| Saraiki | |
|---|---|
| سرائیکی | |
 | |
| Native to | Pakistan |
| Region | SouthernPunjab[1] SouthernKhyber Pakhtunkhwa[2] and NorthernSindh[3] |
| Ethnicity | Saraikis[4] |
Native speakers | 28.84 Million[5] |
| Perso-Arabic (Saraiki alphabet) Devanagari Gurmukhi Multani | |
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Saraiki area study centre (SASC), BZU Multan |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | skr |
| Glottolog | sera1259 |
 The proportion of people with Saraiki as theirmother tongue in each PakistaniDistrict as of the2017 Pakistan Census | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Saraiki ( سرائیکیSarā'īkī,IPA:[səɾaːiːkiː]; also speltSiraiki, orSeraiki) is anIndo-Aryan language of theLahnda group.[6] It is spoken by 28.84 million people, as per the2023 Pakistani census, taking prevalence in SouthernPunjab with remants in NorthernSindh and SouthernKhyber Pakhtunkhwa.[7]
Saraiki has partialmutual intelligibility withPunjabi,[8] and it shares with it a large portion of its vocabulary andmorphology. At the same time inits phonology it is radically different[9] (particularly in the lack of tones, the preservation of the voiced aspirates and the development of implosive consonants), and has important grammatical features in common with theSindhi language spoken to the south.[10] Saraiki is closely related to Western Punjabi dialects.[6]
Due to effects of dominant languages in Pakistani media likeUrdu,Punjabi andEnglish and religious impact ofArabic andPersian, Saraiki like other regional varieties of Pakistan are continuously expanding its vocabulary base with loan words.[11]
The present extent of the meaning ofSirāikī is a recent development, and the term most probably gained its currency during the nationalist movement of the 1960s.[12] It has been in use for much longer inSindh to refer to the speech of the immigrants from the north, principally Siraiki-speakingBaloch tribes who settled there between the 16th and the 19th centuries. In this context, the term can most plausibly be explained as originally having had the meaning "the language of the north", from theSindhi wordsiro 'up-river, north'.[13] This name can ambiguously refer to the northern dialects of Sindhi, but these are nowadays more commonly known as "Siroli"[14] or "Sireli".[15]
An alternative hypothesis is thatSarākī originated in the wordsauvīrā, orSauvira,[16] an ancient kingdom which was also mentioned in the Sanskrit epicMahabharata.
Currently, the most common rendering of the name isSaraiki.[a] However,Seraiki andSiraiki have also been used in academia until recently. Precise spelling aside, the name was first adopted in the 1960s by regional social and political leaders.[24]
Saraiki is a member of Western Punjabi sub family of theIndo-Aryan subdivision of theIndo-Iranian branch of theIndo-European language family.
In 1919,George Abraham Grierson maintained that the dialects of what is now the southwest of Punjab Province in Pakistan constitute a dialect cluster, which he designated "SouthernLahnda" within a putative "Lahnda language". Subsequent Indo-Aryanist linguists have confirmed the reality of this dialect cluster, even while rejecting the name "Southern Lahnda" along with the entity "Lahnda" itself.[25] Grierson also maintained that "Lahnda" was his novel designation for various dialects up to then called "Western Punjabi", spoken north, west, and south ofLahore. The local dialect of Lahore is theMajhi dialect ofPunjabi, which has long been the basis of standard literary Punjabi.[26] However, outside of Indo-Aryanist circles, the concept of "Lahnda" is still found in compilations of the world's languages (e.g.Ethnologue). Saraiki appears to be a transitional language betweenPunjabi andSindhi. Spoken inUpper Sindh as well as the southern Panjab, it is sometimes considered a dialect of either Sindhi or of Panjabi due to a high degree of mutual intelligibility.[27]
The following dialects have been tentatively proposed for Saraiki:[28]
The historical inventory of names for the dialects now called Saraiki is a confusion of overlapping or conflicting ethnic, local, and regional designations. One historical name for Saraiki, Jaṭki, means "of theJaṭṭs", a northernSouth Asian ethnic group. Only a small minority of Saraiki speakers are Jaṭṭs, and not all Saraiki speaking Jaṭṭs necessarily speak the same dialect of Saraiki. However, these people usually call their traditions as well as language asJataki. Conversely, several Saraiki dialects have multiple names corresponding to different locales or demographic groups. The name "Derawali" is used to refer to the local dialects of bothDera Ghazi Khan andDera Ismail Khan, but "Ḍerawali" in the former is the Multani dialect and "Derawali" in the latter is the Thaḷi dialect.[30][31]
When consulting sources before 2000, it is important to know that Pakistani administrative boundaries have been altered frequently. Provinces in Pakistan are divided intodistricts, and sources on "Saraiki" often describe the territory of a dialect or dialect group according to the districts. Since the founding of Pakistan in 1947, several of these districts have been subdivided, some multiple times.
