Saraiki ( '; also spelt Siraiki, or Seraiki) is an
Indo-Aryan language
The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...
of the
Lahnda
Lahnda () () also known as Lahndi or Western Punjabi, is a group of north-western Indo-Aryan language varieties spoken in parts of Pakistan and India. Its validity as a genetic grouping is not certain. Terms like ''Lahnda'' or ''Western Punja ...
group, spoken by 26 million people primarily in the south-western half of the
province of Punjab in Pakistan. It was previously known as Multani, after its main dialect.
Saraiki has partial
mutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
with
Standard Punjabi, and it shares with it a large portion of its vocabulary and
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
. At the same time in
its phonology it is radically different (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 the
Sindhi language
Sindhi ( ; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 30 million people in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where it has official status. It is also spoken by a further 1.7 million people in India, where it is a Scheduled languages of India ...
spoken to the south.
The Saraiki language identity arose in the 1960s, encompassing more narrow local earlier identities (like Multani, Derawi or Riasati), and distinguishing itself from broader ones like that of Punjabi.
Name
![Saraiki-speakers by Pakistani District - 2017 Census](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Saraiki-speakers_by_Pakistani_District_-_2017_Census.svg)
The present extent of the meaning of ' is a recent development, and the term most probably gained its currency during the nationalist movement of the 1960s. It has been in use for much longer in
Sindh
Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...
to refer to the speech of the immigrants from the north, principally Siraiki-speaking
Baloch tribes
The Baloch or Baluch ( bal, بلۏچ, Balòc) are an Iranian people who live mainly in the Balochistan region, located at the southeasternmost edge of the Iranian plateau, encompassing the countries of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. There a ...
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 the
Sindhi word ' 'up-river, north'. This name can ambiguously refer to the northern dialects of Sindhi, but these are nowadays more commonly known as "Siroli" or "Sireli".
An alternative hypothesis is that ''Sarākī'' originated in the word ''sauvīrā'', or
Sauvira
Sauvīra was an ancient kingdom of the lower Indus Valley mentioned in the Late Vedic and early Buddhist literature and the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. It is often mentioned alongside the Sindhu Kingdom. Its capital city was Roruka, identified ...
, an ancient kingdom which was also mentioned in the Sanskrit epic
Mahabharata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...
.
Currently, the most common rendering of the name is ''Saraiki''. However, ''Seraiki'' and ''Siraiki'' 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.
Classification and related languages
Saraiki is a member of the
Indo-Aryan subdivision of the
Indo-Iranian branch of the
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch ...
language family.
In 1919,
Grierson maintained that the dialects of what is now the southwest of Punjab Province in Pakistan constitute a dialect cluster, which he designated "Southern
Lahnda
Lahnda () () also known as Lahndi or Western Punjabi, is a group of north-western Indo-Aryan language varieties spoken in parts of Pakistan and India. Its validity as a genetic grouping is not certain. Terms like ''Lahnda'' or ''Western Punja ...
" 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. Grierson also maintained that "Lahnda" was his novel designation for various dialects up to then called "Western Punjabi", spoken north, west, and south of
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
. The local dialect of Lahore is the
Majhi dialect
Majhi (Shahmukhi: Gurmukhi: ) is the standard Panjabi dialects, dialect of Punjabi and is spoken in the Majha region of the Punjab region, Punjab. The two most important cities in this area are Lahore and Amritsar.
Notable features
- Use o ...
of
Punjabi, which has long been the basis of standard literary Punjabi. However, outside of Indo-Aryanist circles, the concept of "Lahnda" is still found in compilations of the world's languages (e.g.
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...
).
Dialects
The following dialects have been tentatively proposed for Saraiki:
*Central Saraiki, including Multani: spoken in the districts of
Dera Ghazi Khan
Dera Ghazi Khan (), abbreviated as D.G. Khan, is a city in the southwestern part of Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 19th largest city of Pakistan by population. Lying west of the Indus River, it is the headquarters of Dera Ghazi Khan District and ...
,
Muzaffargarh
Muzaffargarh (Urdu and pa, , , Fort of Muzaffar) is a city in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. Located on the bank of the Chenab River, it is the capital of the district with the same name. It is the 39th largest city of Pakistan by populatio ...
