Saraiki
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Saraiki is an Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily in Pakistan, where it serves as a native language for millions of people in the southern Punjab and Sindh regions. It matters because it represents an important part of Pakistan's linguistic and cultural diversity, though it has historically received less official recognition than some other languages in the country.
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Saraiki ( سرائیکی, Sarā'īkī, [səɾaːiːkiː]; also spelt Siraiki, or Seraiki) is a Lahnda language variety in the Indo-Aryan language family. It is spoken by 28.84 million people, as per the 2023 Pakistani census, taking prevalence in southern Punjab with remants in northern Sindh and southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Saraiki has partial mutual intelligibility with Standard Punjabi, and it 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.
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Language articles without reference fieldLanguage articles with speaker number undatedLanguages of Balochistan, PakistanLanguages of IndiaLanguages of Khyber PakhtunkhwaLanguages of PakistanLanguages of Punjab, PakistanLanguages of SindhLanguages written in DevanagariNorthwestern Indo-Aryan languagesSaraiki languageUse Pakistani English from May 2025