In the context of South Asia, the choice between the appellations"language" and "dialect" is a difficult one, and any distinction made using these terms is obscured by their ambiguity.[32] In a sense both Saraiki and Standard Panjabi are "dialects" of a "Greater Punjabi" macrolanguage.[33] The term "Saraiki" was first introduced for theMultani,Riasti andDerawali dialects of this "Greater Punjabi" macrolanguage in the 1960s as a result of a sociopolitical movement.[34] According toPakistani politicians such asHanif Ramay andFakhar Zaman, the Saraiki linguistic movement was thought to have been pushed by feudal landowners of the Seraiki belt.[35]
Saraiki was considered adialect of Punjabi by mostBritish colonial administrators,[36] and is still seen as such by manyPunjabis.[37] Saraikis, however, consider it a language in its own right[38] and see the use of the term "dialect" asstigmatising.[39]A language movement was started in the 1960s to standardise a script and promote the language.[24][40] Thenational census of Pakistan has tabulated the prevalence of Saraiki speakers since 1981.[41]
Saraiki is primarily spoken in the south-western part of the province ofPunjab, in an area that broadly coincides with the extent of the proposedSouth Punjab Province. To the west, it is set off from thePashto- andBalochi-speaking areas by theSuleiman Range, while to the south-east theThar desert divides it from theMarwari language. Its other boundaries are less well-defined:Punjabi is spoken to the east;Sindhi is found to the south, after the border withSindh province; to the north, the southern edge of theSalt Range is the rough divide with the northern varieties of Lahnda, such asPothwari.[42]
Saraiki is the first language of approximately 29 million people in Pakistan according to the 2023 census.[7] The first national census of Pakistan to gather data on the prevalence of Saraiki was the census of 1981.[43] In that year, the percentage of respondents nationwide reporting Saraiki as their native language was 9.83. In the census of 1998, it was 10.53% out of a national population of 132 million, for a figure of 13.9 million Saraiki speakers resident in Pakistan. Also according to the 1998 census, 12.8 million of those, or 92%, lived in the province of Punjab.[44]
AfterPartition in 1947, Hindu and Sikh speakers of Saraiki migrated to India, where they are currently widely dispersed, though with more significant pockets in the states ofPunjab,Haryana,Rajasthan,Uttar Pradesh,Delhi andJammu and Kashmir.[45] There is also a smaller group of Muslimpastoralists who migrated to India, specificallyAndhra Pradesh, prior to Partition.[46]
There are census figures available – for example, in the 2011 census, 29,000 people reported their language as "Bahawal Puri", and 62,000 as "Hindi Multani".[47] However, these are not representative of the actual numbers, as the speakers will often refer to their language using narrower dialect or regional labels, or alternatively identify with the bigger language communities, like those of Punjabi, Hindi or Urdu. Therefore, the number of speakers in India remains unknown.[48] There have been observations of Lahnda varieties "merging" into Punjabi (especially in Punjab and Delhi), as well as of outrightshift to the dominant languages of Punjabi or Hindi.[49] One pattern reported in the 1990s was for members of the younger generation to speak the respective "Lahnda" variety with their grandparents, while communicating within the peer group in Punjabi and speaking to their children in Hindi.[50]
Saraiki's consonant inventory is similar to that of neighbouringSindhi.[51] It includesphonemically distinctiveimplosive consonants, which are unusual among the Indo-European languages. In Christopher Shackle's analysis, Saraiki distinguishes up to 48 consonants and 9monophthong vowels.[52]
The "centralised"[b] vowels/ɪʊə/ tend to be shorter than the "peripheral" vowels/iɛaou/.[53] The central vowel/ə/ is moreopen andback than the corresponding vowel in neighbouring varieties.[54]Vowel nasalisation is distinctive:/'ʈuɾẽ/ 'may you go' vs./'ʈuɾe/ 'may he go'.[55] Before/ɦ/, the contrast between/a/ and/ə/ is neutralised.[56] There is a high number of vowel sequences, some of which can be analysed asdiphthongs.