,
Leiah
Layyah ( Saraiki and ur, ), previously spelled as Leiah, is a city in the Pakistan.[Multan
Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab.
Multan is one of the List ...](_blank)
and
Bahawalpur
Bahawalpur () is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. With inhabitants as of 2017, it is Pakistan's 11th most populous city.
Founded in 1748, Bahawalpur was the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, ruled by the Abbasi fa ...
.
*Southern Saraiki: prevalent in the districts of
Rajanpur
Rajanpur ( ur, ), is a city and the headquarters of Rajanpur District in the far southwestern part of Punjab, Pakistan. The district lies entirely west of the Indus River. it is a narrow, to wide strip of land sandwiched between the Indus Riv ...
and
Rahimyar Khan
Rahim Yar Khan () is a city in Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the 9th largest city of Pakistan by population. It is the capital of the Rahim Yar Khan District and Rahim Yar Khan Tehsil. The administration of the city is subdivided into nin ...
.
*Sindhi Saraiki: dispersed throughout the province of
Sindh
Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...
.
*Northern Saraiki, or
Thali
Thali (meaning "plate"), Bhojanam (meaning "full meal") or Chakluk is a round platter used to serve food in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. Thali is also used to refer to an Indian-style meal made up of a selection of various di ...
: spoken in the district of
Dera Ismail Khan
Dera Ismail Khan (; bal, , Urdu and skr, , ps, ډېره اسماعيل خان), abbreviated as D.I. Khan, is a city and capital of Dera Ismail Khan District, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the 37th largest city of Pakistan ...
and the northern parts of the
Thal region
Thal may refer to:
Places
* Thal, Lower Austria, Austria
* Thal, Styria, Austria
* Thal, Ruhla, Germany
* Thal, Uttarakhand, Didihat district, India
* Thal, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
** Thal railway station
* Thal, St. Gallen, Switzerland
* Tha ...
, including
Mianwali District
The Mianwali District ( ur, ), is a district located in Sargodha Division of Punjab province, Pakistan. It was separated from NWFP in 1901, and has a border with the Chakwal, Attock,Kohat, Karak, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, Bhakkar, an ...
and Bhakkar District
*Eastern Saraiki: transitional to Punjabi and spoken in the
Bar region along the boundary with the eastern
Majhi dialect
Majhi (Shahmukhi: Gurmukhi: ) is the standard Panjabi dialects, dialect of Punjabi and is spoken in the Majha region of the Punjab region, Punjab. The two most important cities in this area are Lahore and Amritsar.
Notable features
- Use o ...
. This group includes the dialects of
Jhangi and
Shahpuri
Shahpuri is a Punjabi dialect spoken in the Sargodha Division of Punjab Province in Pakistan. Grierson considered it to be representative of Lahnda (Western Punjabi), but later opinions have tended to see it as a dialect of Punjabi that is ...
.
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 the
Jaṭṭs", a northern
South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...
n 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 as ''Jataki''. 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 both
Dera Ghazi Khan
Dera Ghazi Khan (), abbreviated as D.G. Khan, is a city in the southwestern part of Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 19th largest city of Pakistan by population. Lying west of the Indus River, it is the headquarters of Dera Ghazi Khan District and ...
and
Dera Ismail Khan
Dera Ismail Khan (; bal, , Urdu and skr, , ps, ډېره اسماعيل خان), abbreviated as D.I. Khan, is a city and capital of Dera Ismail Khan District, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the 37th largest city of Pakistan ...
, but "Ḍerawali" in the former is the Multani dialect and "Derawali" in the latter is the Thaḷi dialect.
When consulting sources before 2000, it is important to know that Pakistani administrative boundaries have been altered frequently. Provinces in Pakistan are divided into
districts
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
, 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.
Status of language or dialect
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. In a sense both Siraiki and Standard Panjabi are "dialects" of a "
Greater Punjabi" macrolanguage.
Saraiki was considered a
dialect of Punjabi by most
British colonial
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
administrators, and is still seen as such by many
Punjabis
The Punjabis ( Punjabi: ; ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ; romanised as Panjābīs), are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group associated with the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. The ...
