LANGUAGES IN PAKISTAN

Urdu and English are official languages, but Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, Hindko, and Brahui are also spoken; English is common among the upper classes and in the government. . Most of Pakistanis can understand and speak Urdu but Urdu is the first language of only eight per cent of the population. More people speak Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto and Saraiki. Both Urdu and English serve as lingua francas.

According to the Pakistani government: The national language of Pakistan is Urdu, while English is the official language of the country, widely spoken and understood. Besides Urdu, there are six major and over fifty regional languages. The major regional languages are Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, Saraiki and Hindko. Other widely spoken languages are Potohari, Shina and Broshishki. All these languages have their own literary tradition. [Source: Ministry of Culture, Pakistan pakistanculture.org ]

Only 60 percent of Pakistanis are able to read and write, compared to an average of 72 percent in South Asia and 70 percent in low-income countries worldwide. This better than it used to be. In the 1990s only 40 percent of Pakistanis could read and write. The literacy rate for women is lower than for men, primarily the result of less education opportunities for females.

Arabic, the language of Islam, is widely used in religious matters. Arabic script has been adapted to spell Punjabi and Sindhi words.

Various honorifics and family names are used. The family name can be first or last. Names often indicate caste, religion, tribe and home region. "Khan" is a title of respect. It is better to refer to people by their surnames.

Pakistan’s Variety of Languages

Punjabi is spoken by 48 percent of the population, followed by Sindhi 12 percent: Saraiki (a Punjabi variant) 10 percent; Pashto (alternate names, Pashto. Pashto Pushto) 8 percent, Urdu (official) 8 percent; Baloch 3 percent; Hindko 2 percent; Brahui 1 percent, English (official; lingua franca of Pakistani elite and most government ministries), Burushaski, and other 8 percent. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]

Punjabi is closely related to Urdu while Sindh is more distinctive and has more unique features of its own. Siraiki, once regarded as a dialect of Punjabi, is now regarded as a separate language. It is spoken in southwest Punjab and neighboring areas. Pashto, the language of the Pashtuns, has few vowels and lots of consonants, and many Pakistanis say that Pashto speakers sound like their talking with mouthfuls of stones. Most Pakistanis speak the language of their ethnic group as their first language and learn Urdu and English in school.

Most public officials and many ordinary people speak English, which is sometimes is referred to as the informal official language of Pakistan. The status of English has declined somewhat as a result of "Urduization" efforts by the government. Urdu was created by combining the languages of early invaders and settlers, including Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. The spoken form of Urdu is the same as that of Hindi but it is written in a different script than Hindi. While Urdu and English are prevalent throughout Pakistan, a number of other languages are spoken in different valleys and areas. Among these are the Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, Brahui, Saraiki, and Hindko language and dialects.

Pakistani Indo-European Languages and How They are Related

Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto, English, Baloch and most of Pakistan's languages are part of the Indo-European family of languages. The Indo-European vernaculars stretch across the northern half of the Indian subcontinent in a vast range of related local dialects that change slightly from one village to the next. Residents of fairly distant communities typically cannot understand one another. Superimposed on this continuum are several types of more standardized literary or commercial languages. Although based on the vernaculars of their representative regions, these standardized languages are nonetheless distinct. [Source: Peter Blood, Library of Congress, 1994]

Punjabi is similar to Urdu, Sindhi less so. Urdu is virtually the same as Hindi, one the main languages of Europe. The languages spoken by the ethnic groups close to Iran are similar to Farsi, the Indo-European language spoken in Iran. Many of the Indo-European languages spoken in India and Pakistan are derived from Sanskrit and other languages associated with the Aryan invaders. The languages of eastern Pakistan tend be closely related to Hindi and other languages spoken in India while those in Western Pakistan are more closely related to Persian (Farsi) spoken in Iran.

A great many Arabic, Persian and English words have been incorporated into Pakistan’s languages. Urdu is the national language and the language of most print media. English has official status and often is regarded as the language of the elite and upwardly mobile. Urdu and English often are used in government and business. Punjabi is the most common language, , followed by Pashto, Sindhi, Siraiki, Urdu and Balochi. Smaller linguistic groups include the Hindko in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province), the Farsi-speaking Hazaras of Balochistan, and the Brahuis in Sindh and Balochistan. [Source: Library of Congress, February 2005 **]

English is an Indo-European language as are many European languages. Many people in big cities speak English and Urdu. Both languages are spoken throughout Pakistan as lingua franca. In addition to Urdu most Pakistanis speak their regional languages or dialects such as Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, Saraiki, Shina, Burushaski, Khowar, Wakhi, Hindko etc.