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |||
| Near-close | ɪ | ʊ | |||
| Mid | e | o | |||
| Near-open | ɛ | ə | |||
| Open | a |
Saraiki possesses a large inventory ofconsonants:[57]
In itsstop consonants, Saraiki has the typical for Indo-Aryan four-fold contrast betweenvoiced andvoiceless, andaspirated and unaspirated. In parallel toSindhi it has additionally developed a set ofimplosives, so that for each place of articulation there are up to five contrasting stops, for example: voiceless/tʃala/ 'custom' ~ aspirated/tʃʰala/ 'blister' ~ implosive/ʄala/ 'cobweb' ~ voiced/dʒala/ 'niche' ~ voiced aspirate/dʒʰəɠ/ 'foam'.[58]
There are five contrasting places of articulation for the stops:velar,palatal,retroflex,dental andbilabial. The dentals/ttʰddʰ/ are articulated with theblade of the tongue against the surface behind the teeth. The retroflex stops arepost-alveolar, the articulator being thetip of the tongue or sometimes theunderside.[59]There is no dental implosive, partly due to the lesser retroflexion with which theretroflex implosive/ᶑ/ is pronounced. The palatal stops are here somewhat arbitrarily represented with[tʃ] and[dʒ].[d] In casual speech some of the stops, especially/k/,/g/ and/dʒ/, are frequently rendered asfricatives – respectively[x],[ɣ] and[z].[60]
Of thenasals, only/n/ and/m/ are found at the start of a word, but in other phonetic environments there is a full set of contrasts in the place of articulation:/ŋɲɳnm/. The retroflexɳ is a realised as a true nasal only if adjacent to a retroflex stop, elsewhere it is a nasalisedretroflex flap[ɽ̃].[61] The contrasts/ŋ/ ~/ŋɡ/, and/ɲ/ ~/ɲdʒ/ are weak; the single nasal is more common in southern varieties, and the nasal + stop cluster is prevalent in central dialects. Three nasals/ŋnm/ have aspirated counterparts/ŋʰnʰmʰ/.
The realisation of thealveolar tap/ɾ/ varies with the phonetic environment. It istrilled if geminated to/ɾɾ/ and weakly trilled if preceded by/t/ or/d/. It contrasts with theretroflex flap/ɽ/ (/taɾ/ 'wire' ~/taɽ/ 'watching'), except in the variety spoken by Hindus.[62] The fricatives/fv/ arelabio-dental. Theglottal fricative/ɦ/ is voiced and affects the voice quality of a preceding vowel.[63]
There are notones in Saraiki.[64] All consonants except/hjɳɽ/ can begeminated ("doubled"). Geminates occur only after stressed centralised vowels,[65] and are phonetically realised much less markedly than in the rest of the Punjabi area.[66]
Astressed syllable is distinguished primarily by itslength: if the vowel is peripheral/iɛaou/ then it is lengthened, and if it is a "centralised vowel" (/ɪʊə/) then the consonant following it is geminated. Stress normally falls on the first syllable of a word. The stress will, however, fall on the second syllable of a two-syllable word if the vowel in the first syllable is centralised, and the second syllable contains either a diphthong, or a peripheral vowel followed by a consonant, for example/dɪɾ'kʰan/ 'carpenter'. Three-syllable words are stressed on the second syllable if the first syllable contains a centralised vowel, and the second syllable has either a peripheral vowel, or a centralised vowel + geminate, for example/tʃʊ'həttəɾ/ 'seventy-four'. There are exceptions to these rules and they account for minimal pairs like/it'la/ 'informing' and/'itla/ 'so much'.[67]
Unusually forSouth Asian languages,implosive consonants are found inSindhi, possibly someRajasthani dialects,[68] and Saraiki, which has the following series: /ɓᶑʄɠ/.
