Saraiki language

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with the Siraiki dialect of Sindhi.

Saraiki
سرائیکی
South Punjab and neighbouring regions
EthnicitySaraiki
Native speakers
26 million (2017)[1]
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Saraiki ( سرائیکی Sarā'īkī; also spelt Siraiki, or Seraiki) is an

Indo-Aryan language of the Lahnda 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 appears to be a transitional language between Punjabi and Sindhi. Spoken in Upper Sindh as well as the southern Panjab, it is sometimes considered a dialect of either Sindhi or of Panjabi due to a high degree of mutual intelligibility.

morphology. At the same time in its phonology it is radically different[4] (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 spoken to the south.[5] Saraiki however, does relate considerably with other Western Punjabi dialects.[citation needed
] There is a political movement in Pakistan to declare Saraiki the administrative language of its own region.[2]

The Saraiki language identity arose in the 1960s, encompassing more narrow local earlier identities (like Multani, Derawi or Riasati),[6] and distinguishing itself from broader ones like that of Punjabi.[7]

Due to effects of dominant languages in Pakistani media like Urdu, Standard Punjabi and English and religious impact of Arabic and Persian, Saraiki like other regional varieties of Pakistan are continuously expanding its vocabulary base with loan words.[8]

Name

The present extent of the meaning of Sirāikī is a recent development, and the term most probably gained its currency during the nationalist movement of the 1960s.

Baloch tribes who settled there between the 16th and the 19th centuries. In this context, the term can most plausibly be explained as originally having had the meaning "the language of the north", from the Sindhi word siro 'up-river, north'.[10] This name can ambiguously refer to the northern dialects of Sindhi, but these are nowadays more commonly known as "Siroli"[11] or "Sireli".[12]

An alternative hypothesis is that Sarākī originated in the word sauvīrā, or

Sauvira,[13] an ancient kingdom which was also mentioned in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata
.

Currently, the most common rendering of the name is Saraiki.[a] 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.[21]

Classification and related languages

Further information:
Punjabi dialects
Map of Punjabi dialects and language varieties, including Saraiki (Multani, Riasti and Derawali) in the south-west

Saraiki is a member of Western Punjabi sub family of the Indo-Aryan subdivision of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European 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" 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.[22] 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. The local dialect of Lahore is the Majhi dialect of Punjabi, which has long been the basis of standard literary Punjabi.[23] However, outside of Indo-Aryanist circles, the concept of "Lahnda" is still found in compilations of the world's languages (e.g. Ethnologue).

Dialects

The following dialects have been tentatively proposed for Saraiki:[24]

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 Asian ethnic group. Only a small minority of Saraiki speakers are Jaṭṭs, and not all Saraiki speaking Jaṭṭs necessarily speak the same dialect of Saraiki. However, these people usually call their traditions as well as language 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 and Dera Ismail Khan, but "Ḍerawali" in the former is the Multani dialect and "Derawali" in the latter is the Thaḷi dialect.[26][27]

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, 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.[28] In a sense both Saraiki and Standard Panjabi are "dialects" of a "Greater Punjabi" macrolanguage.[29]

Saraiki was considered a

dialect of Punjabi by most British colonial administrators,[30] and is still seen as such by many Punjabis.[31] Saraikis, however, consider it a language in its own right[32] and see the use of the term "dialect" as stigmatising.[33]
A language movement was started in the 1960s to standardise a script and promote the language.[21][34] The national census of Pakistan has tabulated the prevalence of Saraiki speakers since 1981.[35]

Geographical distribution

Ashu Lal, A Saraiki poet and intellectual

Pakistan

Saraiki is primarily spoken in the south-western part of the province of

Sindh province; to the north, the southern edge of the Salt Range is the rough divide with the northern varieties of Lahnda, such as Pothwari.[36]

Saraiki is the first language of 25.9 million people in Pakistan according to the 2017 census.[37] The first national census of Pakistan to gather data on the prevalence of Saraiki was the census of 1981.[38] 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.[39]

India

After

pastoralists who migrated to India, specifically Andhra Pradesh, prior to Partition.[41]

There are census figures available – for example, in the 2011 census, 29,000 people reported their language as "

Bahawal Puri", and 62,000 as "Hindi Multani".[42] 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.[43] 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.[44] 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.[45]

Phonology

Saraiki's consonant inventory is similar to that of neighbouring Sindhi.[46] It includes phonemically distinctive implosive consonants, which are unusual among the Indo-European languages. In Christopher Shackle's analysis, Saraiki distinguishes up to 48 consonants and 9 monophthong vowels.[47]

Vowels

The "centralised"

Vowel nasalisation is distinctive: /'ʈuɾẽ/ 'may you go' vs. /'ʈuɾe/ 'may he go'.[50] Before /ɦ/, the contrast between /a/ and /ə/ is neutralised.[51] There is a high number of vowel sequences, some of which can be analysed as diphthongs
.

