Languages of Pakistan

Pakistan is home to many dozens of languages spoken as first languages.

Languages of Pakistan
Five languages have more than 10 million speakers each in Pakistan –
Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki and Urdu. Almost all of Pakistan's Official English [1], Urdu
languages belong to theIndo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language languages
family. National Urdu
languages
Pakistan's national language isUrdu, which, along with English, is also the
Main Punjabi (45%), Pashto (15%),
official language.
languages Sindhi (12%), Saraiki (10%)
The country also has several regional languages, including Punjabi, Urdu (8%), Balochi (3.6%)
Saraiki, Pashto, Sindhi, Balochi, Kashmiri, Hindko, Brahui, Shina, Balti, Main Arabic, Dari, Bengali, Gujarati,
Khowar, Dhatki, Marwari, Wakhi and Burushaski. Four of these are immigrant Memoni
provincial languages – Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, and Balochi. languages

The number of individual languages listed for Pakistan is 74. All are living Sign Indo-Pakistani Sign Language
languages. Of these, 66 are indigenous and 8 are non-indigenous. languages
Furthermore, 7 are 'institutional', 17 are 'developing', 39 are 'vigorous', 9 Common Urdu keyboard
are 'in trouble', and 2 are 'dying'. keyboard
layouts

Contents
History
Statistics
National language
Provincial languages
Punjabi
Pashto
Sindhi
Balochi
Sub-provincial regional languages Pakistani languages map
Saraiki
Brahui
Shina
Kashmiri
Other languages
English (previous colonial and co-official language)
Arabic (historical official language, religious and minor
literary language)
Persian (previous colonial and literary language)
Bengali
Turkic languages (previous colonial and immigrant
languages)
Minor languages
Classification
Indo-Iranian
Other
 Writing systems
See also
References
Bibliography
External links

History

Statistics
Following are the major languages spoken in Pakistan, by number of people that speak them as their first language.

Numbers of speakers of larger languages

Language 2008 estimate 1998 census Areas of Predominance
1 Punjabi 76,367,360 44.17% 58,433,431 44.15% Punjab
2 Pashto 26,692,890 15.44% 20,408,621 15.42% Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
3 Sindhi 24,410,910 14.12% 18,661,571 14.10% Rural Sindh
4 Saraiki 18,019,610 10.42% 13,936,594 10.53% Punjab
5 Urdu 13,120,540 7.59% 10,019,576 7.57% Urban Sindh and urban Pakistan
6 Balochi 6,204,540 3.59% 4,724,871 3.57% Balochistan

Saraiki was included with Punjabi in 1951 and 1961 census

Being the national language, Urdu is spoken and understood by the majority of Pakistanis and is being adopted
increasingly as a first language by urbanized Pakistanis.

National language
Urdu (‫ ) اردو‬is the national language (‫زﺑﺎن‬ ‫) ﻗﻮﻣﯽ‬, lingua franca and one of two
official languages of Pakistan (the other currently being English). Although only
about 8% 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
An example of the Nastaʿlīq script
adopted increasingly as a first language by urbanized Pakistanis. It was introduced
used for writing Urdu
as the lingua franca upon the capitulation and annexation of Sindh (1843) and
Punjab (1849) with the subsequent ban on the use of Persian. According to the
linguistic historian Tariq Rahman, however, the oldest name of what is now called Urdu is Hindustani or Hindvi and it existed in
some form at least from the 14th century if not earlier (Rahman 2011). It was probably the Indo-Aryan language of the area around
Delhi that absorbed words of Persian, Arabic, and Chagatai (a Turkic language)—in a process like the one that created modern
English. This language, according to Rahman, is the ancestor of both modern Hindi and Urdu. These became two distinct varieties
when Urdu was first Persianized in the 18th century and then Hindi was Sanskritized from 1802 onwards.