Language and Ethnic Identity in Pakistan

More than 50 languages are spoken in Pakistan and most associated with a region. The major languages are Punjabi and Sindhi spoken in the Punjab and Sindh regions. Language often articulates ethnic identity, and provincial boundaries are linguistically based. Urdu has been promoted as a means of unifying ethnic groups, but it is the mother tongue of only the Muhajirs. Furthermore, many groups perceive the establishment of Urdu as the national language as threatening to their employment potential, political participation, and ethnic identity. [Source: Library of Congress, February 2005 **]

The major languages in Pakistan — Punjabi, Sindhi, and Urdu — as well as Pashto or Pashto, Balochi, and others, belong to the Indo-Aryan branch of the IndoEuropean language family. Additional languages, such as Shina and other northern-area languages, are related to the Dardic branch of Indo-European and the early Dravidian language family. Brahui is one such language; it is spoken by a group in Balochistan. [Source: Peter Blood, Library of Congress, 1994 *]

Among the major languages spoken in the tribal areas are Baloch and Brahui in Balochistan; Pashto in the Pashtun areas near the Afghan border; and Khowar, Kohistani, Shina, Burushaski and Balti spoken in the mountainous Northwest Frontier Province and Northern Areas.

Some Dravidian language speakers live in Pakistan and Sri Lanka but most are found in southern India. Burushaski is unrelated to any other language. Gujarati and Kutchi languages are found in northern Pakistan. Kutchi is not a written languages, it must be conveyed orally. Shina, the language of the Gilgit area, and other languages of the mountains regions are mostly Indo-Aryan in origin but gave been separated for so long that they have developed unusual characteristics.

Education and Language in Pakistan

Each of Pakistan’s four provinces — Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — and the federally administered areas have their own school systems. They are also the traditional homelands of specific ethnic groups, which have their own languages: Punjabi in Punjab, Sindhi in Sindh, Balochi in Balochistan and Pashto in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, There are public and private schools in Pakistan including those with English, Sindhi or Urdu as their medium of instruction. In the province of Sindh, schools also have the option of Sindhi as a medium of instruction

Anjum Halai of Aga Khan University said: Pakistan is a linguistically diverse country with approximately 57 languages spoken throughout the country. Urdu is the national language and the lingua franca less although than 10% of the population speaks it natively. Urdu is the language of instruction in government schools and in low-fee paying private schools, while English is the medium of instruction in elite private schools and institutions of the federal government. [Source: “TIMSS 2019 Pakistan; Where to Next.”Anjum Halai, Aga Khan University, Pakistan, International Mathematics Symposium, January 2021]

“Language plays a crucial role in cognition and communication. The percentage of students in the sample from Pakistan who reported speaking the language of the test at home is noted. Fourth Grade Students in Pakistan who Speak the Language of the Test at Home: Always (22 percent); Almost always (10 percent); Sometimes (32 percent); Never (36 percent).

Results of TIMSS2019 showed that about two-thirds of students (63 percent) at fourth grade, on average, reported “always” speaking the language of the test at home, and most of the remaining students (32 percent) at fourth grade reported speaking it “almost always” or “sometimes.” There was relatively little variation in average achievement across these categories. However, the few students (5 percent) at fourth grade, on average who “never” spoke the language of the test at home had much lower average achievement in mathematics

Urdu

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan and is also spoken by millions of people in India It was developed by Muslim invaders of South Asia to communicate with local people and was of the lingua franca and ultimately the court language of the Mughals. Urdu is similar enough to Hindi — the official language in India — so that Urdu-speakers can watch Hindi shows on television and understand — or at least get the gist of — what they are saying.

Urdu is a mixture of predominantly Turkish, Arabic, and Persian with languages of the sub-continent. Urdu is written in the Persian script. It was adopted as the court language during the latter period of the Mughal Empire. Urdu played a dominant role in the re-awakening of Muslim nationalism in the sub-continent, which culminated in the Pakistan Movement. Urdu was therefore adopted as the national language of the country. [Source: Ministry of Culture, Pakistan pakistanculture.org ]

According to Omniglot: Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language with about 104 million speakers, including those who speak it as a second language. It is the national language of Pakistan and is closely related to and mutually intelligible with Hindi, though a lot of Urdu vocabulary comes from Persian and Arabic, while Hindi contains more vocabulary from Sanskrit. Linguists consider Standard Urdu and Standard Hindi to be different formal registers both derived from the Khari Boli dialect, which is also known as Hindustani. At an informal spoken level there are few significant differences between Urdu and Hindi and they could be considered varieties a single language. [Source: Omniglot]

Urdu has been written with a version of the Perso-Arabic script that originated in the 12th century and is normally written in Nastaliq style. The word Urdu is Turkish for "foreign" or "horde" or "language of the camp". Urdu is also spoken in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Fiji, Germany, Guyana, India, Malawi, Mauritius, Nepal, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, the UAE, the UK and Zambia.