The "palatal"/ʄ/ isdenti-alveolar[69] andlaminal, articulated further forward than most other palatals.[59][e]
The "retroflex"/ᶑ/ is articulated with thetip or theunderside of the tongue, further forward in the mouth than the plain retroflex stops. It has been described aspost-alveolar,[70]pre-palatal orpre-retroflex.[69]Bahl (1936, p. 30) reports that this sound is unique in Indo-Aryan and that speakers of Multani take pride in its distinctiveness. The plain voiced/ɖ/ and the implosive/ᶑ/ are mostly incomplementary distribution although there are a few minimal pairs, like/ɖakʈəɾ/ 'doctor' ~/ᶑak/ 'mail'.[71][72] The retroflex implosive alternates with the plain voiced dental stop/d/ in thegenitivepostposition/suffix/da/, which takes the form of/ᶑa/ when combined with 1st or 2nd person pronouns:/meᶑa/ 'my',/teᶑa/ 'your'.[73]
Adental implosive (/ɗ̪/) is found in the northeasternJhangi dialect, considered transitional between Standard Punjabi and Saraiki byWagha (1997, p. 229),which is characterised by a lack of phonemic contrast between implosives and plain stops,[74] and a preference for implosives even in words where Saraiki has a plain stop.[61] The dental implosive in Jhangi is articulated with the tongue completely covering the upper teeth.[69] It is not present in Saraiki, althoughBahl (1936, p. 29) contends that it should bereconstructed for the earlier language. Its absence has been attributed to structural factors: the forward articulation of/ʄ/ and the lesser retroflexion of/ᶑ/.[72][71]
Aspirated (breathy voiced) implosives occur word-initially, where they contrast with aspirated plain stops:/ɓʰɛ(h)/ 'sit' ~/bʰɛ/ 'fear'.[75] The aspiration is notphonemic;[59] it is phonetically realised on the whole syllable,[76] and results from an underlying/h/ that follows the vowel, thus[ɓʰɛh] is phonemically/ɓɛh/.[77]
The historical origin of the Saraiki implosives has been on the whole[f] the same as in Sindhi. Their source has generally been the older language's series of plain voiced stops, thusSanskritjanayati > Saraikiʄəɲən 'be born'. New plain voiced stops have in turn arisen out of certain consonants and consonant clusters (for example,yava >dʒao 'barley'), or have been introduced in loanwords fromSanskrit,Hindi,Persian orEnglish (ɡərdən 'throat',bəs 'bus'). The following table illustrates some of the major developments:[78]
| Sanskrit/ Prakrit | Saraiki | example word[g] |
|---|---|---|
| b- | ɓ | bahu >ɓəhʊ̃ 'many' |
| dv- | dvitiya- >ɓja 'another' | |
| v- | vṛddhā >ɓuɖɖʱa 'old' | |
| b | vaṇa- >bən 'forest' | |
| v | vartman- >vaʈ 'path' | |
| j | ʄ | jihvā >ʄɪbbʰ 'tongue' |
| jy- | jyeṣṭhā >ʄeʈʰ 'husband's elder brother' | |
| -jy- | ʄʄ | rajyate >rəʄʄəɲ 'to satisfy' |
| -dy- | adya >əʄʄə 'today' | |
| y- | dʒ | yadi >dʒe 'if' |
| ḍ- | ᶑ | Pk.gaḍḍaha- >gəᶑᶑũ 'donkey' |
| d- | duḥkha >ᶑʊkkʰə 'sorrow' | |
| -rd- | ᶑᶑ | kūrdati >kʊᶑᶑəɲ 'to jump' |
| -dāt- | *kadātana >kəᶑᶑəɳ 'when' | |
| -bdh- | ɖɖ | stabdha >ʈʰəɖɖa 'cold' |
| -ṇḍ- | ɳɖ | ḍaṇḍaka >ᶑəɳɖa 'stick' |
| g | ɠ | gāva- >ɠã 'cow' |
| gr- | grantha >ɠəɳɖʰ 'knot' | |
| ɡ | grāma >ɡrã 'village' |
Within South Asia, implosives were first described forSindhi by Stake in 1855. Later authors have noted their existence in Multani and have variously called them "recursives" or "injectives", whileGrierson incorrectly treated them as "double consonants".[79]
| Saraiki alphabet |
|---|
| آابٻپتٹثجڄچحخدڈݙذرڑزژسشصضطظعغفقکگڳلمن (ں)ݨوہھیے |
ExtendedPerso-Arabic script |