The name Urdu is a short form of 'Zuban-e-Urdu-e-Mualla'i.e. language of the exalted city. In India the term Urdu, although it means
'military camp' in most Turkic languages, was used for the capital city of the king. In other words, the language of the king's capital
was a Persianized form of the language known only by its previous and currently less common name Hindustani. This was shortened
to 'Urdu' and this term was used for the first time in written records by the poet Mushafi in 1780 (Rahman 2011: 49). 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 is
a required subject of study in all primary and secondary schools. It is the first language of most Muhajirs (Muslim refugees who fled
from different parts of India after independence of Pakistan in 1947), who form nearly 8% of Pakistan's population, and is an
acquired second language for the rest. As Pakistan's national language, Urdu has been promoted to promote national unity. It is
written with a modified form of thePerso-Arabic alphabet—usually in Nastaliq script.

Provincial languages

Punjabi
Punjabi (‫ )ﭘﻨﺠﺎﺑﯽ‬is spoken as a first language by more than 44% of Pakistanis, mostly in Punjab. Speakers of Saraiki and Hindko
have previously been included in the Punjabi totals. The standard Punjabi variety is from the Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala and
Sheikhupura districts and it is written in theShahmukhi script with the Urdu alphabet.

Pashto
Pashto (‫ )ﭘ ﺘﻮ‬is spoken as a first language by more than 15.42% (c. 29 million) of Pakistanis, mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
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. Karachi is one of the most Pashto speaking cities in the world.[2] Pashto is also widely
spoken in neighboring Afghanistan where it has of
ficial language status.

Pashto has rich written literary traditions as well as an oral tradition. 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. Khushal Khan Khattak (1613–1689) and Rahman Baba (1633–1708) were famous poets in the Pashto language. In
the last part of 20th century, Pakhto or Pashto has produced some great poets like Ghani Khan, Khatir Afridi and Amir Hamza
Shinwari. They are not included in the overall percentage.

Sindhi
The Sindhi language (‫ )ﺳﻨﮅي‬is spoken as a first language by at most 14.5% of Pakistanis, mostly in Sindh province, parts of
Balochistan, Southern Punjab and Balochistan. It has a rich literature and is taught in schools. It is an Indo-Aryan (Indo-European)
language, derived from Sanskrit, and influenced by Arabic languages. The Arabs ruled Sindh province for more than 150 years after
Muhammad bin Qasimconquered it in 712 AD, remaining there for three years to set up Arab rule. Consequently, the social fabric of
Sindh contains elements of Arabic society. 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. It is the official language of Sindh province and is one of the scheduled
languages officially recognized by the federal government in India. 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. Sindhi language has six major dialects: Sireli, Vicholi, Lari,
Thari, Lasi and Kachhi. It is written in the Arabic script with several additional letters to accommodate special sounds. The largest
Sindhi-speaking cities are Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Dadu, Jacobabad, Larkana and Nawabshah. Sindhi literature is
also spiritual in nature. Shah Abdul Latif Bhita'i (1689–1752) is one of its greatest poets; he wrote the famous poetic compendium
Shah Jo Risalo which includes the folk stories "Sassi Punnun" and "Umar Marvi".

Balochi
Balochi (‫ )ﺑﻠﻮﭼﯽ‬is spoken as a first language by about 4% of Pakistanis, mostly in Balochistan province. 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. The name Balochi or Baluchi is not found before
the 10th Century. It is one of the 9 distinguished languages of Pakistan. Since Balochi is a very poetic and rich language and has a
certain degree of affinity to Urdu, Balochi poets tend to be very good poets in Urdu as well and Ata Shaad, Gul Khan Nasir and Noon
Meem Danish are excellent examples of this.
Sub-provincial regional languages

Saraiki
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. Saraiki is to a high degree mutually intelligible with Standard Punjabi and shares with it a large
portion of its vocabulary and morphology. 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 spoken to the south. 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.

Brahui
Brahui (‫ )ﺑﺮاﮬﻮی‬is a Dravidian language of central and east-central Balochistan. The language has been influenced by neighboring
Balochi and to a lesser extent by Sindhi and Pashto. 1% of the Pakistani population has Brahui as their first language. It is one of the
nine distinguished languages of Pakistan. The Brahui people have traditionally been taken as a relict population, suggesting that
Dravidian languages were formerly more widespread but were supplanted by the incoming Indo-Aryan languages.[3] However, this
idea has fallen out of favor; Brahui appears to have migrated to Balochistan from central India after 1000 CE, as evidenced by the
absence of Avestan loanwords. The main Iranian contributor to Brahui vocabulary, Balochi, is a western Iranian language like
[4]
Kurdish that moved to the area from the west only around 1000 CE.