. Saraikis, however, consider it a language in its own right and see the use of the term "dialect" as
stigmatising.
A language movement was started in the 1960s to standardise a script and promote the language. The
national census of Pakistan has tabulated the prevalence of Saraiki speakers since 1981.
Geographical distribution
![Saraiki Poet and intellectual](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Saraiki_Poet_and_intellectual.JPG)
Pakistan
Saraiki is primarily spoken in the south-western part of the province of
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
, in an area that broadly coincides with the extent of the proposed
Saraikistan
South Punjab ( ur, ) or Saraikistan (Urdu, skr, ) is a proposed new province of Pakistan, comprising the areas which has a majority of Saraikis in the southern part of Punjab province. Made up of Bahawalpur Division, Multan Division and ...
province. To the west, it is set off from the
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...
- and
Balochi-speaking areas by the
Suleiman Range, while to the south-east the
Thar desert
The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is an arid region in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent, Subcontinent that covers an area of and forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. It is the world's Li ...
divides it from the
Marwari language
Marwari (मारवाड़ी, IAST: Mārwāṛī; also rendered as ''Marwadi'' or ''Marvadi'') is a Rajasthani language spoken in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Marwari is also found in the neighbouring states of Gujarat and Haryana, som ...
. Its other boundaries are less well-defined:
Punjabi is spoken to the east;
Sindhi is found to the south, after the border with
Sindh province
Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...
; to the north, the southern edge of the
Salt Range
The Salt Range ( pnb, ) is a mountain range in the north of Punjab province of Pakistan, deriving its name from its extensive deposits of rock salt. The range extends along the south of the Potohar Plateau and the north of the Jhelum River. The ...
is the rough divide with the northern varieties of Lahnda.
Saraiki is the first language of 25.9 million people in Pakistan according to the 2017 census.
The first national census of Pakistan to gather data on the prevalence of Saraiki was the census of 1981. 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.
India
After
Partition
Partition may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive
* Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job
Software
* Partition (database), the division of a ...
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 of
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
,
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
,
Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
,
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
,
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
and
Jammu and Kashmir. There is also a smaller group of Muslim
pastoralists
Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The animal s ...
who migrated to India, specifically
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
, prior to Partition.
There are census figures available – for example, in the 2011 census, people reported their language as "
Bahawal Puri", and as "Hindi Multani". 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. There have been observations of Lahnda varieties "merging" into Punjabi (especially in Punjab and Delhi), as well as of outright
shift to the dominant languages of Punjabi or Hindi. 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.
Phonology
Saraiki's consonant inventory is similar to that of neighbouring
Sindhi. It includes
phonemically distinctive
implosive consonant
Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants (and possibly also some affricates) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism.''Phonetics for communication disorders.'' Martin J. Ball and Nicole Müller. R ...
s, which are unusual among the Indo-European languages. In Christopher Shackle's analysis, Saraiki distinguishes up to 48 consonants and 9
monophthong
A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...
vowels.
Vowels
The "centralised" vowels tend to be shorter than the "peripheral" vowels . The central vowel is more
open
Open or OPEN may refer to:
Music
* Open (band), Australian pop/rock band
* The Open (band), English indie rock band
* ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969
* ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999
* ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001
* ''Open'' (YF ...
and
back
The human back, also called the dorsum, is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral column run ...
than the corresponding vowel in neighbouring varieties.
Vowel nasalisation
A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced with ...
is distinctive: 'may you go' vs. 'may he go'. Before , the contrast between and is neutralised. There is a high number of vowel sequences, some of which can be analysed as
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
s.
Consonants
Saraiki possesses a large inventory of
consonants
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
:
In its
stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases.
The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lips ...
s, Saraiki has the typical for Indo-Aryan four-fold contrast between
voiced
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refer ...
and
voiceless
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
, and
aspirated and unaspirated. In parallel to
Sindhi it has additionally developed a set of
implosives
Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants (and possibly also some affricates) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism.''Phonetics for communication disorders.'' Martin J. Ball and Nicole Müller. Rou ...
