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|---|---|
| Native to | Pakistan and India |
| Native speakers | ~14,000,000 |
| Language family | Indo-European
|
| Writing system | Arabic alphabet |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | inc |
| ISO 639-3 | skr |
Seraiki (Urdu: سراییکی ) 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.
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.
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 poular 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 speaking widely in Lakki Marwat. It is mostly spoken in the south of Punjab in Dera Ghazi Khan, and Multan.
Origin of the name
Proposed etymologies include it being derived from a Sindhi word meaning "north".
Phonology
Vowels
Seraiki has three short vowels, seven long vowels and six nasal vowels.
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 | ||||||||
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.
If there is anyone who reads and writes the script, we solicit your help. Please send us as much input as you can. vikram.malhotra@vidushiacademy.in
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.
See also
External links
- Ethnologue report for language code:skr
- Western Panjabi (Seraiki) Alphabet with Gurmukhi equivalents
- Wasaib.com Collection of Articles and other resources on Seraiki language & culture
- Phonemic Inventory of Seraiki Language and Acoustic Analysis of Voiced Implosives (PDF)