Shina
Shina (‫( )ﺷﯿﻨﺎ‬also known as Tshina) is a Dardic language spoken by a plurality of people in Gilgit–Baltistan of Pakistan. The valleys
in which it is spoken include Astore, Chilas, Dareil, Tangeer, Gilgit, Ghizer, and a few parts of Kohistan. It is also spoken in the
Gurez, Drass, Kargil, Karkit Badgam and Ladakh valleys of Kashmir. There were 321,000 speakers of Gilgiti Shina in 1981. The
current estimate is nearly 600,000 people.

Kashmiri
Kashmiri (‫ )ﻛﺄﺷُ ﺮ‬is a Dardic language spoken in Azad Kashmir, about 124,000 speakers[5] (or 2% of the Azad Kashmir population).

Other languages

English (previous colonial and co-official language)

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's Constitution and laws were written in English and are now being re-
written in the local languages. It is also widely used in schools, colleges and universities as a medium 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
[6]
also went on to say that English would be taught alongside Urdu in schools.

Arabic (historical official language, religious and minor literary language)

In the history, Arabic (‫ )ﻋﺮﺑﻲ‬was the official language when the territory of the modern state Islamic Republic of Pakistanwas a part
of the Umayyad Caliphate between 651 and 750.
The Arabic language is mentioned in the constitution 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 theHoly Quran and Islamiat compulsory, to encourage and facilitate the
learning of Arabic language ..."[7]

Arabic is the religious language of Muslims. The Quran, Sunnah, Hadith and Muslim theology is taught in Arabic with Urdu
translation. The Pakistani diaspora living in the Middle East has further increased the number of people who can speak Arabic in
Pakistan. Arabic is taught as a religious language inmosques, schools, colleges, universities and madrassahs. A majority of Pakistan's
Muslim population has had some form of formal or informal education in the reading, writing and pronunciation of the Arabic
language as part of their religious education.

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.“[8]

Persian (previous colonial and literary language)

Persian (‫ )ﻓﺎرﺳﯽ‬was the official and cultural language of the Mughal Empire, a continuation since the introduction of the language
by Central Asian Turkic invaders who migrated into the Indian Subcontinent,[9] and the patronisation of it by the earlier Turko-
Persian Delhi Sultanate. Persian was officially abolished with the arrival of the British: in Sindh in 1843 and in Punjab in 1849. It is
today spoken primarily by theDari speaking refugees fromAfghanistan and the Hazara community of Quetta.

Bengali
Bengali (‫ )ﺑﻨﮕﺎﻟﯽ‬is not an official language in Pakistan, but a significant number of Pakistani citizens have migrated from East
Bengal and live in West Pakistan or East Pakistan prior to 1971. Others include illegal immigrants who migrated from Bangladesh
after 1971. Most Pakistani Bengalis, are bilingual speaking both Urdu and Bengali, and are mainly settled in Karachi.

Turkic languages (previous colonial and immigrant languages)

Turkic languages were used by the ruling Turco-Mongols such as the Mughals and earlier Sultans of the subcontinent. 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. The autobiography of Mughal emperor Babur, Tuzk Babari was also
written in Turkish. After returning from exile in Safavid Persia in 1555, Mughal emperor Humayun further introduced Persian
language and culture in the court and government. The Chaghatai language, in which Babur had written his memoirs, disappeared
almost entirely from the culture of the courtly elite, and Mughal emperor Akbar could not speak it. Later in life, Humayun himself is
said to have spoken in Persian verse more often than not.

A number of Turkic speaking refugees, mostly Uzbeks and Turkmens from Afghanistan and Uyghurs from China have settled in
Pakistan.