, so that for each place of articulation there are up to five contrasting stops, for example: voiceless 'custom' ∼ aspirated 'blister' ∼ implosive 'cobweb' ∼ voiced 'niche' ∼ voiced aspirate 'foam'.
There are five contrasting places of articulation for the stops:
velar
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum).
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive a ...
,
palatal
The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity.
A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separ ...
,
retroflex
A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the ha ...
,
dental and
bilabial
In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a labial consonant articulated with both lips.
Frequency
Bilabial consonants are very common across languages. Only around 0.7% of the world's languages lack bilabial consonants altogether, including Tli ...
. The dentals are articulated with the
blade of the tongue against the surface behind the teeth. The retroflex stops are
post-alveolar
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
, the articulator being the
tip of the tongue
Tip of the tongue (also known as ''lethologica'') is the phenomenon of failing to retrieve a word or term from memory, combined with partial recall and the feeling that retrieval is imminent. The phenomenon's name comes from the saying, "It's on ...
or sometimes the
underside.
There is no dental implosive, partly due to the lesser retroflexion with which the
retroflex implosive
The voiced retroflex implosive is a type of consonantal sound. It is not known to be phonemically distinct from alveolar in any language. Sindhi has an implosive that varies between dental and retroflex articulation, while Oromo, Saraiki and ...
is pronounced. The palatal stops are here somewhat arbitrarily represented with and . In casual speech some of the stops, especially , and , are frequently rendered as
fricatives
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
– respectively , and .
Of the
nasals
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
, only and 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: . The retroflex is a realised as a true nasal only if adjacent to a retroflex stop, elsewhere it is a nasalised
retroflex flap
The voiced retroflex flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r`.
Features
Features of the voiced ...
. The contrasts ∼ , and ∼ are weak; the single nasal is more common in southern varieties, and the nasal + stop cluster is prevalent in central dialects. Three nasals have aspirated counterparts .
The realisation of the
alveolar tap Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit.
Uses in anatomy and zoology
* Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs
** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte
** Alveolar duct
** Alveolar macrophage
* M ...
varies with the phonetic environment. It is
trilled if geminated to and weakly trilled if preceded by or . It contrasts with the
retroflex flap
The voiced retroflex flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r`.
Features
Features of the voiced ...
( 'wire' ∼ 'watching'), except in the variety spoken by Hindus. The fricatives are
labio-dental
In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
Labiodental consonants in the IPA
The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
The IPA chart shades out ''labio ...
. The
glottal fricative
Glottal consonants are consonants using the glottis as their primary articulation. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the glottal fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants ...
is voiced and affects the voice quality of a preceding vowel.
Phonotactics and stress
There are no
tones in Saraiki. All consonants except can be
geminated
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...
("doubled"). Geminates occur only after stressed centralised vowels, and are phonetically realised much less markedly than in the rest of the Punjabi area.
A
stressed syllable is distinguished primarily by its
length
Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Interna ...
: if the vowel is peripheral then it is lengthened, and if it is a "centralised vowel" () 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 '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 'seventy-four'. There are exceptions to these rules and they account for minimal pairs like 'informing' and 'so much'.
Implosives
Unusually for
South Asian languages
South Asia is home to several hundred languages, spanning the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. It is home to the third most spoken language in the world, Hindi–Urdu; and the sixth mo ...
,
implosive consonant
Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants (and possibly also some affricates) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism.''Phonetics for communication disorders.'' Martin J. Ball and Nicole Müller. R ...
s are found in
Sindhi, possibly some
Rajasthani dialects
Rajasthani (Devanagari: ) refers to a group of Indo-Aryan languages and dialects spoken primarily in the state of Rajasthan and adjacent areas of Haryana, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh in India. There are also speakers in the Pakistani provinces ...
, and Saraiki, which has the following series: / /.
The "palatal" is
denti-alveolar
In linguistics, a denti-alveolar consonant or dento-alveolar consonant is a consonant that is articulated with a flat tongue against the alveolar ridge and the upper teeth, such as and in languages such as French, Italian and Spanish. That is, ...
and
laminal
A laminal consonant is a phone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue in contact
with upper lip, teeth, alveolar ridge, to possibly, as ...