Arguably more people speak Urdu well in India than in Pakistan. In 2015 there were about 109 million speakers of Urdu in Pakistan, 15 million of whom speak it as a native language. There were about 58 million Urdu speakers in India in 2011, mainly in Jammu, Kashmir and Maharashtra states. There were about 738,000 speakers of Urdu in Nepal in 2011, and the language was spoken by about 250,000 in Bangladesh in 2003.

History of Urdu

Urdu was created by combining the languages of early invaders and settlers, including Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. The spoken form of Urdu is more or less the same as that of Hindi but it is written in a different script than Hindi. Urdu is written with a version of a Perso-Arabic script that originated in the 12th century. The Urdu language originated during the Mughal period. (1526- 1858) and was the court language of the Mughals.

Urdu literally means "a camp language," for it was spoken by the imperial Mughal troops from Central Asia as they mixed with speakers of local dialects of northern India. Increasingly, elements of Persian, the official language of the Mughal administration, were incorporated until Urdu attained its stylized, literary form in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Devanagari script (used for Sanskrit and contemporary Hindi) was never adopted; instead, Urdu has always been written using the Persian script. These two literary languages, Urdu and Hindi, arose from colloquial Hindustani, the lingua franca of modern India before partition. [Source: Peter Blood, Library of Congress, 1994]

Urdu and its sister language Hindi came into wide use in the 17th and 18th centuries. The two languages are virtually the same except that words of Muslim origin in Urdu were replaced with Sanskrit (the ancient Brahman language) ones in Hindi. Both Hindi and Urdu have elements in common with other Indo-European languages such as English and French.

Urdu was chosen as a a national language and symbol of unity for the new state of Pakistan in 1947, because it had already served as a lingua franca among Muslims in north and northwest British India. The push to elevate Urdu was unpopular in East Pakistan, where most of the population speaks Bengali (officially referred to as Bangla in Bangladesh since 1971) and identifies with its literary heritage. Language riots in Dhaka occurred in the early 1950s, leading to the elevation of Bengali as a second national language with Urdu until the secession of East Pakistan in 1971; when Bangladesh became independent, Bangla was designated the official language.

Instruction in the best schools continued to be in English until the early 1980s. Mastery of English was highly desirable because it facilitated admission to good universities in Britain, the United States, and Australia. Then, in a move to promote nationalism, the government of Zia ul-Haq declared Urdu to be the medium of instruction in government schools. Urdu was aggressively promoted via television, radio, and the education system. Private schools in urban centers (attended by children of the elite) were allowed to retain English, while smaller rural schools could continue to teach in the provincial languages. [Source: Peter Blood, Library of Congress, 1994 *]

Urdu and South Asian Muslim Identity

Although Urdu is the official national language, it is spoken as a native tongue by only 8 percent of the population. People who speak Urdu as their native language generally identify themselves as Muhajirs. A large number of people from educated backgrounds (and those who aspire to upward mobility) speak Urdu, as opposed to their natal languages, in their homes, usually to help their children master it. [Source: Peter Blood, Library of Congress, 1994 *]

South Asian Muslims have long felt that Urdu symbolizes their shared identity. It has served as a link among educated Muslims and was stressed in the Pakistan independence movement. Christopher Schackle writes that "Urdu was the main literary vehicle of the Muslim elite of India." At independence, the Muslim League (as the All-India Muslim League was usually referred to) promoted Urdu as the national language to help the new Pakistani state develop an identity, even though few people actually spoke it. However, because many of the elite were fluent in English, English became the de facto national language.

In an effort to unify the country, the government of Pakistan has tried to encourage people to speak Urdu. Muhajirs have traditionally been the only Pakistanis speak Urdu at home. Many other ethnic groups in Pakistan learn it in school. While it is spoken by only a minority, Urdu is understood everywhere except in the rural or mountainous areas on the western frontier. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]

Development of Hindi and Urdu

According to Omniglot: Linguists consider Standard Urdu and Standard Hindi to be different formal registers both derived from the Khari Boli dialect, which is also known as Hindustani. At an informal spoken level there are few significant differences between Urdu and Hindi and they could be considered varieties a single language. Urdu has been written with a version of the Perso-Arabic script since the 12th century and is normally written in Nastaliq style.” Hindi is written in Devanagari script, also called Nagari. Devanagari consists of 11 vowels and 33 consonants and is written from left to right. Hindi first started to be used in writing during the A.D. 4th century. It was originally written with the Brahmi script but since the A.D. 11th century it has been written with the Devanagari alphabet. The first printed book in Urdu was John Gilchrist's Grammar of the Hindoostanee Language which was published in 1796. [Source: Omniglot]

Urdu and Hindi began as the same language but developed in separate languages, with Urdu written in Arabic script and linked with Muslims while Hindi was written in Devanagari script and "purified"—meaning that Urdu’s Persian and Arabic words were replaced with Sanskrit ones. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, special societies sprung up that promoted the use of Hindi and the Devanagari script in schools. In 1947, when India achieved independence and India and Pakistan were divided, Hindi became the main language of India and Urdu became he main language of Pakistan, although the two languages were still essentially the same. Hindustani, a blend of Hindi and Urdu, is widely spoken in northern India today.