In the province of Punjab, Saraiki is written using theArabic-derivedUrdu alphabet with the addition of sevendiacritically modified letters to represent the implosives and the extra nasals.[80][h] InSindh theSindhi alphabet is used.[10] The calligraphic styles used areNaskh andNastaʿlīq.[81]
Historically, traders or bookkeepers wrote in a script known askiṛakkī orlaṇḍā, although use of this script has been significantly reduced in recent times.[64][82] Likewise, a script related to theLanda scripts family, known asMultani, was previously used to write Saraiki. A preliminary proposal to encode the Multani script in ISO/IEC 10646 was submitted in 2011.[83] Saraiki Unicode has been approved in 2005.[citation needed] TheKhojiki script has also been in use, whereasDevanagari andGurmukhi are not employed any more.[81][better source needed]
The Department of Saraiki,Islamia University, Bahawalpur was established in 1989[17] and the Department of Saraiki,Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan[18] was established in 2006. BS Saraiki is also being offered by English department ofGhazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan and MA Saraiki is being offered byGomal University, Dera Ismail Khan privately. It is taught as a subject in schools and colleges at higher secondary and intermediate.[84][85] Saraiki is also taught at degree level at theAllama Iqbal Open University at Islamabad,[19] and the Al-Khair University at Bhimbir have Pakistani Linguistics Departments. They offer M.Phil. and Ph.D in Saraiki. The Associated Press of Pakistan has launched a Saraiki version of its site, as well.[86]
The language, partly codified during theBritish Raj, derived its emotional attraction from the poetry of theSufi saint,Khawaja Ghulam Farid, who has become an identity symbol.[87] His poems, known asKafi are still famous.
The beloved's intense glances call for blood
The dark hair wildly flows The Kohl of the eyes is fiercely black
And slays the lovers with no excuse
My appearance in ruins, I sit and wait
While the beloved has settled in Malheer I feel the sting of the cruel dart
My heart the, abode of pain and grief A life of tears, I have led Farid
— one of Khwaja Ghulam Farid's poems (translated)
Shakir Shujabadi (Kalam-e-Shakir,Khuda Janey,Shakir Diyan Ghazlan,Peelay Patr,Munafqan Tu Khuda Bachaway, andShakir De Dohray are his famous books) is a very well recognised modern poet.[88]
Ataullah Khan Esakhelvi andShafaullah Rokhri are considered legends ofSaraiki music and the most popular singers from theSaraiki belt.[89]
Former Pakistan Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gillani had said southern Punjab is rich in cultural heritage which needs to be promoted for next generations. In a message on the launch of Saraiki channel by Pakistan Television (PTV) inMultan, he is reported to have said that the step would help promote the rich heritage of 'Saraiki Belt'.[90]
| TV Channel | Genre | Founded |
|---|---|---|
| Waseb TV (وسیب ٹی وی) | Entertainment | |
| Kook TV (کوک ٹی وی) | Entertainment | |
| Rohi TV (روہی ٹی وی) | Entertainment | |
| PTV Multan (پی ٹی وی ملتان) | Entertainment | |
| PTV National (پی ٹی وی نیشنل) | Entertainment |
These are not dedicated Saraiki channels but most play programmes in Saraiki.
| Radio Channel | Genre | Founded |
|---|---|---|
| FM105 Saraiki Awaz Sadiq Abad | Entertainment |
The president of the Punjab PPP, Fakhir Zaman, thought that Seraiki was one among many other dialects of Punjabi. Hanif Ramay a former PPP chief minister of Punjab, had a similar stance. Both also thought that it was the feudal landowners of the Seraiki belt who were behind the separatist movement.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
