Languages of Pakistan
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Pakistanis amultilingual countrywith over 70 languages spoken asfirst languages.[2][3]The majority of Pakistan's languages belong to theIndo-Iranian groupof theIndo-European language family.[4][5]
Urduis thenational languageand thelingua francaof Pakistan, and while sharing official status with English, it is the preferred and dominant language used for inter-communication between different ethnic groups.[2][3]Numerous regional languages are spoken as first languages by Pakistan's various ethnolinguistic groups. Languages with more than a million speakers each includePunjabi,Pashto,Sindhi,Saraiki,Urdu,Balochi,Persian,Hindko,Pahari-Pothwari[a]andBrahui.[6]There are approximately 60 local languages with fewer than a million speakers.[7][8]
List of languages
[edit]The 2022 edition ofEthnologuelists 77 established languages in Pakistan. Of these, 68 are indigenous and 9 are non-indigenous. In terms of their vitality, 4 are classified as 'institutional', 24 are 'developing', 30 are 'vigorous', 15 are 'in trouble', and 4 are 'dying'.[7]
Language | Province[b] | Language group |
---|---|---|
Aer | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Badeshi | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Iranian |
Bagri | Punjab, Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Balochi, Eastern | Balochistan, Punjab, Sindh | Iranian |
Balochi, Southern | Balochistan, Sindh | Iranian |
Balochi, Western | Balochistan, Sindh | Iranian |
Balti | Gilgit Baltistan | Sino-Tibetan |
Bateri | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Bhaya | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Brahui | Balochistan, Sindh | Dravidian |
Burushaski | Gilgit Baltistan | Isolate |
Chilisso | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Dameli | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Dari | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Iranian |
Dehwari | Balochistan | Iranian |
Dhatki | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Domaaki | Gilgit Baltistan | Indo-Aryan |
English | Federal co-official | Germanic |
Gawar-Bati | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Gawri | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Ghera | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Goaria | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Gowro | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Gujarati | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Gujari | Azad Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkwa, Punjab |
Indo-Aryan |
Gurgula | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Haryanvi (aka Rangri) | Sindh, Punjab | Indo Haryana |
Hazaragi | Balochistan | Iranian |
Hindko, Northern | Azad Kashmir, Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Hindko, Southern | Khyber Pakhtunkwa, Punjab | Indo-Aryan |
Jadgali | Balochistan, Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Jandavra | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Jogi | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Kabutra | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Kacchi | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Kalasha | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Kalkoti | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Kamviri | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Iranian |
Kashmiri | Azad Kashmir | Indo-Aryan |
Kati | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Iranian |
Khetrani | Balochistan | Indo-Aryan |
Khowar | Gilgit Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Kohistani, Indus | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Koli, Kachi | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Koli, Parkari | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Koli, Wadiyari | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Kundal Shahi | Azad Kashmir | Indo-Aryan |
Lasi | Balochistan | Indo-Aryan |
Loarki | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Mankiyali | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Marwari | Punjab, Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Mewati | Punjab, Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Memoni | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Oadki | Punjab, Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Ormuri | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Iranian |
Pahari-Pothwari | Azad Kashmir, Punjab | Indo-Aryan |
Pakistan Sign Language | Throughout | Indo-Pakistani Sign Language |
Palula | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Pashto, Central | Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkwa, Punjab | Iranian |
Pashto, Northern | Khyber Pakhtunkwa, Punjab | Iranian |
Pashto, Southern | Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkwa, Punjab | Iranian |
Punjabi, Eastern | Punjab | Indo-Aryan |
Punjabi, Western | Punjab | Indo-Aryan |
Saraiki | Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkwa, Punjab, Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Sarikoli | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Iranian |