Saraiki vowels[c]
Front
Near-front
 Central
Near-back
 Back
Close i u
Near-close ɪ ʊ
Mid e o
Near-open ɛ ə
Open a

Consonants

Saraiki possesses a large inventory of

consonants:[52]

Labial Dental/
Alveolar 		Retroflex Post-alv./
Palatal 		Velar Glottal
Affricate
 voiceless p
t̪
 		ʈ t͡ʃ k
aspirated
 		pʰ t̪ʰ ʈʰ t͡ʃʰ kʰ
voiced b
d̪
 		ɖ d͡ʒ ɡ
voiced aspirated bʱ d̪ʱ ɖʱ d͡ʒʱ ɡʱ
implosive ɓ ᶑ ʄ ɠ
Nasal plain m
n
 		ɳ ɲ ŋ
aspirated mʱ nʱ ɳʱ
Fricative
 voiceless f s ʃ x
voiced v z ɣ ɦ
voiced aspirated vʱ
Tap
 plain ɾ ɽ
aspirated ɾʱ ɽʱ
Approximant
 plain
l
 		j
aspirated lʱ

In its

implosives, so that for each place of articulation there are up to five contrasting stops, for example: voiceless /tʃala/ 'custom' ~ aspirated /tʃʰala/ 'blister' ~ implosive /ʄala/ 'cobweb' ~ voiced /dʒala/ 'niche' ~ voiced aspirate /dʒʰəɠ/ 'foam'.[53]

There are five contrasting places of articulation for the stops:

post-alveolar, the articulator being the tip of the tongue or sometimes the underside.[54]
There is no dental implosive, partly due to the lesser retroflexion with which the
fricatives – respectively [x], [ɣ] and [z].[55]

Of the

retroflex flap [ɽ̃].[56]
The contrasts /ŋ/ ~ /ŋɡ/, and /ɲ/ ~ /ɲdʒ/ are weak; the single nasal is more common in southern varieties, and the nasal + stop cluster is prevalent in central dialects. Three nasals /ŋ n m/ have aspirated counterparts /ŋʰ nʰ mʰ/.

The realisation of the

labio-dental. The glottal fricative /ɦ/ is voiced and affects the voice quality of a preceding vowel.[58]

Phonotactics and stress

There are no

geminated ("doubled"). Geminates occur only after stressed centralised vowels,[60] and are phonetically realised much less markedly than in the rest of the Punjabi area.[61]

A

stressed syllable is distinguished primarily by its length: if the vowel is peripheral /i ɛ a o u/ then it is lengthened, and if it is a "centralised vowel" (/ɪ ʊ ə/) then the consonant following it is geminated. Stress normally falls on the first syllable of a word. The stress will, however, fall on the second syllable of a two-syllable word if the vowel in the first syllable is centralised, and the second syllable contains either a diphthong, or a peripheral vowel followed by a consonant, for example /dɪɾ'kʰan/ 'carpenter'. Three-syllable words are stressed on the second syllable if the first syllable contains a centralised vowel, and the second syllable has either a peripheral vowel, or a centralised vowel + geminate, for example /tʃʊ'həttəɾ/ 'seventy-four'. There are exceptions to these rules and they account for minimal pairs like /it'la/ 'informing' and /'itla/ 'so much'.[62]

Implosives

Unusually for

South Asian languages, implosive consonants are found in Sindhi, possibly some Rajasthani dialects,[63] and Saraiki, which has the following series: /ɓ ᶑ ʄ ɠ
/.