Since independence, under pressure from Hindu extremists, further efforts were made to "purify" Hindi. More foreign words were expunged and replaced with Sanskrit-descended words. In some cases English words were replaced with ridiculously long Sanskrit-derived words. "Station" for example was replaced with " agnirathyantraviramsha, which literally means "resting place for a chariot run by fire."

The development of Hindi and Urdu gives a glimpse of the processes at work in language evolution in South Asia. Hindi and Urdu are essentially one language with two scripts, Devanagari and Persian-Arabic, respectively. In their most formal literary forms, the two languages have two vocabularies (Hindi taking words by preference from Sanskrit, Urdu from Persian and Arabic) and tend to be culturally connected with Hindu and Islamic culture, respectively. Hindi-Urdu developed from the Khari Boli dialect of Delhi, the capital city of the Delhi Sultanate, and it was the speech of the classes and neighborhoods most closely connected with the Mughal court (1556-1858). In time, the language spread even into South India because it served as a common medium of communication for trade, administration, and military purposes. Classical Urdu appropriated a large number of words from Persian, the official language of the Mughal Empire, and through Persian from Arabic. [Source: Library of Congress *]

By the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Urdu had developed into a highly stylized form written in a Persian-Arabic script. After the British took over from the Mughals, whose language of administration was Persian, Urdu began to serve as the language of administration in lower courts in the north. British administrators and missionaries, however, felt that the high literary form of Urdu was too remote from everyday life and was suffused by a Persian vocabulary unintelligible to the masses. Therefore, they instigated the development of modern standard Hindi in Devanagari script. Hindi now predominates in a number of states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh, and in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Urdu is the majority language in no large region but is more commonly spoken in North India and is the official administrative language of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. In South India, people in urban Muslim communities in former administrative capitals, such as Hyderabad or Bangalore, may regularly use Urdu at home or in their workplace.*

Urdu Grammar, Pronunciation and Phrases

Verbs in Urdu occur at the end of a sentence. Instead of prepositions, Urdu uses postpositions which come after the noun. Repeated words are used to express emphasis. "Slow, slow," means "very slowly" and "near, near" means "very close." "Echo words" express similarities. These include " puli guli," which means "tigers and tiger-like animals."

Urdu has many nasalized and non-nasalized vowels and aspirated, nonaspirated, dental and retroflex consonant. This means there are many sounds that are difficult for non-Indians and non-Pakistanis to pronounce and plenty of opportunities for puns. Ghanta, the word for "bell" sounds exactly like the word for "penis." One of the worst insults you can hurl at a man is "brother-in-law." It implies that you have slept with his sister.

Here are some basic Urdu phrases. If you can speak those, it will delight everyone you meet:
'Assalaam Alaykum' — Hello (literally meaning 'may peace be on you')
'Khuda Hafiz' or 'Allah Hafiz' — Goodbye (literally meaning 'may God take care of you')
'Shukria' — Thank you
'Maaf karo' — literally 'forgive me'; useful when dealing with beggars
'Mera naam Mike Peters hai'- My name is Mike Peters
'Mein Tanzania say hoon' — I am from Tanzania
'Mujhay Lahore bohat pasand hai' — I really like Lahore
'Aap ka naam kya hai' — what is your name?
'Aap kahaan rehtey hain' — where do you live?
'Khana bohot mazaydaar hai' — the meal is delicious

Urdu Swear Words

aaja choos mera lurs: come here and suck my big dick
apna lun cuti shur: cut your dick off
Behn ki chutar: sister's vagina
bhai chode: brother fucker
Bhen chot: Sisterfucker
Bhen ke lorray: Sister's penis
bosard chodi kay: bad fucked child
chatt merai tattai: lick my balls
Choom meri Gaand: Kiss my ass
Choos Mera Lora: Suck my Dick
chooth kay pakoray: vaginal treats
choti se luli: small penis
[Source: youswear.com]

