Siraiki language

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Seraiki
Spoken in: Pakistan and India
Total speakers: ~14,000,000
Language family: Indo-European
 Indo-Iranian
  Indo-Aryan
   NW zone
    Lahnda
     Seraiki 
Writing system: Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: inc
ISO 639-3: skr
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

Seraiki (Urdu: سراییکی )also called Multani is a language mostly spoken in the provinces of Sindh and the Punjab in central Pakistan by about 13.9 million people (according to 1998 census) as well as by about 20,000 people in India, and an immigrant population in the United Kingdom.

Contents

[edit] Classification

Seraiki is part of a dialect continuum with Punjabi and Sindhi, and is considered by some to be a dialect of Punjabi.

Seraiki, Punjabi and Sindhi are members of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family.

[edit] Geographic distribution

Seraiki is widely spoken and understood as a second language in northern and western Sindh down to the suburbs of Karachi and in the Kachhi plain of Balochistan. It is also known as Derawali in Derajat area. Seraiki is also spoken in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and it is third popular language after Pashtu and Punjabi. Saraiki is widely spoken in southern NWFP areas specially in Dera Ismail Khan, Kulachi and in Tank District and also spoken widely in Lakki Marwat. It is mostly spoken in the south of Punjab in Dera Ghazi Khan,Multan, Mailsi, Vehari and Bahawalpur.

[edit] Origin of the name

Proposed etymologies include it being derived from a Sindhi word meaning "north".

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

Seraiki has three short vowels, seven long vowels and six nasal vowels.

[edit] Consonants

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Stops and
affricates		 Voiceless p pʰ t̪ t̪ʰ t tʰ ʧ ʧʰ k kʰ ʔ
Voiced b bʰ d̪ d̪ʰ d dʰ ʤ ʤʰ ɡ ɡʰ
Implosives ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ
Nasals m mʰ n nʰ ɳ ɲ ŋ
Fricatives Voiceless f s ʃ x h
Voiced v z ʒ ɣ
Trills r rʰ
Flaps ɽ ɽʰ
Laterals l lʰ
Semivowel j

[edit] Writing system

Seraiki is written in a variant of the Arabic alphabet. Very few Seraiki speakers are literate in their own language, however, although some may be able to write other languages.


There are two writing systems for Multani / Seraiki. One is a variant of the Arabic script, which is in vogue today. However, the Hindus, especially the traders, wrote a script called LINDE / LINDEY / LINDAY, which was written from left to right. It is no longer used in Pakistan, but there are still people of the generation that learned the script before the partition of India, when they had to flee and settle and get assimilated in different regions and linguistic territories of India and other places of the world.

Image:Ali xain saraiki.PNG
A sample saraiki DOHRA.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Ahsan, Wagha (1990). The Seraiki Language: Its Growth and Development. Islamabad: Dderawar Publications. 
  • Gardezi, Hassan N. (1996). Seraiki Language and its poetics: An Introduction. London: Sangat Publishers. 
  • Shackle, Christopher (1976). The Seraiki Language of Central Pakistan: A Reference Grammar. London: School of Oriental and African Studies. 
  • Shackle, Christopher (1977). "Siariki: A Language Movement in Pakistan". Modern Asian Studies 11 (3): 279–403. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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