The "palatal" /ʄ/ is

denti-alveolar[64] and laminal, articulated further forward than most other palatals.[54][e]

The "

postposition/suffix /da/, which takes the form of /ᶑa/ when combined with 1st or 2nd person pronouns: /meᶑa/ 'my', /teᶑa/ 'your'.[68]

A

Jhangi dialect, which is characterised by a lack of phonemic contrast between implosives and plain stops,[69] and a preference for implosives even in words where Saraiki has a plain stop.[56] The dental implosive in Jhangi is articulated with the tongue completely covering the upper teeth.[64] It is not present in Saraiki, although Bahl (1936, p. 29) contends that it should be reconstructed for the earlier language. Its absence has been attributed to structural factors: the forward articulation of /ʄ/ and the lesser retroflexion of /ᶑ/.[67][66]

Aspirated (

phonemic;[54] it is phonetically realised on the whole syllable,[71] and results from an underlying /h/ that follows the vowel, thus [ɓʰɛh] is phonemically /ɓɛh/.[72]

The historical origin of the Saraiki implosives has been on the whole[f] the same as in Sindhi. Their source has generally been the older language's series of plain voiced stops, thus Sanskrit janayati > Saraiki ʄəɲən 'be born'. New plain voiced stops have in turn arisen out of certain consonants and consonant clusters (for example, yava > dʒao 'barley'), or have been introduced in loanwords from Sanskrit, Hindi, Persian or English (ɡərdən 'throat', bəs 'bus'). The following table illustrates some of the major developments:[73]

Sanskrit/
Prakrit 		Saraiki example word[g]
b- ɓ bahu > ɓəhʊ̃ 'many'
dv- dvitiya- > ɓja 'another'
v- vṛddhā > ɓuɖɖʱa 'old'
b vaṇa- > bən 'forest'
v vartman- > vaʈ 'path'
j ʄ jihvā > ʄɪbbʰ 'tongue'
jy- jyeṣṭhā > ʄeʈʰ 'husband's elder brother'
-jy- ʄʄ rajyate > rəʄʄəɲ 'to satisfy'
-dy- adya > əʄʄə 'today'
y- dʒ yadi > dʒe 'if'
ḍ- ᶑ Pk. gaḍḍaha- > gəᶑᶑũ 'donkey'
d- duḥkha > ᶑʊkkʰə 'sorrow'
-rd- ᶑᶑ kūrdati > kʊᶑᶑəɲ 'to jump'
-dāt- *kadātana > kəᶑᶑəɳ 'when'
-bdh- ɖɖ stabdha > ʈʰəɖɖa 'cold'
-ṇḍ- ɳɖ ḍaṇḍaka > ᶑəɳɖa 'stick'
g ɠ gāva- > ɠã 'cow'
gr- grantha > ɠəɳɖʰ 'knot'
ɡ grāma > ɡrã 'village'

Within South Asia, implosives were first described for

Grierson incorrectly treated them as "double consonants".[74]

Writing system

See also: Saraiki alphabet
Saraiki alphabet
ے
Extended Perso-Arabic script

In the province of Punjab, Saraiki is written using the

Nastaʿlīq.[76]

Historically, traders or bookkeepers wrote in a script known as kiṛakkī or

better source needed
]

Language use

In academia

The Department of Saraiki,

Islamia University, Bahawalpur was established in 1989[14] and the Department of Saraiki, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan[15] was established in 2006. BS Saraiki is also being offered by English department of Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan and MA Saraiki is being offered by Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan privately.It is taught as a subject in schools and colleges at higher secondary and intermediate.[79][80] Saraiki is also taught at degree level at the Allama Iqbal Open University at Islamabad,[16] 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.[81]

Arts and literature

Main article: Saraiki literature
See also: Saraiki culture
Tomb of Sufi poet Khwaja Ghulam Farid

The language, partly codified during the British Raj, derived its emotional attraction from the poetry of the Sufi saint, Khawaja Ghulam Farid, who has become an identity symbol.[82] His poems, known as Kafi are still famous.