Savi | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Shina | Azad Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Shina, Kohistani | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Sindhi | Balochistan, Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Sindhi Bhil | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Tamil | Sindh | Dravidian |
Torwali | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Urdu | Throughout | Indo-Aryan |
Ushojo | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Indo-Aryan |
Vaghri | Sindh | Indo-Aryan |
Wakhi | Gilgit Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Iranian |
Waneci | Balochistan | Iranian |
Yadgha | Khyber Pakhtunkwa | Iranian |
Statistics
[edit]Rank | Language | 1951 census[citation needed] | 1961 census[citation needed] | 1981 census[10] | 1998 census[11][12] | 2017 census[13] | 2023 census[14] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Punjabi* | 57.08% | 56.39% | 48.17% | 44.15% | 38.78% | 36.98% |
2 | Pashto | 8.16% | 8.47% | 13.15% | 15.42% | 18.24% | 18.15% |
3 | Sindhi | 12.85% | 12.59% | 11.77% | 14.1% | 14.57% | 14.31% |
4 | Saraiki* | 9.84% | 10.53% | 12.19% | 12.00% | ||
5 | Urdu | 7.05% | 7.57% | 7.60% | 7.57% | 7.08% | 9.25% |
6 | Balochi | 3.04% | 2.49% | 3.02% | 3.57% | 3.02% | 3.38% |
7 | Hindko* | 2.43% | 2.44% | 2.32% | |||
8 | Brahui | 1.21% | 1.24% | 1.16% | |||
9 | Mewati | 0.46% | |||||
10 | Kohistani | 0.43% | |||||
11 | Kashmiri | 0.17% | 0.11% | ||||
12 | Shina | 0.05% | |||||
13 | Balti | 0.02% | |||||
14 | Kalasha | 0.003% | |||||
15 | Others | 11.82% | 12.49% | 2.81% | 4.66% | 2.27% | 1.38% |
* Saraiki and Hindko were included with Punjabi until the 1981 census.
*Census data for the Pakistani administered territories of Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Kashmir not available as of 2024.
Official languages
[edit]Urdu (official language)
[edit]Urdu(اردو) is thenational language(قومی زبان) andlingua francaof Pakistan.[15]Although only about 9% ofPakistanisspeak it as their first language, it is widely spoken and understood as a second language by the vast majority of Pakistanis.[16][17]
Urdu was chosen as a symbol of unity for the new state of Pakistan in 1947, because it had already served as alingua francaamong Muslims in north and northwestBritish India.[18]It is written, spoken and used in allprovinces/territories of Pakistan,and together with English as the main languages of instruction,[19]although the people from differing provinces may have different native languages.[20]
Urdu is taught as a compulsory subject up to higher secondary school in both English and Urdu medium school systems, which has produced millions of second-language Urdu speakers among people whose native language is one of the other languages of Pakistan – which in turn has led to the absorption of vocabulary from various regional Pakistani languages,[21]while some Urdu vocabularies has also been assimilated by Pakistan's regional languages.[22][23]
English (co-official language)
[edit]English is a co-official language of Pakistan and is widely used in the executive, legislative and judicial branches as well as to some extent in the officer ranks of Pakistan's armed forces. Pakistan'sConstitutionand laws were written in English and are now being re-written in the local languages. It is also widely used inschools,collegesanduniversitiesas amedium of instruction.English is seen as the language of upward mobility, and its use is becoming more prevalent in upper social circles, where it is often spoken alongside native Pakistani languages. In 2015, it was announced that there were plans to promote Urdu in official business, but Pakistan's Minister of Planning Ahsan Iqbal stated, "Urdu will be a second medium of language and all official business will be bilingual." He also went on to say that English would be taught alongside Urdu in schools.[24]
Major regional languages
[edit]Punjabi
[edit]Punjabi(پنجابی) is anIndo-Aryan languageprimarily spoken in thePunjab provinceof Pakistan, with the prominent dialect being theMajha dialect,written in theShahmukhi script.Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan. It is spoken as a first language by 38.78% of Pakistanis.[25]The language is spoken among a significant overseas diaspora, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Punjabi is unusual among the Indo-Aryan languages and the broaderIndo-European language familyin its usage oflexical tone.[26]
Pashto
[edit]Pashto(پښتو) is anIranian languagespoken as a first language by more than 18.24% of Pakistanis, mainly inKhyber Pakhtunkhwaand in northernBalochistanas well as in ethnicPashtuncommunities in the cities ofIslamabad,Rawalpindi,Lahore,and most notablyKarachi,[27][28][29][30]which may have the largest Pashtun population of any city in the world.[31]There are three major dialect patterns within which the various individual dialects may be classified; these are the Pakhto variety of Northern (Peshawar) variety, the southern Pashto spoken in the vicinity ofQuetta,and theWanetsior Tareeno variety of northern Balochistan.