Chut ke chatney: Chutney of vagina
dari moni pudi mari: I fucked your mother
deli mali guti: your mum is a bitch
doe dolla raandee: 2 dollar whore
gaand chamchi: spoon up your ass
gaand ka bukhaar: pain in the ass
Gaddha: Donkey
ghandoo: dick
Ghasti Kay Bachay: Son Of A Bitch
haraam salle: bastard
Haraamzada: Son of a bitch male
Haraamzadi: Son of a bitch female
jhaant kay baal: pubic hair
kanjeri kay bachay: prostitute child
Khuss madri kay: from a mothers vagina

kutee chode: dog fucker
kutte ka ghanta: Dog's dick
lalchi kutte kaa bacha: son of a crazy dog
Lola/Lula: Dick
looly: penis
lora le kay nach mera: take my penis and dance
Lula mu ki lan: Dick i shagged your mam
Lun Chuse: Suck a dick
Maan Chod: Mother Fucker
Maan kay laurday: Mother's cock
Mayyaada: Mother fucker
mera laan choop: suck by cock
monney podey: a mum's cock
moomeh: boobs
muth ki malai: rotten semen
Myyaada: Mother fucker
pancho: fuck
peasah nah mahr: don’t fart
Phudi: Pussy
Randee ka bacha: Son of a whore
rundi ka bacha: son of a whore
tari beh na puda paarsan: im gonna rip ur moms vagina
Tattay chooso: suck my balls
tattee choad: shithead

tere bhen meri chod hain: your sister is my dick
tere gand maroo: fuck you
Teri Gaand Main Kutta Mutre: Dog Pees in Your Ass
teri gand ma keera hai: an insect in your ass
teri gand mera lun hai: my dick in your ass
Teri Ma ki choot: Your mother pussy
Teri Ma Ko Kuttey Chodein: May dogs fuck your mom
teri maa ki phudi: your mom’s pussy
Toomaray tattay baraay pahraay heh: Youe balls are very heavy
tu tho meri chod ki tara : you look like my dick
Uloo Ki Pata: Son of An Owl
Uloo Ki Pati: Daughter of An Owl
ulu chod: owl fucker

Punjabi

The term Punjabi is used to describe both the inhabitants of the Punjab and speakers of the predominate language there. Punjabi is an Indo-European language, related to Hindi and clearly related to languages spoken by neighboring people particularly Pahari. There are six major dialects, each associated with a different area. Majhi and Malwa are considered the most “pure.” [Source: Most of the information for this articles comes from the Encyclopedia of World Cultures: South Asia, edited by Paul Hockings, C.K. Hall & Company, 1992]

Punjabi, spoken by nearly half of the population of Pakistan, is an old, literary language whose early writings consist chiefly of folk tales and romances, the most famous being the eighteenth-century Punjabi poet Waris Shah's version of Heer Ranjha (the love story of Heer and Ranjha). Although Punjabi was originally written in the Gurmulki script, in the twentieth century it has been written in the Urdu script. Punjabi has a long history of being mixed with Urdu among Muslims, especially in urban areas. Numerous dialects exist, some associated with the Sikhs in India and others associated with regions in Pakistan. An example of the latter is the variant of Punjabi spoken in Sargodha in central Punjab. [Source: Peter Blood, Library of Congress, 1994]

Punjabi is closely related to Urdu while Sindh is more distinctive and has more unique features of its own. Siraiki, once regarded as a dialect of Punjabi, is now regarded as a separate language. It is spoken in southwest Punjab and neighboring areas. According to the CIA World Factbook, 2020, Punjabi is spoken by 48 percent of the population of Pakistan; Saraiki, 10 percent.

World’s Most Widely Spoken Languages

World’s most widely spoken languages based on the number of native speakers: 1) Chinese — 1.3 billion native speakers; 2) Spanish — 460 million native speakers; 3) English — 379 million native speakers; 4) Hindi — 341 million native speakers; 5) Arabic — 315 million native speakers; 6) Bengali — 228 million native speakers; 7) Portuguese — 220 million native speakers; 8) Russian — 153 million native speakers; 9) Japanese — 128 million native speakers; 10) Lahnda (Western Punjabi) spoken in Pakistan. — 118 million native speakers. [Source: Babbel.com]

World’s most widely spoken languages based on the number of total speakers — 1) English — 1.132 billion total speakers; 2) Mandarin Chinese — 1.117 billion total speakers; 3) Hindi — 615 million total speakers; 4) Spanish — 534 million total speakers; 5) French — 280 million total speakers; 6) Standard Arabic — 274 million total speakers; 7) Bengali — 265 million total speakers; 8) Russian — 258 million total speakers; 9) Portuguese — 234 million total speakers; 10) Indonesian — 199 million total speakers,

The above numbers are total number of people who speak the languages with some speaking it as their mother tongue and others speaking it as lingua franca, and others simply speaking it, perhaps to get ahead in business. Eight of the 10 languages are also most widely spoken languages based on the number of native speakers. But there are some key differences. English narrowly beats out Chinese for the top spot; Japanese and Punjabi drop out while French and Indonesian move up due to the fact that that more people speak them as a second language than as a native language.