, articulated further forward than most other palatals.
The "
retroflex
A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the ha ...
" is articulated with the
tip
Tip commonly refers to:
* Tip (gambling)
* Tip (gratuity)
* Tip (law enforcement)
* another term for Advice (opinion), Advice
Tip or TIP may also refer to:
Science and technology
* Tank phone, a device allowing infantry to communicate with the oc ...
or the
underside of the tongue, further forward in the mouth than the plain retroflex stops. It has been described as
post-alveolar
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
,
pre-palatal
In phonetics, alveolo-palatal (or alveopalatal) consonants, sometimes synonymous with pre-palatal consonants, are intermediate in articulation between the coronal and dorsal consonants, or which have simultaneous alveolar and palatal articul ...
or
pre-retroflex. reports that this sound is unique in Indo-Aryan and that speakers of Multani take pride in its distinctiveness. The plain voiced and the implosive are mostly in
complementary distribution
In linguistics, complementary distribution, as distinct from contrastive distribution and free variation, is the relationship between two different elements of the same kind in which one element is found in one set of environments and the other ele ...
although there are a few minimal pairs, like 'doctor' ∼ 'mail'. The retroflex implosive alternates with the plain voiced dental stop in the
genitive
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
postposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
/suffix , which takes the form of when combined with 1st or 2nd person pronouns: 'my', 'your'.
A
dental implosive
The voiced alveolar implosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based ...
() is found in the northeastern
Jhangi dialect, which is characterised by a lack of phonemic contrast between implosives and plain stops, and a preference for implosives even in words where Saraiki has a plain stop. The dental implosive in Jhangi is articulated with the tongue completely covering the upper teeth. It is not present in Saraiki, although contends that it should be
reconstructed for the earlier language. Its absence has been attributed to structural factors: the forward articulation of and the lesser retroflexion of .
Aspirated (
breathy voiced) implosives occur word-initially, where they contrast with aspirated plain stops: ' 'sit' ~ ' 'fear'. The aspiration is not
phonemic
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
; it is phonetically realised on the whole syllable, and results from an underlying that follows the vowel, thus is phonemically .
The historical origin of the Saraiki implosives has been on the whole the same as in Sindhi. Their source has generally been the older language's series of plain voiced stops, thus
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
' > Saraiki ' 'be born'. New plain voiced stops have in turn arisen out of certain consonants and consonant clusters (for example, ' > ' 'barley'), or have been introduced in loanwords from
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
,
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
or
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
(' 'throat', ' 'bus'). The following table illustrates some of the major developments:
Within South Asia, implosives were first described for
Sindhi by Stake in 1855. Later authors have noted their existence in Multani and have variously called them "recursives" or "injectives", while
Grierson incorrectly treated them as "double consonants".
Writing system
In the province of Punjab, Saraiki is written using the
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
-derived
Urdu alphabet
The Urdu alphabet (), is the right-to-left alphabet used for Urdu. It is a modification of the Persian script, which is itself a derivative of the Arabic script. The Urdu alphabet has up to 39 or 40 distinct letters with no distinct letter c ...
with the addition of seven
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
ally modified letters to represent the implosives and the extra nasals. In
Sindh
Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...
the
Sindhi alphabet
Sindhi ( ; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 30 million people in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where it has official status. It is also spoken by a further 1.7 million people in India, where it is a scheduled language, withou ...
is used. The calligraphic styles used are
Naskh and
Nastaʿlīq
''Nastaliq'' (; fa, , ), also romanized as ''Nastaʿlīq'', is one of the main calligraphic hands used to write the Perso-Arabic script in the Persian and Urdu languages, often used also for Ottoman Turkish poetry, rarely for Arabic. ''Nasta ...
.