Minor languages
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.[10]

Aer Bagri/Vagri
Badeshi Balti
 Bateri Kachchi/Kutchi
Bhaya Kalami
Brahui Kalasha-mun
Brokskat Kalkoti
Burig/Purik Kamviri
Burushaski Kati
Changthang Khetrani
Chilisso Khowar
Chitrali Kohistani Indus
Dari Koli-Kachi
Dameli Koli-Parkari
Dogri Koli-Wadiyara
Dehawri Lasi
Dhatki/Thari Loarki
Domaaki Marwari
Gawar-Bati Memoni
Ghera Od/Odki
Goaria Ormuri
Gowro Palula
Gujarati Pothowari
Gojri (Gujari) Sansi
Gurgula Torwali
Hazaragi Uyghur (spoken by Uyghur community)
Hindko Ushojo/Ushoji
Jadgali Wakhi
Jandavra Waneci
Jogi, a language spoken byJogi Yidgha
Kabutra Zangskari

Classification
The Indo-Iranian languages derive from a reconstructed commonproto-language, called Proto-Indo-Iranian.

Indo-Iranian
Most of the languages of Pakistan belong to the Indo-Iranian (more commonly known as Indo-Iranic[11] ) branch of the Indo-
European language family.[12][13] 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[14] ) (the major ones being Pashto, Balochi, and Khowar,
among others) and Dardic (the major one being Kashmiri). At times Dardic is considered another branch of Indo-Iranian, but many
linguists term Dardic as individual Indo-Aryan languages that do not form any subgrouping within Indo-Aryan.[15] The Nuristani
language, considered another individual branch of Indo-Iranian, is spoken by the Nuristani minority in Afghanistan near the Afghan-
Pakistani border, but not known to be spoken indigenously in Pakistan.

Some of the important languages in the Indo-Aryan group are dialect continuums. One of these is Lahnda,[16] and includes Western
Punjabi (but not standard Punjabi), Northern Hindko, Southern Hindko, Khetrani, Saraiki, and Pahari-Potwari, plus two more
languages outside of Pakistan. The other is Marwari, and includes Marwari of Pakistan and several languages of India (Dhundari,
Marwari, Merwari, Mewari, and Shekhawati).[17] A third is Rajasthani, and consists of Bagri, Gujari in Pakistan and several others in
India: Gade Lohar,[18] Harauti (Hadothi), Malvi, and Wagdi.

Although Urdu is not a dialect continuum, it is a major dialect of Hindustani and somewhat differs from Hindi, another dialect of
Hindustani which is not spoken in Pakistan.
There are several dialects continuums in the Iranian group as well: Balochi, which includes Eastern, Western and Southern
Balochi;[19] and Pashto, and includes Northern, Central, and SouthernPashto.[20]

Other
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.
The Balti dialect of Ladakhi (spoken in an area of southernGilgit–Baltistan) is a Tibetan language of the Tibeto-
Burman language family[21]
Burushaski (spoken in Hunza, Nagar, Yasin, and Ishkoman valleys in Gilgit–Baltistan) is alanguage isolate with no
indiginious written script and instead currently uses Urdu script, based on the Perso-Arabic script.

Writing systems
All languages of Pakistan, besides English, are written in Nastaʿlīq, a modified
Perso-Arabic script. The Mughal Empire adopted Persian as the court language
during their rule over South Asia as did their predecessors, such as the Ghaznavids.
During this time, Nastaʿlīq came into widespread use in South Asia. 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.

The Urdu alphabet is the right-to-

left alphabet. It is a modification of
the Persian alphabet, which is itself
a derivative of the Arabic alphabet.
With 38 letters, the Urdu alphabet
is typically written in the
calligraphic Nasta'liq script,
whereas Arabic is more commonly
in the Naskh style. Arabic manuscript from the Abbasid-
era
Sindhi adopted a variant of the
Persian alphabet as well, in the 19th
century. The script is used in Pakistan today. It has a total of 52 letters, augmenting
Chalipa panel, Mir Emad the Urdu with digraphs and eighteen new letters (‫ڄ ٺ ٽ ٿ ڀ ٻ ڙ ڍ ڊ ڏ ڌ ڇ ڃ ڦ ڻ‬
‫ )ڱ ڳ ڪ‬for sounds particular to Sindhi and other Indo-Aryan languages. Some
letters that are distinguished inArabic or Persian are homophones in Sindhi.