Sindhi
[edit]Sindhi(سنڌي) is anIndo-Aryan languagespoken as a first language by almost 15% of Pakistanis, mostly in theSindh provinceof Pakistan. The name "Sindhi" is derived fromSindhu,the original name of theIndus River.[32]
Like other languages of this family, Sindhi has passed through Old Indo-Aryan (Sanskrit) and Middle Indo-Aryan (Pali, secondary Prakrits, andApabhramsha) stages of growth. 20th century Western scholars such asGeorge Abraham Griersonbelieved that Sindhi descended specifically from the Vrācaḍa dialect of Apabhramsha (described byMarkandeyaas being spoken inSindhu-deśa) but later work has shown this to be unlikely.[33]It entered the New Indo-Aryan stage around the 10th century CE.[34][35]
The six major known dialects of the Sindhi language are Siroli, Vicholi, Lari, Thari,LasiandKutchi.[36]
Saraiki
[edit]Saraiki(سرائیکی) is anIndo-Aryan languageof theLahndagroup, spoken in central and southeastern Pakistan, primarily in the southern part of the province of Punjab. Saraiki is to a high degree mutually intelligible withStandard Punjabi[37]and shares with it a large portion of its vocabulary andmorphology.At the same time inits phonologyit is radically different[38](particularly in the lack of tones, the preservation of the voiced aspirates and the development of implosive consonants), and has important grammatical features in common with theSindhi languagespoken to the south.[39]
Saraiki is the language of about 26 million people inPakistan,ranging across southernPunjab,southernKhyber Pakhtunkhwa,and border regions of northernSindhand easternBalochistan.[40]
Balochi
[edit]Balochi(بلوچی) is anIranian languagespoken as a first language by about 3% of Pakistanis, mostly in theBalochistanprovince. Rakshani is the major dialect group in terms of numbers. Sarhaddi is a sub-dialect of Rakshani. Other sub-dialects are Kalati (Qalati), Chagai-Kharani and Panjguri. Eastern Hill Balochi or Northern Balochi is very different from the rest.
Hindko
[edit]Hindko(ہندکو) is a cover term for a diverse group ofLahndadialects spoken in several discontinuous areas in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the provinces ofKhyber PakhtunkhwaandPunjab. Hindko is mutually intelligible withPunjabiandSaraiki,[41]and has more affinities with the latter than with the former.[42]Differences with otherPunjabi varietiesare more pronounced in the morphology and phonology than in the syntax.[43] The wordHindko,commonly used to refer to a number of Indo-Aryan dialects spoken in the neighbourhood ofPashto,likely originally meant "the Indian language" (in contrast to Pashto).[44]An alternative local name for this language group isHindki.[45][c]
Brahui
[edit]Brahui(براہوئی) is aDravidian languagespoken in the central part ofBalochistan province.Brahui is spoken in the central part of PakistaniBalochistan,mainly inKalat,KhuzdarandMastungdistricts, but also in smaller numbers in neighboring districts, as well as inAfghanistanwhich borders Pakistani Balochistan; however, many members of the ethnic groupno longer speakBrahui.[46]
Endangered languages
[edit]Other languages spoken by linguistic minorities include the languages listed below, with speakers ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands. A few are highlyendangered languagesthat may soon have no speakers at all.[47]TheUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizationdefinesfive levels of language endangermentbetween "safe" (not endangered) and "extinct":[48]
- Vulnerable - "most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains (e.g., home)"
- Definitely endangered – "children no longer learn the language as mother tongue in the home"
- Severely endangered – "language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves"
- Critically endangered – "the youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they speak the language partially and infrequently"
- Extinct – "there are no speakers left; included in the Atlas if presumably extinct since the 1950s"