The beloved's intense glances call for blood
The dark hair wildly flows The Kohl of the eyes is fiercely black
And slays the lovers with no excuse
My appearance in ruins, I sit and wait
While the beloved has settled in Malheer I feel the sting of the cruel dart
My heart the, abode of pain and grief A life of tears, I have led Farid

— one of Khwaja Ghulam Farid's poems (translated)

Shakir Shujabadi (Kalam-e-Shakir, Khuda Janey, Shakir Diyan Ghazlan, Peelay Patr, Munafqan Tu Khuda Bachaway, and Shakir De Dohray are his famous books) is a very well recognized modern poet.[83]

Saraiki belt.[84]

Media

Television channels

See also: Television in Pakistan

Former Pakistan Prime Minister

Yousaf Raza Gillani had said southern Punjab is rich in cultural heritage which needs to be promoted for next generations. In a message on the launch of Saraiki channel by Pakistan Television (PTV) in Multan, he is reported to have said that the step would help promote the rich heritage of 'Saraiki Belt'.[85]

TV Channel Genre Founded
Waseb TV (وسیب ٹی وی) Entertainment
Kook TV (کوک ٹی وی) Entertainment
Rohi TV (روہی ٹی وی) Entertainment
PTV MULTAN (پی ٹی وی ملتان) Entertainment
PTV National (پی ٹی وی نیشنل) Entertainment

Radio

These are not dedicated Saraiki channels but most play programmes in Saraiki.

See also:
Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation
Radio Channel Genre Founded
FM105 Saraiki Awaz Sadiq Abad Entertainment

See also

Notes

  1. Islamia University of Bahawalpur, department of Saraiki established in 1989,[14] Bahauddin Zakariya University, in Multan, department of Saraiki established in 2006,[15] and Allama Iqbal Open University, in Islamabad, department of Pakistani languages established in 1998),[16] and by the district governments of Bahawalpur[17] and Multan,[18] as well as by the federal institutions of the Government of Pakistan like Population Census Organization[19] and Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation.[20]
  2. ^ The terms "centralised" and "peripheral" are used in Shackle 1976 and Shackle 2003.
  3. ^ The symbols used follow Shackle (2003). Shackle (1976) has ʌ for ə and æ for ɛ.
  4. pre-palatal
    . None of these sources discuss the issue at length.
  5. ^ Bahl (1936, p. 28) describes its place of articulation as almost identical to the ⟨d'⟩ [ɟ] of Czech.
  6. ^ Saraiki differs for example in the presence of geminated implosives, or the treatment of Sanskrit vy-, whose Saraiki reflex /ɓ/ contrasts with the Sindhi /w/.(Bahl 1936, pp. 57–64)
  7. IAST. An asterisk * denotes an unattested but reconstructed
    form.
  8. ^ The practice is traced back to Juke's 1900 dictionary. The modern standard was agreed upon in 1979 (Wagha 1997, pp. 240–41).

Further reading

  • Atta, Firdos and van de Weijer, Jeroen and Zhu, Lei (2020). "Saraiki". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association: 1–21.
    doi:10.1017/S0025100320000328{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    ), with supplementary sound recordings.

