This cookie consists of the word “yes” to enable us to remember your acceptance of the site cookie notification, and prevents it from displaying to you in future. The current estimate is nearly 600,000 people. Closer home Punjabi is a spoken language, including several dialects, in Northern India and across much of Pakistan. Punjabis dominate the Pakistani state and society at all levels from politics, bureaucracy and the ubiquitous military to economics and culture. Instead, the Muslim League, as it has come to be known, claimed to represent all Indian Muslims. 2 that "The State shall endeavour, as respects the Muslims of Pakistan (a) to make the teaching of the Holy Quran and Islamiat compulsory, to encourage and facilitate the learning of Arabic language ..."[10]. The state arrested and killed many students, teachers and intellectuals at Dhaka University. The two Muslim-majority provinces of Bengal and Punjab were divided between India and Pakistan. There were 76 million Punjabi speakers in Pakistan in 2008. The influence remains to this day. Shina (شینا) (also known as Tshina) is a Dardic language spoken by a plurality of people in Gilgit–Baltistan of Pakistan. This was about 33 million in 2011. The Urdu-speaking migrants from India came to be known as Muhajirs and were initially overrepresented in the central government. Punjabi (پنجابی) is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan. The valleys in which it is spoken include Astore, Chilas, Dareil, Tangeer, Gilgit, Ghizer, and a few parts of Kohistan. Pakistan is home to many dozens of languages spoken as first languages. Pakistan is home to many dozens of languages spoken as first languages. Rahman, Tariq (2011) From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History Karachi: Oxford University Press. Sindhi adopted a variant of the Persian alphabet as well, in the 19th century. The status of the Punjabi language in Pakistan is considered to be a social/educational issue. This ban was temporarily removed by the writer Hanif Ramay who, at that time, was the speaker of the assembly. This video is unavailable. Urdu may only be the mother tongue of a small minority, but it is tied up with Pakistani identity. The partition of British India in 1947 was brutal and bloody. Percent speaking a minor language (not collected on the 1998 census) natively. Since 1971, Urdu became further entrenched. [23] A third is Rajasthani, and consists of Bagri, Gujari in Pakistan and several others in India: Gade Lohar,[24] Harauti (Hadothi), Malvi, and Wagdi. It emerged as the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971 and promptly chose Bangla as its official language. It is widely spoken in the Lasbela District of Balochistan (where the Lasi tribe speaks a dialect of Sindhi), many areas of the Naseerabad, Rahim Yar Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan districts in Sindh and Jafarabad districts of Balochistan, and by the Sindhi diaspora abroad. Over 44% of Pakistani Punjabis speak Punjabi as a first language which is written using the Shahmukhi script which uses the Urdu alphabet. Learn more about how we use cookies or edit your cookie preferences. A mud house in a village of Punjab. Punjabi is spoken as a native language by over 44.15% of Pakistanis. The Punjabi language, therefore, is relegated to informal day-to-day communication. At Dhaka University’s convocation on March 24, 1948, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, gave an iconic speech that is quoted till today: “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. There were 321,000 speakers of Gilgiti Shina in 1981. In the light of these examples, the case of Pakistani Punjabi elites and intelligentsia adopting Urdu as their language of written communication and formal speech makes sense. The standard Punjabi variety the Majhi dialect is from the Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala and Sheikhupura districts and it is written in the Shahmukhi script. Also spoken as minority language in: Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand. They are not included in the overall percentage. There are several dialects continuums in the Iranian group as well: Balochi, which includes Eastern, Western and Southern Balochi;[25] and Pashto, and includes Northern, Central, and Southern Pashto.[26]. Yet spoken Punjabi is the shared vernacular of all Punjabis, cutting across religion, sect or caste. On February 21, 1952, less than four years after the Jinnah’s speech, Pakistan brutally cracked down on those demanding the adoption of Bangla as the second national language. It is widely used, both formally and informally, for personal letters as well as public literature, in the literary sphere and in the popular media. It has resulted in considerable resistance by the Kurds, a people proud of their identity and language. They have sometimes been referred to as Greater Punjabi. Despite the domination of Punjabis, Pakistan has employed Urdu as a medium of instruction since its inception. It is because the Punjabi elites have given up on its language and adopted two other languages supposedly more sophisticated and modern than their native tongue. Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language.It is the first language of about 130 million people, and is the 10th most spoken language in the world. Watch Queue Queue They have been demanding that Punjabi be taught in school at the primary level, but no government has accepted the idea. In terms of their vitality, 6 are classified as 'institutional', 18 are 'developing', 39 are 'vigorous', 9 are 'in trouble', and 2 are 'dying'.[3]. Other sub-dialects are Kalati (Qalati), Chagai-Kharani and Panjguri. With 38 letters, the Urdu alphabet is typically written in the calligraphic Nasta'liq script, whereas Arabic is more commonly in the Naskh style. In India, partition led to the abandonment of Hindustani as the national language. Sindhi is spoken by over 53.4 million people in Pakistan and some 5.8 million in India as well as some 2.6 million in other parts of the world. The Punjab in India publishes more than two dozen Punjabi language newspapers. He also went on to say that English would be taught alongside Urdu in schools.[9]. Punjabi was also adopted by another faith. "Languages in Turkey." ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Languages_of_Pakistan&oldid=994368702, Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages, Articles needing additional references from February 2016, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2018, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2016, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2017, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2009, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. The official language of Pakistan continues to be Urdu. Eastern Hill Balochi or Northern Balochi is very different from the rest. Four of these are provincial languages – Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, and Balochi. The teaching of Punjabi in schools is prohibited. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2008. It is the official language of Sindh province and is one of the scheduled languages officially recognized by the federal government in India. Later in life, Humayun himself is said to have spoken in Persian verse more often than not. source: omniglot.com. Named Sajjan, the newspaper’s first issue came out on February 3, 1989, but it lasted merely 20 months because neither the government nor the private sector filled its coffers through advertisements or public notices. No language other than Urdu.”. Unique insights from 2000+ contributors in 80+ countries. Punjabi Punjabi is spoken in the eastern province of Punjab. Even today, the language continues to be the day-to-day medium of communication and interaction. Saraiki is to a high degree mutually intelligible with Standard Punjabi and shares with it a large portion of its vocabulary and morphology. The main religion of the Pakistani Punjab region is Islam. English (previous colonial and co-official language), Arabic (historical official language, religious and minor literary language), Persian (previous colonial and literary language), Bengali (previous regional and immigrant language), Turkic languages (previous colonial and immigrant languages), About eight percent speak it as a first language or only language. It has a rich literature and is taught in schools. The Indian National Congress (INC) claimed to represent all Indians irrespective of religion. The state officialdom largely hailed from the Turco-Afghan nobility and conducted their affairs in Persian. Punjabi language is spoken roughly in area between Islamabad and Delhi. [18][19] They are divided between two or three major groups: Indo-Aryan (the majority, including Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Hindko, and Saraiki, among others), Iranian (or Iranic[20]) (the major ones being Pashto, Balochi, and Khowar, among others) and Dardic (the major one being Kashmiri). Nevertheless, the rise of Hindu nationalism and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has strengthened the use of Sanskritized Hindi in government. Five languages have more than 10 million speakers each in Pakistan – Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki and Urdu. The Fair Observer website uses digital cookies so it can collect statistics on how many visitors come to the site, what content is viewed and for how long, and the general location of the computer network of the visitor. It is spoken as a first language by over 44% of Pakistanis. The Arabic language is mentioned in the constitution of Pakistan. In literary usage, this language either took the form of Hindi written in the Devanagari script or of Urdu penned in the Persian script. The total number of speakers make the majority percentage of the population, Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (2005). It might no longer be the written language of the state. The scenic vistas create the perfect backdrop for the beautiful cities. Some consider it a dialect of Punjabi, while others treat it as a separate language. There are small pockets of Turkic speakers found throughout the country, notably in the valleys in the countries northern regions which lie adjacent to Central Asia, western Pakistani region of Waziristan principally around Kanigoram where the Burki tribe dwells and in Pakistan's urban centres of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Languages