The list below includes the findings from the third edition ofAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger(2010; formerly theRed Book of Endangered Languages), as well as the online edition of the aforementioned publication, both published by UNESCO.[49]
Language | Status | Comments | ISO 639-3 |
---|---|---|---|
Balti | Vulnerable[48] | Also spoken in: India | bft |
Bashkarik | Definitely endangered[48] | gwc, xka | |
Badeshi | Critically endangered[48] | bdz | |
Bateri | Definitely endangered[48] | btv | |
Bhadravahi | Definitely endangered[48] | Also spoken in: India | bhd |
Brahui | Vulnerable[48] | Also spoken in: Afghanistan | brh |
Burushaski | Vulnerable[48] | bsk | |
Chilisso | Severely endangered[48] | clh | |
Dameli | Severely endangered[48] | dml | |
Domaaki | Severely endangered[48] | dmk | |
Gawar-Bati | Definitely endangered[48] | Also spoken in: Afghanistan | gwt |
Gowro | Severely endangered[48] | gwf | |
Jadgali | jdg | ||
Kalasha language | Severely endangered[48] | Not to be confused withKalasha-ala | kls |
Kalkoti | Severely endangered[48] | ||
Kati (Kamkata-viri, Kata-vari,Kamviri) |
Definitely endangered[48] | Also spoken in: Afghanistan | bsh, xvi |
Khowar | Vulnerable[48] | khw | |
Kundal Shahi | Definitely endangered[48] | Also spoken in: India | |
Maiya | Vulnerable[48] | mvy | |
Ormuri | Definitely endangered[48] | Also spoken in: Afghanistan | oru |
Phalura | Definitely endangered[48] | phl | |
Purik | Vulnerable[48] | Also spoken in: India | prx |
Savi | Definitely endangered[48] | Also spoken in: Afghanistan | sdg |
Spiti | Vulnerable[48] | Also spoken in: India | spt |
Torwali | Definitely endangered[48] | trw | |
Ushojo | Definitely endangered[48] | ush | |
Wakhi | Definitely endangered[48] | Also spoken in: China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan | wbl |
Yidgha | Definitely endangered[48] | ydg | |
Zangskari | Definitely endangered[48] | Also spoken in: India | zau |
Other languages
[edit]Arabic
[edit]Arabic is used as a religious language by Muslims. TheQuran,Sunnah,HadithandMuslimtheology is taught in Arabic withUrdutranslation. Arabic is taught as a religious language in mosques, schools, colleges, universities andmadrassahs.A majority of Pakistan's Muslim population has had some form of formal or informal education in the reading, writing and pronunciation of Arabic as part of their religious education. However, Pakistanis are not Arabs and do not speak Arabic.[50]
Arabic is mentioned in theconstitution of Pakistan.It declares in article 31 No. 2 that "The State shall endeavour, as respects the Muslims of Pakistan (a) to make the teaching of the Holy Quran andIslamiatcompulsory, to encourage and facilitate the learning of Arabic language... "[51]
The National Education Policy 2017 declares in article 3.7.4 that: "Arabic as compulsory part will be integrated in Islamiyat from Middle to Higher Secondary level to enable the students to understand the Holy Quran." Furthermore, it specifies in article 3.7.6: "Arabic as elective subject shall be offered properly at Secondary and Higher Secondary level with Arabic literature and grammar in its course to enable the learners to have command in the language." This law is also valid for private schools as it defines in article 3.7.12: "The curriculum in Islamiyat, Arabic and Moral Education of public sector will be adopted by the private institutions to make uniformity in the society."[52]
Persian
[edit]Persianwas the official of the region up until the late 19th century when the English passed several laws to replace it with local languages. Persian had a long history in the lands of Pakistan and was the cultural language of the erstwhileMughal Empire,a continuation since the introduction of the language byCentral AsianTurkicinvaders who migrated into the Indian Subcontinent,[53]and the patronisation of it by the earlier Turko-Persian Delhi Sultanate. Persian was officially abolished as a language of administration with the arrival of the British: inSindhin 1843 and inPunjabin 1849.