Historically, traders or bookkeepers wrote in a script known as ''kiṛakkī'' or
laṇḍā, although use of this script has been significantly reduced in recent times. Likewise, a script related to the
Landa scripts
Landa may refer to:
* Landa (surname)
*Landa, real estate investing company
* Landa, Álava, a village in Basque Country, Spain
* Landa, North Dakota, United States
* Laṇḍā, a class of scripts in Northern India
See also
* Landa de Matamoros, ...
family, known as
Multani, was previously used to write Saraiki. A preliminary proposal to encode the Multani script in ISO/IEC 10646 was submitted in 2011. Saraiki Unicode has been approved in 2005. The
Khojiki script has also been in use, whereas
Devanagari
Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...
and
Gurmukhi
Gurmukhī ( pa, ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ, , Shahmukhi: ) is an abugida developed from the Laṇḍā scripts, standardized and used by the second Sikh guru, Guru Angad (1504–1552). It is used by Punjabi Sikhs to write the language, commonly r ...
are not employed anymore.
Language use
In academia
The Department of Saraiki,
Islamia University
The Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB), formerly known as Jamia Abbasia, is a public university located in Bahawalpur, Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a ...
, Bahawalpur was established in 1989
and the Department of Saraiki,
Bahauddin Zakariya University
Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) ( ur, ) is a public university with its main campus in Multan, Pakistan. Bahauddin Zakariya University was founded in 1975 as Multan University, and is the 2nd largest university in Punjab. It was renamed i ...
, Multan
was established in 2006. Saraiki is taught as a subject in schools and colleges at higher secondary, intermediate and degree level.
The
Allama Iqbal Open University
Allama Iqbal Open University is a public university in Islamabad, Pakistan.
It is named after Allama Iqbal.
The university is the world's second largest institution of higher learning, with an annual enrollment of 1,121,038 students (), the m ...
at Islamabad,
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.
Arts and literature
Khawaja Ghulam Farid
Khwaja Ghulam Farid (Urdu: ) or Khwaja Fareed (1845–1901) was a 19th-century Sufi poet from Punjab. He was a member of the Chishti Nizami Sufi order. He wrote poetry in several languages, and his literary heritage has been claimed by both the ...
(1845–1901; his famous collection is ''Deewan-e-Farid'') and
Sachal Sar Mast (1739–1829) are the most celebrated Sufi poets in Saraiki and their poems known as
Kafi
Kafi ( pa, ਕਾਫ਼ੀ (Gurmukhi), (Shahmukhi), Hindi: काफ़ी, Urdu: کافی, Sindhi:ڪافي) is a classical form of Sufi music mostly in the Siraiki, Punjabi and Sindhi languages and originating from the Punjab, and Sindh ...
are still famous.
Shakir Shujabadi (''Kalam-e-Shakir'', ''Khuda Janey'', ''Shakir Diyan Ghazlan'', ''Peelay Patr'', ''Munafqan Tu Khuda Bachaway'', and ''Shakir De Dohray'' are his famous books) is a very well recognized modern poet.
Famous singers who have performed in Saraiki include
Attaullah Khan Essa Khailwi,
Pathanay Khan
Pathanay Khan or Pathane Khan (Urdu: پٹھانے خان ; born Ghulam Mohammad; 1926 – 2000) was a legendary Saraiki people, Saraiki folk music, folk singer from Pakistan. He mostly sang Kafis or Ghazals (in Saraiki dialect, Saraiki), us ...
,
Abida Parveen
Abida Parveen ( Urdu, sd, ; born 20 February 1954) is a Pakistani singer, composer and musician of Sufi music. She is also a painter and entrepreneur. Parveen is one of the highest paid singers in Pakistan. Her singing and music has earned ...
,
Ustad Muhammad Juman,
Mansoor Malangi,
Talib Hussain Dard
Talib may refer to:
* Talib, Shirak, Armenia
* Talib (name), an Arabic name
* An individual member of the Taliban, a political terrorist Islamist movement in Afghanistan
See also
* Taleb (disambiguation)
* Talibe, Arabic term for student
* Te ...
,
Kamal Mahsud Kamal Mahsud (Pashto & ur, کمال محسود) was a Pashto language folk singer of Waziristan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. He died on January 7, 2010.
Mahsud was a popular singer in his home province. His better-known songs include ''Tum Chala ...