Balochi and Pashto are written in Perso-Arabic script. The Shahmukhī script, a variant of the Urdu alphabet, is used to write the
Punjabi language in Pakistan.

Usually, bare transliterations of Urdu into Roman letters, Roman Urdu, omit many phonemic elements that have no equivalent in
English or other languages commonly written in the Latin script. 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.

See also
Statistics Division of the Government of Pakistan
National Language Authority
 Pakistani
Demographics of Pakistan
Hindi in Pakistan

References
1. "Article: 251 National language"(https://pakistanconstitutionlaw.com/article-251-national-language/). Retrieved
23 July 2018.
2. "Demographic divide" (http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20110715&page=5). Zia Ur
Rehman, a journalist and a researcher based in Karachi
. thefridaytimes. July 15–21, 2011. Retrieved 2013-01-05.
3. (Mallory 1989)
4. J. H. Elfenbein, A periplous of the ‘Brahui problem’,Studia Iranica vol. 16 (1987), pp. 215-233.
5. "Pakistan" (http://www.ethnologue.com/country/PK/languages). Ethnologue.
6. "Pakistan to replace English with Urdu as official language - The Express Tribune" (http://tribune.com.pk/story/92848
0/pakistan-to-replace-english-with-urdu-as-of ficial-language/). The Express Tribune. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
7. Constitution of Pakistan: Constitution of Pakistan, 1973 - Article: 31 Islamic way of life(https://pakistanconstitutionla
w.com/article-31-islamic-way-of-life), 1973, retrieved 28 July 2018
8. Ministry of Federal Education and Professional T
raining: National Education Policy 2017(http://www.moent.gov.pk/u
serfiles1/file/National%20Educaiton%20Policy%202017.pdf) , p. 25, retrieved 28 July 2018
9. "South Asian Sufis: Devotion, Deviation, and Destiny"(https://books.google.com/books?id=EQJHAQAAQBAJ&pg=P
A18&dq=ghaznavids+brought+persian+to+south+asia&hl=nl&sa=X&ei=WSamVIHeGNLiavmygKAL&ved=0CEYQ6A
EwBQ#v=onepage&q=ghaznavids%20brought%20persian%20to%20south%20asia&f=false) . Retrieved 2 January
2015.
10. Gordon, Raymond (2005). "Languages of Pakistan".
11. Dwyer, Arienne M. "The texture of tongues: Languages and power in China." Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 4.1-2
(1998): 68-85.
12. Marian Rengel Pakistan: A Primary Source Cultural Guidepage 38 ISBN 0823940012, 9780823940011
13. Mukhtar Ahmed Ancient Pakistan - an Archaeological Historypages 6-7 ISBN 1495966437, 9781495966439
14. Yagmur, Kutlay. "Languages in Turkey." MULTILINGUAL MATTERS (2001): 407-428.
15. Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the W
orld (page 283)
16. ISO 639 code sets. Sil.org. Retrieved on 2011-01-14.
17. ISO 639 code sets. Sil.org. Retrieved on 2011-01-14.
18. Ethnologue report for language code: gda. Ethnologue.com. Retrieved on 2011-01-14.
19. ISO 639 code sets. Sil.org. Retrieved on 2011-01-14.
20. ISO 639 code sets. Sil.org. Retrieved on 2011-01-14.
21. WALS – Sino-Tibetan (http://wals.info/languoid/family/sinotibetan). Wals.info. Retrieved on 2011-01-14

Bibliography
Rahman, Tariq (1996) Language and Politicsof Pakistan Karachi: Oxford University Press. New Delhi: Orient
Blackswan, 2007.
Rahman, Tariq (2002) Language, Ideology and Power: Language-learning among the Muslims of Pakistan and North
India Karachi: Oxford University Press. Rev
.ed. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2008.
Rahman, Tariq (2011) From Hindi to Urdu: ASocial and Political History Karachi: Oxford University Press.

External links
Linguistic map of Pakistanat Muturzikin.com
Pakistan census statistics by population
List of Pakistani Languagesat Ethnologue
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Languages_of_Pakistan&oldid=852688406
"

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