According to Babbel.com: With varying estimates of around 118 million native speakers, the Lahnda is a Pakistani macrolanguage that primarily includes Western Punjabi!. More people speak it than German. And doesn’t even include Eastern Punjabi, which is spoken in India.

Pashto: the Pashtun Language

The Pashtuns (Pathans) are an ethnic group that live in western and southern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan and whose homeland is in the valleys of Hindu Kush.The Pashtuns speak Pashto (also spelled Pukhto, Pakhto, Pushto or Pukhtu), which is in the the North-Eastern group of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It is more similar to Baloch than Urdu. There are several Pashto dialects. The main ones, which differ significantly in pronunciation, are Southwestern, or Qandahari Pashto, and Northeasterm of Peshawari Puhkto. The dialects spoken by the northen tribes, particularly the Yusufzai, are regarded as the most “correct” or “standard” versions. [Source: Akbar S. Ahmed with Paul Titus “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Hockings, 1996 |~|]

Pashto is famous for its long strings of consonants that make its speakers sound as if they are talking with a mouthful or rocks. Both Pashto and Dari, a dialect of Farsi (Persian), are written with an Arabic script modified to accommodate consonants not found in Arabic. Most Pashtuns in Afghanistan speak Dari as a second language. Dari and Pashto are the official language of Afghanistan. Dari has had a strong influence on Pashto.

According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”: The name of Pashtun language, Pashto, denotes the strong code of customs, morals, and manners of the Pashtun, which is also called Pashtunwali. There is a saying: "A Pashtun is not he who speaks Pashto, but he who has Pashto."...Two cities in the Pashto area are important centers of Pashto language: Kandahar in Afghanistan and Peshawar in Pakistan. In literary works, the trend is to avoid the dialectal differences and use the form of Pashto used in the urban centers. “Pashto has always been written in the Perso-Arabic script, with the addition of consonant phonemes of Pashto. The name of the language, Pashto, denotes the strong code of customs, morals, and manners of the Pashtun, which is also called Pashtunwali. [Source: revised by M. Kerr, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”, Cengage Learning, 2009]

Sindhi Language

The peoples of Sindh speak a language called Sindhi. According to the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”: “The Sindhi language is spoken by less than 4 percent of the population of Pakistan. It has fewer dialects than Punjabi and has a small but important literary tradition of its own. There are” several “million people who claim it as a native tongue: they are concentrated in the former province of Sindh and Kharipur State as well as in the area around Karachi and in Balochistan. The Sindhi script is similar to the Urdu script, yet different enough not to be easily read by a person who has learned to read in Urdu. The script is Arabo-Persian in its origin, but the language is Indo-Aryan. [Source: Sarwat S. Elahi, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Hockings, 1992 |~|]

D. O. Lodrick wrote in the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”: Sindhi is an Indo-Aryan tongue but has a large number of Persian and Arabic words, reflecting centuries of Muslim influence in the region. Vicholi is the standard dialect of Sindhi, while Siraiki, Thareli, and Lari are other local forms of the language. Kachchi, a dialect of Sindhi, is spoken in neighboring areas of India (the Rann of Kutch, and the Kathiawar Peninsula). The Sindhi script is similar to that used for Urdu, yet different enough not to be read easily by a person who has learned Urdu. The script is Perso-Arabic in origin, even though Sindhi is an Indo-Aryan language. Hindus use a form of the Devanagari script for writing Sindhi. Some 2.5 million Sindhi-speakers lived in India as of 2008. [Source: D. O. Lodrick “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”, Cengage Learning, 2009 *]

“Perhaps the language closest to the original Prakit and Sanskrit of all the tongues of north India, Sindhi has a literary tradition that extends back to the 11th century. The earliest Sindhi works were poetry showing both Islamic and Hindu influences, though later epics emerged as important. Perhaps the best known Sindhi poet, Shah Abdul Letif (1690-1773) emerged during the early 18th century, while modern Sindhi literature consists of works of both poetry (dominated by the giant figure of Shaikh Ayaz [1923-1997]) and prose. *\

Sindh Languages

In Sindh — more so than other provinces — a wide variety of different languages are spoken. Sindhi is the major spoken language in Sindh. Key dialects are Kachchi, Lari, Lasi, Thareli, Vicholo (Central Sindhi), Macharia, Dukslinu (Hindu Sindhi) and Sindhi Musalmani (Muslim Sindhi). [Source: Ministry of Culture, Pakistan pakistanculture.org ]

Nearly 14 million Muslim refugees (Muhajirs) settled in Sindh after the independence of Pakistan, populating mostly urban centers of the province. They spoke Urdu, Gujarati, Bengali as well as other languages that reflect their different regions of origin. Urdu is the second major language spoken in urban areas of Sindh.