Today the easternDaridialect of Persian is spoken by refugees fromAfghanistanand a small number of local BalochistaniHazaracommunity. A larger number of Pakistani Hazaras speakHazaragidialect.[54]In theMadaklashtvalley of Chitral, theMadaklashtidialect ofTajik Persianis spoken by the descendants of ironmongers fromBadakhshanwho settled there in the eighteenth century.
Foreign languages
[edit]As of 2017[update]some Pakistanis are learningMandarinto do business with companies from the People's Republic ofChina.[55]
Classification
[edit]Indo-Iranian
[edit]Most of the languages of Pakistan belong to theIndo-Iranianbranch of theIndo-European language family.[56][57]The common ancestor of all of the languages in this family is calledProto-Indo-Iranian—also known as Common Aryan—which was spoken in approximately the late 3rd millennium BC. The three branches of the modern Indo-Iranian languages areIndo-Aryan,Iranian,andNuristani.A fourth independent branch,Dardic,was previously posited, but recent scholarship in general places Dardic languages as archaic members of the Indo-Aryan branch.[58]
Indo-Aryan
[edit]Majority of the languages spoken in eastern regions of Pakistan belong to the Indo-Aryan group.
Modern Indo-Aryan languages descend from Old Indo-Aryan languages such as earlyVedic Sanskrit,throughMiddle Indo-Aryan languages(orPrakrits).[59][60][61][62]
Some of the important languages in this family aredialect continuums.One of these isLahnda,[63]and includesSaraiki(spoken mostly in southernPakistani Punjabby about 26 million people), the diverse varieties ofHindko(with almost five million speakers in north-western Punjab and neighbouring regions ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa,especiallyHazara),Pahari/Pothwari(3.5 million speakers in thePothoharregion of Punjab,Azad Kashmirand parts of IndianJammu and Kashmir),Khetrani(20,000 speakers inBalochistan), andInku(a possibly extinct language of Afghanistan).[7][64][65]
Iranian
[edit]Majority of the languages spoken in western regions of Pakistan belong to the Iranic group. There are several dialects continuums in this family as well:Balochi,which includes Eastern, Western and Southern Balochi;[66]and Pashto, and includes Northern, Central, and SouthernPashto.[67]
Other
[edit]The following three languages of Pakistan are not part of the Indo-European language family:
- Brahui(spoken in central Balochistan province) is aDravidian language.Its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by Balochi. It is an individual language in the Dravidian language family and does not belong to any subgrouping in that language family.
- TheBalti dialectofLadakhi(spoken in an area of southernGilgit–Baltistan) is aTibetan languageof theTibeto-Burmanlanguage family.[68]
- Burushaski(spoken inHunza,Nagar, Yasin, andIshkomanvalleys in Gilgit–Baltistan) is alanguage isolatewith no indigenous written script and instead currently uses Urdu script, based on the Perso-Arabic script.
Writing systems
[edit]Most languages of Pakistan are written in thePerso-Arabic script.TheMughal EmpireadoptedPersianas the courtlanguageduring their rule over South Asia as did their predecessors, such as the Ghaznavids. During this time, theNastaʿlīqstyle of the Perso-Arabic script came into widespread use in South Asia, and the influence remains to this day. In Pakistan, almost everything in Urdu is written in the script, concentrating the greater part of Nastaʿlīq usage in the world.
