Siraiki: (Multani) this covers the Districts of Multan Muzaffargarh and the northern part of Dera_Ghazi_Khan and Bahawalpur
  • Southern Siraiki (Riasti/Bahawalpuri) this includes Rahimyarkhan District ‘the southern part of Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan and the extreme southern tip of Muzaffar garh
  • Sindhi Siraiki: This is spoken all over Sindh, especially in the north
  • Northern Siraiki: (Hindki/Derawal) this area includes the Districts Mianwali and off Dera_Ismail_Khan in N.W.F.P
  • Jhangi Siraiki: spoken over a large part of District Jhang.
  • Shahpuri Siraiki: This is the language of Sargodha District and part of Jhang and Faisalabad
  • Jatki Siraiki It is spoken in areas of Naseer Abad and Kacchi(Balochistan)
  • Kandhari Siraiki (near to Multani)It is spoken by Hindus of Afghanistan [1]

Geographic distribution

Seraik is the only living language of 5,000 years old Indus Valley civilization. Seraiki 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 nearly 60 million people use it as thei first language. Seraiki is widely spoken in southern NWFP areas specially in Dera Ismail Khan, Kulachi and in Tank (Pakistan)|Tank District]] and also spoken widely in Lakki Marwat. It is mostly spoken in the southe-west of Punjab in Dera Ghazi Khan, Bhakkar, Layyah, Multan, Mailsi, Mianwali, Vehari, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajan Pur Muzaffar Garh, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Jhang, Sargodha, Khushab 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]

Phonology

Vowels

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

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

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]

See also

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.

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. 


External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saraiki_language"

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