, and
The Sketches
The Sketches () is a Sufi folk rock band from Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan, created by young musician Saif Samejo. "Sindhi melody is very charming; there is enormous flexibility of words" says Saif Samejo. Their motherland has always been a major in ...
. Many modern Pakistan singers such as
Hadiqa Kiyani
Hadiqa Kiani (in Punjabi and ur, ) is a Pakistani singer, Songwriter, Guitarist, composer, actress, and philanthropist. She has received numerous local and international awards and also has performed at the Royal Albert Hall and The Kenn ...
and
Ali Zafar
Ali Zafar ( pa, ; born 18 May 1980) is a Pakistani singer-songwriter, model, actor, producer, screenwriter and painter. Zafar started out on Pakistani television before becoming a popular musician. He later also established a career in Bo ...
have also sung Saraiki folk songs.
Media
Television channels
Former Pakistan Prime Minister
Yousaf Raza Gillani
Yusuf Raza Gilani (Urdu: ; born 9 June 1952), is a Pakistani politician who served as 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 25 March 2008, until his retroactive disqualification and ouster by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 26 April 2012. He ...
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) in
Multan
Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab.
Multan is one of the List ...
, he is reported to have said that the step would help promote the rich heritage of 'Saraiki Belt'.
Radio
These are not dedicated Saraiki channels but most play programmes in Saraiki.
See also
*
Saraikistan
South Punjab ( ur, ) or Saraikistan (Urdu, skr, ) is a proposed new province of Pakistan, comprising the areas which has a majority of Saraikis in the southern part of Punjab province. Made up of Bahawalpur Division, Multan Division and ...
*
Saraiki people
The Saraikis ( skr, ), are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group inhabiting parts of central and southeastern Pakistan, primarily in the southern part of the Pakistani province of Punjab
They are mainly found in a region of southern Punjab known ...
*
List of Saraiki people
This is a list of notable Saraikis.
Poet
* Khawaja Ghulam Farid
* Ahmad Khan Tariq
* Akbar Makhmoor
*Shakir Shuja Abadi
*Gopi Chand Narang
*Tehzeeb Haafi
*Zaheer Maharvi
*Irfan Muhammad
*Asghar Gurmani
*Afkar Alvi
*Momin Molai
*Muhammad Nadeem B ...
*
Saraiki culture
Saraiki culture is the culture of the Saraiki people, residing in Pakistan and outside Pakistan.
Religion
Almost 99% population in South-Punjab region is Muslim. Islam came to this region with the Arab conquest of Sindh in eighth centur ...
*
Saraiki cuisine
Saraiki cuisine ( skr, ) refers to the native cuisine of the Saraiki people in central Pakistan. The style of cooking is present in the Saraiki-speaking region of southern Punjab, as well as parts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern Sindh a ...
*
Saraiki literature
Saraiki literature is the literature of the Saraiki language of Pakistani Punjab.
Folk literature and tales
There are many folk tales associated with Ghazi Khan and his minister Gaaman Sachar, a legendary character in Saraiki folk tales.
*Ash ...
*
Saraiki diaspora
The Saraiki diaspora refers to the dispersing of ethnic Saraikis from Pakistan's Saraiki-speaking region to other parts of the world. The Saraikis are one of the largest ethnic groups to collectively migrate from Pakistan. The total Saraiki pop ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
* Asif, Saiqa Imtiaz. 2005
Siraiki Language and Ethnic Identity ''Journal of Research (Faculty of Languages and Islamic Studies)'', 7: 9-17.
Multan
Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab.
Multan is one of the List ...
(Pakistan):
Bahauddin Zakariya University
Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) ( ur, ) is a public university with its main campus in Multan, Pakistan. Bahauddin Zakariya University was founded in 1975 as Multan University, and is the 2nd largest university in Punjab. It was renamed i ...
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External links
A review of the linguistic literature on Saraiki with Gurmukhi equivalents
Download Saraiki font and keyboard for Windows and Android
Saraiki online transliteration
Works by Aslam Rasoolpuriat the Internet Archive
{{Authority control
Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages
Languages of India
Languages of Balochistan, Pakistan
Languages of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Languages of Punjab, Pakistan
Languages of Sindh