TheUrdu Alpha betis aright-to-leftAlpha bet.It is a modification of the Persian Alpha bet, which is itself a derivative of theArabic Alpha bet.With 38 letters, the Urdu Alpha bet is typically written in thecalligraphicNasta'liq script.
Sindhiadopted a variant of thePersian Alpha betas well, in the 19th century. The script is used in Pakistan today, albeit unlike most other native languages of Pakistan, the Naskh style is more common for Sindhi writing than the Nasta'liq style. It has a total of 52 letters, augmenting the Urdu withdigraphsand eighteen new letters (ڄ ٺ ٽ ٿ ڀ ٻ ڙ ڍ ڊ ڏ ڌ ڇ ڃ ڦ ڻ ڱ ڳ ڪ) for sounds particular to Sindhi and other Indo-Aryan languages. Some letters that are distinguished in Arabic or Persian arehomophonesin Sindhi.
BalochiandPashtoare written inPerso-Arabic script.TheShahmukhī script,a variant of theUrdu Alpha bet,is used to write thePunjabi languagein Pakistan.
Usually, bare transliterations of Urdu into Roman letters,Roman Urdu,omit manyphonemicelements that have no equivalent in English or other languages commonly written in theLatin script.[citation needed]TheNational Language AuthorityofPakistanhas developed a number of systems with specific notations to signify non-English sounds, but these can only be properly read by someone already familiar with Urdu.
Maps
[edit]This is a series of maps which shows the distribution of different languages in Pakistan as of the2017 Pakistan Census.These all refer to the mother tongues of individuals only.
-
Percent speakingPunjabinatively
-
Percent speakingPashtonatively
-
Percent speakingSindhinatively
-
Percent speakingSaraikinatively
-
Percent speakingUrdunatively
-
Percent speakingBalochinatively
-
Percent speakingHindkonatively
-
Percent speakingBrahuinatively
-
Percent speaking a minor language (not collected on the census) natively in 1998.
See also
[edit]- Demographics of Pakistan
- Ethnic groups in Pakistan
- Pakistani People
- Romanisation of Urdu
- National Language Promotion Department
Notes
[edit]- ^Lack of exact numbers of speakers of the language due to not being represented in the previous censuses. Upcoming2022 Census of Pakistanwill includePahari-Pothwarias an option.Baart (2003,p. 10) provides an estimate of 3.8 million, presumably for the population in Pakistan alone.Lothers & Lothers (2010,p. 9) estimate the Pakistani population at well over 2.5 million and the UK diaspora at over 0.5 million. The population in India is reported inEthnologue (2017)to be about 1 million as of 2000.
- ^Excluding large urban centres
- ^The termHindkinormally refers to a Hindko speaker andShackle (1980,p. 482) reports that inPashtothe term has slightly pejorative connotations, which are avoided with the recently introduced termHindkūn.
References
[edit]- ^"Article: 251 National language".Retrieved23 July2018.
- ^abAshraf, Hina (22 March 2022)."The ambivalent role of Urdu and English in multilingual Pakistan: a Bourdieusian study".Language Policy.22(1): 25–48.doi:10.1007/s10993-022-09623-6.ISSN1573-1863.PMC8939399.PMID35340722.
- ^abAshraf, Muhammad Azeem; Turner, David A.; Laar, Rizwan Ahmed (January 2021)."Multilingual Language Practices in Education in Pakistan: The Conflict Between Policy and Practice".SAGE Open.11(1): 215824402110041.doi:10.1177/21582440211004140.ISSN2158-2440.S2CID232484396.
- ^Rengel, Marian (15 December 2003).Pakistan: A Primary Source Cultural Guide.The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. p. 38.ISBN978-0-8239-4001-1.
- ^Kachru, Braj B.; Kachru, Yamuna; Sridhar, S. N. (27 March 2008).Language in South Asia.Cambridge University Press. p. 34.ISBN978-1-139-46550-2.