References

  1. ^ Saraiki at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^
    ISBN 9783110393248
    .
  3. ^ Bashir, Conners & Hefright 2019; see also Rahman 1995, p. 16 and Shackle 2014b.
  4. ^ Shackle 1977, p. 389.
  5. ^ a b Shackle 2014b.
  6. ^ Shackle 1977, pp. 388–89; Rahman 1995, pp. 2–3
  7. ^ Rahman 1995, pp. 7–8; Shackle 1977, p. 386
  8. doi:10.35484/pssr.2020(4-III)79
    .
  9. ^ Rahman 1995, p. 3.
  10. ^ Rahman 1995, p. 4; Shackle 1976, p. 2; Shackle 1977, p. 388
  11. ^ Shackle 2007, p. 114.
  12. ^ Shackle 1976, p. 24.
  13. ^ Dani 1981, p. 36.
  14. ^ a b "The Islamia University of Bahawalpur Pakistan - Department". iub.edu.pk.
  15. ^ a b "Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan". bzu.edu.pk.
  16. ^ a b "Department Detail". aiou.edu.pk.
  17. ^ "History of Bahawalpur". bahawalpur.gov.pk. Archived from the original on 11 June 2012.
  18. ^ "Introduction -City District Government Multan". multan.gov.pk.
  19. ^ Population by Mother Tongue Archived 12 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, website of the Population Census organization of Pakistan
  20. ^ Saraiki News Bulletins Archived 6 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine, website of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation
  21. ^ a b Shackle 1977.
  22. ^ Masica 1991, pp. 18–20.
  23. ^ Grierson 1919.
  24. ^ This is the grouping in Wagha (1997, pp. 229–31), which largely coincides with that in Shackle (1976, pp. 5–8).
  25. ^ Shackle 1976, p. 8.
  26. ^ Masica 1991, p. 426.
  27. ^ Grierson 1919, pp. 239ff.
  28. ^ See Masica 1991, pp. 23–27. For a brief discussion of the case of Saraiki, see Wagha (1997, pp. 225–26).
  29. ^ Rahman 1995, p. 16.
  30. ^ Rahman 1996, p. 173.
  31. ^ Shackle 2014a: "it has come to be increasingly recognized internationally as a language in its own right, although this claim continues to be disputed by many Punjabi speakers who regard it as a dialect of Punjabi".
  32. ^ Rahman 1995, p. 16: "the Punjabis claim that Siraiki is a dialect of Punjabi, whereas the Siraikis call it a language in its own right."
  33. ^ Rahman 1996, p. 175.
  34. ^ Rahman 1997, p. 838.
  35. ^ Javaid 2004, p. 46.
  36. ^ Shackle 1976, pp. 1–2.
  37. ^ "Saraiki". Ethnologue.
  38. ^ Javaid 2004.
  39. ^ Pakistan census 1998
  40. ^ Goswami 1994, p. 30.
  41. ^ "Kahan se aa gai (کہاں سے کہاں آ گئے)". Archived from the original on 22 September 2013. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
  42. ^ "2011 Census tables: C-16, population by Native languages". Census of India Website. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019.
  43. ^ Goswami 1994, pp. 30–31; Bhatia 2016, pp. 134–35.
  44. ^ Goswami 1994, pp. 31, 33.
  45. ^ Goswami 1994, pp. 32–33.
  46. ^ Masica 1991.
  47. ^ Shackle 1976, pp. 12, 18.
  48. ^ Shackle 1976, pp. 12–13.
  49. ^ Shackle 2003, p. 588.
  50. ^ Shackle 1976, p. 17.
  51. ^ Shackle 1976, p. 32.
  52. ^ Shackle 2003, p. 590.
  53. ^ Shackle 1976, p. 18–19.
  54. ^ a b c Shackle 1976, p. 22.
  55. ^ Shackle 1976, p. 21.
  56. ^ a b Shackle 1976, p. 23.
  57. ^ Shackle 1976, pp. 20–23, 27.
  58. ^ Shackle 1976, pp. 31–33.
  59. ^ a b Shackle 2003, p. 594.
  60. ^ Shackle 1976, p. 27.
  61. ^ Shackle 2003, p. 592.
  62. ^ Shackle 1976, p. 28–29.
  63. ^ Masica 1991, p. 104.
  64. ^ a b c Bahl 1936, p. 28.
  65. ^ Shackle 1976, pp. 22–23.
  66. ^ a b Shackle 2003, pp. 590–91.
  67. ^ a b Shackle 1976, pp. 20–21.
  68. ^ Bahl 1936, p. 80.
  69. ^ Wagha 1997, pp. 234–35.
  70. ^ Bahl 1936, pp. 77–78.
  71. ^ Bahl 1936, pp. 39–40.
  72. ^ Shackle 1976, p. 31.
  73. ^ Bahl 1936, pp. 57–64.
  74. ^ Bahl 1936, pp. 4, 10.
  75. ^ Shackle 2003, pp. 598–99.
  76. ^ a b Lewis, Simons & Fennig 2016.
  77. ^ Wagha 1997, pp. 239–40.
  78. ^ "Preliminary Proposal to Encode the Multani Script in ISO/IEC 10646" (PDF).
  79. ^ "Govt plans to recruit teachers of Punjabi, Seraiki languages". DAWN.COM. 12 February 2022.
  80. ^ "In a first, K-P introduces regional-language books in govt schools". The Express Tribune. 27 February 2017.
  81. ^ "Associated Press Of Pakistan ( Pakistan's Premier NEWS Agency ) - Saraiki". app.com.pk. 18 February 2024.
  82. ISBN 978-81-8400-707-7
    .
  83. ^ "Shakir Shujabadi".
  84. ^ "Legendary Saraiki singer Shafa Ullah passes away". The Express Tribune. 29 August 2020. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
  85. ^ uploader. "Associated Press Of Pakistan ( Pakistan's Premier NEWS Agency ) - PTV's Saraiki channel to promote area's culture: PM". app.com.pk. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013.

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saraiki language.
Saraiki edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saraiki_language&oldid=1218316523"