Reading Time: 5 minutes The evidence that Pakistan is a linguistically rich country is in the fact that as of 2016, it had 73 spoken languages as reported by Ethnologue. The data continued to show that out of the number, 66 of the languages spoken are indigenous, 8 are nonnative, 6 are said to be institutional, 18 are still developing, 39 of them are vigorous, 9 are endangered and 2 of them are dying.
The evidence that Pakistan is a linguistically rich country is in the fact that as of 2016, it had 73 spoken languages as reported by Ethnologue. The data continued to show that out of the number, 66 of the languages spoken are indigenous, 8 are nonnative, 6 are said to be institutional, 18 are still developing, 39 of them are vigorous, 9 are endangered and 2 of them are dying.
The languages spoken widely in the country are said to be from the Indo-Iranian group belonging to the Indo-European family of languages.
The two official languages of Pakistan are Urdu and English. The most common regional/provincial languages in the country are Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, and Saraiki.
Despite Urdu being an official language, only 7.57% of the population considers it to be their first language but the majority of the country’s population understands and even speaks it as their second language. The provincial language that is most commonly spoken all over the country is Punjabi with 44.15% considering it their mother tongue. Pashto would be the second regional language that has a hold over the public as 15.42% speak it. Sindhi is taken as a mother tongue by 14.1% and Saraiki by 10.53%. The other noteworthy regional language is Balochi which is considered a primary language by 3.57%.
When people call Pakistan a linguist’s dream, they say so because it has much more than just the provincial languages. Some other languages are Siraiki, Brahui, Shina, Balti, and Kashmiri.
Siraiki is spoken by around 20 million people and has a phonological and morphological connection to Punjabi and Sindhi. It is spoken mainly in the lower western half of Punjab, northern parts of Sindh, and some eastern areas of Balochistan.
Brahui speakers can be found in Balochistan and the language itself is influenced a little by Sindhi and Pashto.
Shina is spoken by nearly 600,000 people in regions of Gilgit, Astore, Ladakh, Chilas, Drass, Ghizer, Kohistan, Gurez, Kargil, etc. It is a Dardic language.
Kashmiri is another Dardic language and is the official language of Jammu & Kashmir. It is spoken by around 5.6 million people and has three dialects: Kashtawari, Rambani, and Poguli.
Balti language is spoken in Baltistan and is a Sino-Tibetan language. The written script of the language is in Persian but it can also be found in Tibetan script.
Many people venture a guess that Urdu took its first steps in the sub-continent when the Muslims conquered Sindh in 711 CE. Its consequent spread is attributed to the various Muslim invasions in the 12th century by the Persian and Turk armies. The proper development of the language started in northwestern India during the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire. Upon its expansion to the Deccan plateau, there were multiple influences on the language such as that of Punjabi, Haryanvi, Sufi language, and court usage. While Urdu means “the language of the camp”, it was also known by other names such as Zaban-e-Urdu-e-Mualla, Hindvi, Zaban-e-Delhi, Zaban-e-Hind, Rekhta, and more.
The earlier days of Urdu saw the emergence of its first major poet Amir Khosro whose dohas, folk songs, and more are famous till this day. Urdu poetry’s golden era is said to be from the 18-19th century onwards. In 1837, as a political move, the British East India Company announced Urdu to replace Persian in the northern parts of India. From then onwards, religious, political, and social factors furthered Urdu in many communities while creating a divide between Hindi and Urdu. In his speech, Muhammad Ali Jinnah commented, “In my personal opinion, Pakistan’s official language — which will become a source of communication between its different provinces — can only be one and that is Urdu. No language other than Urdu.”
Even though Urdu and Hindi are both Indo-Aryan languages, Urdu’s script style is Nastaliq. They are often called sister languages and Urdu is recognized by the state in India and Nepal.
Punjabi is widely spoken throughout the world and emerged from Prakrit languages, specifically from Paishachi Prakrit. It has an influence from Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Pakistani Punjabi uses the Shahmukhī script.
Pashto comes under the family of Indo-European languages in the Iranian group. While its vocabulary has been influenced by Dari, it is separate from it, Farsi and Tajiki. All over the globe, around 40 million people speak Pashto and most of them reside in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
It holds the status of being one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. There are different dialects. Kandahari is the Western dialect and is considered the main one. The Eastern dialect is called Nangrahari-Peshawari or Mashriqi. There is a Central dialect that is spoken in areas of Ghazni, Kabul, Loar, and Parwan. The provinces of Paktia and Paktika observe the Southern dialect.
The provincial language is believed to have Old Indo-Aryan (particularly Sanskrit) and Middle Indo-Aryan (Pali and Apabhramsha) basis. The first translation of the Quran in Sindhi was done in 883 CE, according to tradition. Sindhi was made the official provincial language the first time it was annexed with Bombay. The order was given by the governor of Sindh, Sir George Clerk in 1848. The list of dialects of the Sindhi language includes Siroli, Vicholi, Lari, Lasi, Kathiawari Kachhi, Thari or Thareli, Macharia, Dukslinu, and Muslim Sindhi. The vocabulary of the language is influenced by Urdu, English, and Hindustani.
Balochi is considered to be an Iranian language and is said to have originated in Aleppo, Syria. According to Glottolog, it has 3 different varieties: Eastern Balochi, Koroshi, and Southern-Western Balochi. The dialects differ between the northern tribes called Mandwani and the southern tribes called Domki.
It has become a trend of sorts to move away from regional languages and adopt Urdu and English in daily life. Many experts are concerned about this coldness towards the languages as it could signal the languages taking a backseat while bringing sociological changes. Perhaps the reason is the one voiced by Dr. Tafseer Ahmed, who is a professor at the Center for Language Computing, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University of Karachi, “Millions have migrated from remote regions from north, northwest, and southwest to big cities like Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, where the general medium of conversation is Urdu, English, Sindhi or Punjabi. Their kids who are born and raised in these cities, are ultimately left with no knowledge of their mother tongue.”
Dr. Rauf Parekh, a linguistic expert summarized it perfectly, “Globalization is eating the small languages… The younger generation is drifting toward dominating languages to get an education and jobs. In cities, more and more youths are learning English, while in remote regions, they prefer other dominating regional languages, like Pashtu or Balochi”.
A study conducted in 2010 on students from major cities of Pakistan showed that students showed a low competency in their mother tongue/regional languages. Moreover, the students showed disdain towards their primary language and showed a preference for English and Urdu.
Dr. Ahmed expressed his concern, “Pakistan is one of the selected countries, which embodies an amazing linguistic diversity. But the alarming thing is that several languages are endangered, or dying or already dead.”
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