Dhatki, also known as Dhati or Thari, is a Marwari dialect of Rajasthani language. Bagri language, a dialect of Rajasthani language is also spoken in Sindh. Goaria is a Marwari Rajasthani language spoken by some 25,000 people in Sindh Province of Pakistan. This language is used by Hindus prominently.

Memons speak an unwritten language called Memoni, a mixture of Sindhi and Kutchi. Kutchi language, a dialect of Indo-Aryan is spoken in Bhanushalis (Bhunsari in Kutchi), Nizari Ismaili Muslims (satpanth), and various other Muslim communities in the region, including other Muslim Khojas and the Kutchi Memon community.

Parkari Koli (sometimes called just Parkari) is a language mainly spoken in the province of Sindh. Saraiki is also spoken in Sindh. It is an Indo-European language, related to Kutchi, Gujarati and other Indo-European languages. Aer is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 200 people in Sindh, Pakistan.

Sindhi language known for its rich literature was very popular literary language between 14th and 18th centuries. The Sindhi language first appeared in writing in the 8th century AD. It is established that Sindhi was the first and the earliest language of East in which the Quran was translated in the eighth or 9th century A.D.

Balochi Language

Baloch speak Balochi, an Indo-Iranian language that belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and is related to Kurdish. There are three distinct Baloch divisions: Eastern, Western and Southern Balochi. Until the 19th century Baloch had no written form because Persian was the language of official use. Illiteracy rates have been very high among Balochi.

Linguistic evidence indicates the origin of Baloch to be in the pre-Christian Medean or Parthian civilizations. The modern form has incorporated elements from Persian, Sindhi, Arabic, and a number of other languages. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, Baloch intellectuals used Persian and Urdu scripts to transcribe Baloch into written form. Since Pakistan's independence and with the rise of Baloch nationalism, Baloch have favored the Nastaliq script, an adaptation of Arabic script. [Source: Peter Blood, Library of Congress, 1994 *]

D. O. Lodrick wrote in the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”: family. Related to Kurdish and Pashto, modern Baluchi shows borrowings from Persian, Arabic, Sindhi, and other languages....Six individual dialects of Baloch are identified. No written form of the language existed before the early 19th century. Persian was used for official purposes until that time. Subsequently, Baloch was written in the Persian and Urdu scripts. With the rise of Baloch nationalism, an adaptation of the Arabic script known as Nastaliq has been adopted for writing purposes.” [Source: D. O. Lodrick, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”, Cengage Learning, 2009]

Brahui Language

The Brahui are a Dravidian language group of tribes that live mostly in Balochistan and the Sindh, Brahui, also known as the Brahvi or Brohi, speak a non-Indo-European language that belongs to the Dravidian family of languages which are spoken mostly in southern India and is different from the other languages spoken in Pakistan by the Pashtuns, Punjabis, Baloch and Sindhis. Many Brahui speak Baloch; their language contains many Baloch and Sindhi loan words. There has traditionally been no Brahui script. Many Brahui-speakers are bilingual, speaking Baloch or other local languages.

The Dravidian language group includes at least 21 other languages spoken mostly in south and central India. They are quite different from the Indo-Aryan languages spoken in northern India. The four largest Dravidian languages are spoken in the four linguistic states in southern India. Some Dravidian language speakers live in Pakistan and Sri Lanka but most are found in southern India. Tamils consider their language to be the “most pure” of the major Dravidian languages. Modern written and spoken Tamil is very similar to Tamil used 2,000 years ago. This is attributed to the high value put on the purity of language and an adversity to incorporating Sanskrit and Hindi words into the language. Regional dialects of Tamil, including the one spoken in Sri Lanka, do not differ all that much from one another.