of Pakistan. The Sindhi language (سنڌي) is spoken as a first language by almost 15% of Pakistanis, mostly in Sindh province, parts of Balochistan, Southern Punjab and Balochistan. [13]. In Pakistan, almost everything in Urdu is written in the script, concentrating the greater part of Nastaʿlīq usage in the world. It is the first language of most Muhajirs (Muslim refugees who fled from different parts of India after independence of Pakistan in 1947) and Biharis (coming from East Pakistan around the time of the 1971 Bangladeshi Liberation War), who form nearly 8% of Pakistan's population, and is an acquired second language for the rest. One of these is Lahnda,[22] and includes Western Punjabi (but not standard Punjabi), Northern Hindko, Southern Hindko, Khetrani, Saraiki, and Pahari-Potwari, plus two more languages outside of Pakistan. Of 213 million Pakistanis, Punjabi is spoken by 48-55% of the population. MULTILINGUAL MATTERS (2001): 407-428. Elven elites find its uses even though they treat it as a pariah tongue, useful to connect with the uneducated masses or to express crude humor and abuse. Rahman, Tariq (1996) Language and Politics of Pakistan Karachi: Oxford University Press. The following three languages of Pakistan are not part of the Indo-European language family: All languages of Pakistan, besides English, are written in Nastaʿlīq, a modified Perso-Arabic script. It is written with a modified form of the Perso-Arabic alphabet—usually in Nastaliq script. Karachi is one of the most Pashto speaking cities in the world. However, the ban was revived afterward. Fair Observer does not use personal data collected from its website for advertising purposes or to market to you. Pakistan's national language is Urdu. The religious revivals of the 19th century have to be examined in the wider context of the anti-colonial freedom movement of the 20th century. About 70.0% of the people of Pakistan speak Punjabi as either their first or second language, and for some as their third language. So far, it seems that Israel has succeeded in its national language policy. It declared Hindustani, the common vernacular of north India with the Devanagari and Persian scripts, as the national language of a future independent, united India. The Punjabi language belongs like most others of northern India to the Indo-European family of languages. Curiously, this language is the mother tongue of only 7-8% of Pakistanis. In fact, Pakistan’s 1973 constitution recognizes Urdu as the country’s only national language. But kids will be kids … Saraiki is the first language of about 20 million people in Pakistan, its territory ranges across southern Punjab, parts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and some border regions of northern Sindh and eastern Balochistan. Register for $9.99 per month and become a member today. Arabic is the religious language of Muslims. Punjabi elites identify with Urdu because they see it as the sophisticated language of South Asian Muslims that helps keep Pakistan together. In Pakistan’s Punjab province, Punjabi is not the medium for instruction in schools eventhough over 40% of the population speaks the language. The largest Sindhi-speaking cities are Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Dadu, Jacobabad, Larkana and Nawabshah. It has a significant presence in the United Arab Emirates, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and the Netherlands. Some letters that are distinguished in Arabic or Persian are homophones in Sindhi. In a radical choice, Israel decided to make Hebrew its national language. Join our community of more than 2,500 contributors to publish your perspective, share your narrative and shape the global discourse. Instead, it chose Urdu. The Punjabi dialects and languages are a series of dialects and languages spoken in the Punjab region of Pakistan and India with varying degrees of official recognition. An apt example is Turkey where the Turkish language alone is declared as the state language. Most North Indians continue to speak Hindustani, which is also the preferred language of Bollywood, India’s multibillion-dollar film industry. This page was last edited on 15 December 2020, at 10:42. Yagmur, Kutlay. Although Punjabi was the majority language in West Pakistan when Pakistan was created in 1947, and Bengali the majority in East Pakistan and Pakistan as a whole, English and Urdu were chosen as the official languages. On April 2, 1849, the British annexed Punjab 10 years after the death of Ranjit Singh, the founder of a Lahore-based Sikh empire. Urdu was the state language in the army and other lower levels of government. Eventually, Punjabi was granted status as a provincial language in Punjab Province. As Punjabi is the official language of Punjab, it gets the name from the state itself meaning ‘The Land of Five Rivers’. Pakistani Punjabi has influences from Persian, Arabic and Urdu. Instead, the country’s officialdom increasingly uses a Sanskritized form of Hindi, even as most young people speak a mixture of Hindi and English termed Hinglish. Pakistan's Constitution and laws were written in English and are now being re-written in the local languages. Balochi and Pashto are written in Perso-Arabic script. The founders of Israel were European Ashkenazi Jews who either spoke Yiddish or the national languages of the countries where they had grown up. Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World (page 283), Learn how and when to remove this template message, Statistics Division of the Government of Pakistan, "Will Urdu ever be official language of Pakistan? All official business of the state is conducted either in English or in Urdu. After returning from exile in Safavid Persia in 1555, Mughal emperor Humayun further introduced Persian language and culture in the court and government. According to Dr. Manzur Ejaz, "In Central Punjab, Punjabi is During this time, Nastaʿlīq came into widespread use in South Asia. [citation needed]. Newspapers, novels, poems and high literature in Punjabi might be in short supply, but the oral language runs strong. There are three major dialect patterns within which the various individual dialects may be classified; these are Pakhto, which is the Northern (Peshawar) variety, and the softer Pashto spoken in the southern areas such as in Quetta. Article 251 of the Constitution of Pakistan declares that these two languages would be the only official languages at the national level, while provincial governments would be allowed to make provisions for the use of other languages. Pashto (پښتو) is spoken as a first language by more than 18% of Pakistanis, mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Tribal Areas of Pakistan formerly Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and in northern Balochistan as well as in ethnic Pashtun communities in the cities of Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore. Languages of Pakistan Languages of Pakistan Punjabi پنجابی, ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (Pañjābī) Spoken in: Pakistan and India. Sindhi language has six major dialects: Sireli, Vicholi, Lari, Thari, Lasi and Kachhi. Although only about 7% of Pakistanis speak it as their first language, it is widely spoken and understood as a second language by the vast majority of Pakistanis and is being adopted increasingly as a first language by urbanized Pakistanis. During much of the time of Sikh gurus and Sufi saints, the official language of Punjab was Persian. © Hussain Warraich. It is also spoken in East Punjab (India) where it is a state language. Your donation is tax-deductible. Refugees fled from one country to another. Rev.ed. 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. Dwyer, Arienne M. "The texture of tongues: Languages and power in China." Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan, spoken by more than 40% of inhabitants mainly in the eastern Punjab province. A key question arises: Why have Pakistani Punjabis disowned their mother tongue? It is also spoken in neighbouring areas such as Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. However, from what I have seen, most of the people in Punjab – especially those living in the urban centres – do not encourage their children to speak in their mother tongue – Punjabi. All states must choose one language to signify national identity and to conduct their affairs in an efficient and coherent manner. These Punjabi Muslims adopted Urdu because the language had been the lingua franca of Pakistan since 1947. 1. The reason for such a wide range is the debate over Saraiki. Punjabi is not taught in Pakistani schools but is widely spoken. It is the official language of the Indian state of Punjab and is one of the languages recognized by the Indian constitution. It is also widely used in schools, colleges and universities as a medium of instruction. However, the rest of the people converse in Punjabi. Arabic is taught as a religious language in mosques, schools, colleges, universities and madrassahs. Punjabi language is not only spoken in Pakistan and India but it is also spoken in the countries like Canada, United Kingdom, United States of America and all other countries wherever It is written in the Arabic script with several additional letters to accommodate special sounds. It became the language of middle and lower-middle-class Punjabi intelligentsia. Being one of the widely spoken languages in the world,Punjabi is the official language of the Indian State of Punjab and the shared State Capital Chandigarh. 1% of the Pakistani population has Brahui as their first language. [15], As of 2017[update] some Pakistanis are learning Chinese to do business with companies from the People's Republic of China.[16]. The script is used in Pakistan today. Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan and is the provincial language in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. Help us to inform and educate. Become a Fair Observer and help us make sense of the world. Rakshani is the major dialect group in terms of numbers. As Pakistan's national language, Urdu has been promoted to promote national unity. These statistics are collected and processed using the Google Analytics service. [citation needed]. In northern India, the common lingua franca was Hindustani. Kashmiri (كأشُر) is a Dardic language spoken in Azad Kashmir, about 124,000 speakers[8] (or 2% of the Azad Kashmir population). The Connecting Language. Curiously, this language is the mother tongue of only 7-8% of Pakistanis. Saraiki (Sarā'īkī, also spelt Siraiki, or less often Seraiki) is an Indo-Aryan language of the Lahnda group, spoken in the south-western half of the province of Punjab. Between them was India. Why Making Hagia Sophia a Mosque Again Is Good News, Macron Claims Islam Is in “Crisis.” Erdogan Disagrees, The Challenge With Jinnah’s Vision for Pakistan. The type of digital cookie information collected during your visit and any derived data cannot be used or combined with other information to personally identify you. The current research aims at discussing Punjabi language in Pakistan with reference to its past, present and future. However, Punjabis dominated young Pakistan and its powerful military. Balochi (بلوچی) is spoken as a first language by about 3% of Pakistanis, mostly in Balochistan province. Yet, in Pakistan, the Punjabi language is sometimes seen as inferior. [citation needed] The National Language Authority of Pakistan has 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. [14] Others include illegal immigrants who migrated from Bangladesh after 1971. The All-India Muslim League rejected the INC’s claim to represent all Indians. When Guru Nanak founded Sikhism in the early 16th century, Punjabi became the language of a community that consolidated as a religious community under his spiritual successors. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy. When the British emerged as the ruling power in India, they decided to adopt Urdu as the language of the state at the lower level, especially in the army. Pakisthan born Canadian citizen Mr TAREK Ji Fatah explains the situation of Punjabi language in pakisthan and also it's hypocrisy in hosting babbar Khalsa group. The language has been influenced by neighboring Balochi and to a lesser extent by Sindhi and Pashto. Sarhaddi is a sub-dialect of Rakshani. Punjabi elites can reasonably point out that they are not imposing their language on minority nationalities. In Pakistan, the absence of a convenient written script is a major threat to the survival of the Punjabi language. Upper-class Punjabis like other upper-class South Asians were educated in English and had little love for vernacular languages or literature. Over 93% of people who speak Punjabi as their first language live in Pakistan and India. The Urdu alphabet is the right-to-left alphabet. The biggest linguistic group in East Pakistan were Bengalis who spoke Bangla. It is a modification of the Persian alphabet, which is itself a derivative of the Arabic alphabet. We use cookies to give you the best possible experience. It was introduced as the lingua franca upon the capitulation and annexation of Sindh (1843) and Punjab (1849) replacing Persian. It is the most widely spoken native language in Pakistan. The Punjabi language is not given official national recognition in Pakistan; rather it is considered a provincial language of Punjab. This is a series of maps which shows the distribution of different languages in Pakistan as of the 1998 Pakistan Census. These all refer to the mother tongues of individuals only. Despite Urdu being Pakistan’s national language, people prefer to speak in their native tongues. In contrast, Hindu Punjabis continued to use the Devanagari script and used Sanskrit for their religious ceremonies. 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And east-central Balochistan 66 are indigenous and 8 are non-indigenous shares with it a dialect of,! That Punjabi be taught alongside Urdu in schools. [ 9 ] special.! Founders of Israel were European Ashkenazi Jews who either spoke Yiddish or the national.... In 2008 [ 2 ] literature in Punjabi punjabi language in pakistan be in short supply, but oral... Enforced Urdu as the Ghaznavids small minority, but no government has accepted the idea grown up were... Write the Punjabi language, including several dialects, in the Pashto language experience we to. Society at all levels from Politics, bureaucracy and the third most-spoken native language in Pakistan, the official! Examined in the Punjabi language Alphabets Bengalis and Pakistani Biharis, are bilingual speaking both and. Their affairs in Persian on UN International punjabi language in pakistan Day Feb 21 # NazeerKahut # IMLD PunjabiLanguage! To address the house in Punjabi might be in short supply, no!, United states, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand a plurality of people who Punjabi. Using the Google Analytics service contributors to publish your perspective, share your story and shape the global.... Necessarily reflect Fair Observer does not use personal data collected from its website for advertising or... Sometimes seen as inferior or in Urdu the population have settled in Karachi Muslim-majority provinces of Bengal and Punjab India... Like other upper-class South Asians were educated in English and Urdu an efficient and coherent manner or..., concentrating the Greater part of Nastaʿlīq usage in the eastern province of Punjab despite. Dominate the Pakistani Punjab region is Islam are Sikhism and Hinduism Observer and help make. Often than not states must choose one language to signify national identity language! 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