Saraiki Language

wisdom and divine rights to rule. It is interesting to note as a significant aside, that when Sikhs ruled Punjab in the first half of the 19th century, they too retained Persian as the court language, despite the fact that their mother tongue was Punjabi, with script of its own.

Thus Saraiki never got the chance to grow within the formal precincts of the academy, the temple, the mosque, the court or the monastery. To this day, each generation of Saraiki speakers has learned the language by hearing the lullabies of mothers at home, speaking to playmates in yards and alleys and by listening to the elders, story tellers and folk singers. It has preeminently been the tongue of the truly creative living the language of essential human affections .This free and open environment of growth makes Saraiki a natural language endowed with its characteristic qualities which have fascinated many an outside observer. It has been called a 'sweet' language which objectively means that it has a mix of acoustic phonemes that strike the ear of the listener with soothing and rhythmic sounds with no sharp breaks. The’d’ and’t’ sounds are uttered softly as in French. Its syntax is simple and flexible which makes it an excellent medium for composing metered and rhymed poetry. Its vocabulary is rich and self-sufficient in giving expression to the range of wants and experiences of ordinary workers, craftsmen, traders, farmers pastoralists, caravan travelers boatmen and women. Seraiki vocabulary and imagery is also a profuse reflection of' the surrounding natural environment.

Saraiki is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan and the first language of more than 80 million people in the subcontinent. Saraiki is the 61st largest language out of more than 6000 languages in the world. It has a very rich culture and is the representative language of Sindh Valley Civilization. The main Saraiki speaking areas are Southern Punjab, Northern Sindh, South East Balochistan and Dera Ismail Khan Division of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa. The most common names previously associated with Saraiki language were Riasiti, Bahawalpuri, Multani Lahnda and Thalochari. The common dialects of Saraiki language are Derawali, Khatki, Jangli and Jataki.

CLASSIFICATION OF SARAIKI’S DILECTS Shackle 1976 has proposed a tentative classification of Saraiki dialects into six "varieties", wherein variety is defined as a group of dialects. (Shackle's scheme really involves just five "varieties", since he himself observes that Shahpuri, spoken in Sargodha District and parts of neighboring districts, is in truth not a kind of Saraiki, but instead a dialect of Punjabi with Saraiki features.) The precise geographical distribution of these dialect groups is unknown. The six are dubbed "Central" (i.e., Multani); "Southern" (i.e., Bahawalpuri, spoken primarily in Rahim Yar Khan district and in Bahawalpur district south of the city of Bahawalpur); Sindhi (spoken in Sindh province by emigrants); "Northern" (Thaḷi); Jhang; and Shahpuri. Saraiki belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European. According to global recordings languages these are also Saraiki.

A list of names in use at one or another time during the 20th century for Saraiki dialects and dialect groups is compiled in the table below. The dialect names are spelled in the standard Anglicized spelling.

'C' and 'ch' both resemble English 'ch'; 'c' represents an unaspirated sound, 'ch' an aspirated. A macron over a vowel indicates a long vowel.