The fact that the Brahui language is related to the languages spoken by people living almost 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away has long puzzled South Asian linguists. There are three hypotheses regarding the roots of the Brahui: 1) the Brahui are a relict population of Dravidians that perhaps dates the Indus Valley civilization or a time when Dravidian was more widespread; 2) the Brahui migrated to Baluchistan from inner India during the early Muslim period of the 13th or 14th centuries; 3) the Brahui migrated to Balochistan from Central India after A.D. The Brahui do not have much of genetic connection with Dravidian populations in India — about the same as other Pakistanis. Pagani, et al. argues that this means the Dravidian’s genetic component has been replaced by Indo-Iranian speakers, suggesting that the Brahui are descendants of a previous relict population. [Source: Wikipedia]

Linguistic findings and oral histories of the Brahui however suggest otherwise. Murray Barnson Emeneau wrote in “Language and Linguistic Area”: “The history of the Brahui emerges from total darkness with the displacement of a shadowy Hindu dynasty in Kalat called Sewa by the Mirwani Brahuis. There is a Mughal interlude and then Brahui ascendancy again.” The Sewa are said to have been Hindu dynasty that ruled over part of what is now Balochistan before the 7th century, Kalat is still known as Kalat-i-Sewa.

English in Pakistan

English is the official language of Pakistan and the lingua franca of Pakistani elite and most government ministries, and for a lot of ordinary Pakistanis as well. English is widely used in government, commerce, the officer ranks of the military, and in many institutions of higher learning. The status of English has declined somewhat as a result of "Urduization" efforts by the government, but it is still used extensively in business and government..

English is an Indo-European language as are many European languages and the languages spoken in Pakistan. Many people in big cities speak English and Urdu. English is understood and spoken at varying levels of competence by many people around Pakistan, especially by the people who have gone through higher levels of education.

Many Pakistanis learn English in school. The language is widely spoken by people who come in contact with tourists. People throughout the country speak English. Many books, maps, newspapers and magazines are available in English. .

Pakistani English

According to the “Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language” in the late 1990s: The English language as used in Pakistan, a variety of South Asian English close to that of northern India. English has had co-official status with Urdu since independence in 1947, but the constitution of 1959 and the amendments of 1968, 1972, and 1985 recognize Urdu as pre-eminent and restrict the use of English, the aim being its eventual replacement. Both are minority languages. In 1981, the president appointed a study whose report recommended that ‘Urdu should continue to be the only medium of instruction at the school level, with no exception’ (1982), but that English and Arabic be introduced as additional languages from class six (sixth grade: age 11); a federal agency should ensure that the policy is implemented. [Source: Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press 1998]

English is an important medium in a number of leading educational institutions. It is the main language of technology, international business, and communication among a national élite, and a major element in the media. The constitution and the laws of the land are codified in English, and the Pakistan Academy of Letters recognizes works in English for its literature award. It also has a considerable influence on the vernacular languages; S. Hands notes that in personal interaction, ‘the use of an English word is believed to add a note of refinement and elegance to conversation in the “lower” languages’.

“Pronunciation and grammar: 1) Pakistan English is rhotic, tends to be syllable-timed, and shares many features with northern Indian English. 2) Some pronunciation features are typical of speakers of regional languages: for example, speakers of Punjabi have difficulty with such initial consonant clusters as /sk, sp/ (saying ‘səport’ and ‘səkool’ for sport and school); Urdu speakers also have difficulty with initial consonant clusters (saying ‘isport’ and ‘iskool’ for sport and school); Pashto speakers have no such difficulty, but use /p/ for /f/ (‘pood’ for food). 3) Distinctive grammatical features relate to uses of the verb, article, relative clause, preposition, and adjective and verb complementation, all shared with Indian English. Features of the indigenous languages influence use of English and code-mixing and code-switching are common, including among the highly educated.

“Vocabulary: 1) Borrowings from Urdu and the regional languages: atta flour, tehsil district, ziarat religious place. 2) Loan translations from these languages: cousin-brother. 3) Terms shared with Indian English: crore ten million, lakh one hundred thousand, -wallah a word element denoting ‘one who does something as an occupation’, as with policewallah. 4) Hybrids of English and local languages: biradarism favouring one's clan or family, gheraoed surrounded by protesters in an office or similar place and unable to leave, goondaism hooliganism, thuggish behaviour. 5) English words, especially compounds, adapted for local use: age-barred over the age for (particular work), load-shedding intermittently shutting off a supply of electricity.

“Media and literature: Pakistan has a strong English-language press. Most major cities have daily and weekly newspapers; in all, there are 20 dailies, 35 weeklies, 33 fortnightlies, 152 monthlies, and 111 quarterlies. They include The Muslim, Daily News, Dawn, Morning News, Star, Pakistan Times, and Khyber Mail. Pakistani literature in English is developing in various genres and several writers have acquired national and international recognition, such as Ahmad Ali, Bapsi Sidhwa, Zulfikar Ghose, A. Hashmi, and Hanif Kureishi. The educated variety used by Pakistan radio and television serves as the model for teaching and learning English throughout the country.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (tourism.gov.pk), Official Gateway to the Government of Pakistan (pakistan.gov.pk), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.

Last updated February 2022