- ^"POPULATION BY MOTHER TONGUE, SEX AND RURAL/ URBAN"(PDF).pbs.gov.pk.Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
- ^abcdEberhard, Simons & Fennig 2022.
- ^"Endangered Languages Project - Torwali - Challenges to the linguistic diversity of North Pakistan".endangeredlanguages.Retrieved11 June2023.
- ^https:// pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/population/2023/tables/national/table_11.pdf[bare URL PDF]
- ^Division, Population Census Organisation Statistics; Pakistan, Government of; Islamabad (December 1981).1981 Census Report of Pakistan.© Population Census Organisation Statistics Division, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad.
- ^"POPULATION BY MOTHER TONGUE"(PDF).Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 16 September 2016.
- ^Ilahi, Mazhar (2014)."Legislative Drafting in Plain Urdu Language for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan".European Journal of Law Reform(in Dutch).16(3): 597–609.doi:10.5553/EJLR/138723702014016003005.ISSN1387-2370.
- ^"TABLE 11 - POPULATION BY MOTHER TONGUE, SEX AND RURAL/ URBAN"(PDF).Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
- ^"TABLE 11: POPULATION BY MOTHER TONGUE, SEX AND RURAL/URBAN, CENSUS-2023"(PDF).Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
- ^Muzaffar, Sharmin; Behera, Pitambar (2014). "Error analysis of the Urdu verb markers: a comparative study on Google and Bing machine translation platforms".Aligarh Journal of Linguistics.4(1–2): 1.
Modern Standard Urdu, a register of the Hindustani language, is the national language, lingua-franca and is one of the two official languages along with English in Pakistan and is spoken in all over the world. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages and officially recognized languages in the Constitution of India and has been conferred the status of the official language in many Indian states of Bihar, Telangana, Jammu, and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and New Delhi. Urdu is one of the members of the new or modern Indo-Aryan language group within the Indo-European family of languages.
- ^"PAKISTAN".Official U.S. Marine Corps.Archived fromthe originalon 31 January 2022.Retrieved10 May2022.
- ^The World Factbook.Central Intelligence Agency. 1992. p. 264.
- ^"Dec 25, 2017 | Why did the Quaid make Urdu Pakistan's state language?".Dawn Epaper.25 December 2017.
- ^"EDUCATION SYSTEM PROFILES Education in Pakistan".World Education Services.25 February 2020.
English has been the main language of instruction at the elementary and secondary levels since colonial times. It remains the predominant language of instruction in private schools but has been increasingly replaced with Urdu in public schools. Punjab province, for example, recently announced that it will begin to use Urdu as the exclusive medium of instruction in schools beginning in 2020. Depending on the location and predominantly in rural areas, regional languages are used as well, particularly in elementary education. The language of instruction in higher education is mostly English, but some programs and institutions teach in Urdu.
- ^Robina Kausar; Muhammad Sarwar; Muhammad Shabbir (eds.)."The History of the Urdu Language Together with Its Origin and Geographic Distribution"(PDF).International Journal of Innovation and Research in Educational Sciences.2(1).
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The Aryans spoke an Indo-European language sometimes called the Vedic language from which have descended Sanskrit and other Indic languages... Prakrit was a group of variants which developed alongside Sanskrit.
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... a number of their morphophonological and lexical features betray the fact that they are not direct continuations of R̥gvedic Sanskrit, the main base of 'Classical' Sanskrit; rather they descend from dialects which, despite many similarities, were different from R̥gvedic and in some regards even more archaic.
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Most Aryan languages of India and Pakistan belong to the Indo-Aryan family, and are descended from Sanskrit through the intermediate stage of Prakrit. The Indo-Aryan languages are by far the most important numerically and the territory occupied by them extends over the whole of northern and central India and reaches as far south as Goa.
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External links
[edit]- Linguistic map of Pakistanat Muturzikin
- Pakistan census statistics by population
- List of Pakistani Languagesat Ethnologue