Social needs of man inspired him to evolve a systematic communication with the help of language. His anthropological history traveled from ‘hunter gathering stage’ to ‘Nomade Stage’ and non verbal communication was evolved by verbal communication. This was the time when language evolved to support inter-personal communication. Bearing the deep impacts of civilizations, the language preserved customs, traditions, and literature for the era of centuries. On the other hand these traits awarded everlasting significance to the language. Therefore, the survival of the both remained dependant on each other. The more sound a civilization was, the more rich its language would be.
The regional civilizations of Pakistan have a significant historical inheritance. Therefore languages are pure, rich and alive in their certain areas of dominance. The national language of Pakistan is “Urdu” and other four major provincial languages are ‘Punjabi’ ‘Sindhi’ ‘Balochi’ and ‘pushto’. Saraki and Kasmiri are also worth mentioning regional languages “Urdu” and “English” are sustained as two official languages, of the country. Most of the languages are written in Persia-Arabic script with a modified from. Much of the Persian and Arabic vocabulary is absorbed by these languages. Owing to language demographics, dialects of some language get variance in terms of distance. Therefore, major languages have a variety of dialects. All the languages are rich in their literature and cultural inheritance. A brief description of these languages is: presented here in after.
URDU; The national language:- Urdu, as declared the national language of Pakistan by M.A. Jinnah during Pakistan movement, soon after the emergence of newly homeland, was bestowed the status of national language. More than 95% of total population can understand it in a good manner. However only 9% people have “Urdu” as their mother tongue all these migrated from Ajmer, Dilli, Lakhnao, Haiderabad, Utter Pardesh and Dauan and resettled Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad during the portion of Indo-Pakistan themselves in Urdu has been nourished and polished by two main school of thoughts i.e. ‘Lakhnaow school of thought’ and “Dehli school of thought” which are called (Dabbislan-e-lacknaow, Dabbistan-e-Dehlie). Later on “Fort William collage of Dehli” “Sir Sayyed Movement” and “Anjuman Tarraqqi Pasand Urdu” (Association for reforms in Urdu) contributed a lot to flourish the language. In terms of literature Urdu has passed through four marvelous spans of are and the fifth one is racing now. ‘Jam e Jahan Numa was the first Urdu digest published from Kolkatta, while the firstly published prose was “Sub Ras” compiled by Mulla Wajhi in 1654. Ameer Khussu, the famous Persian poet was the first one to say verses in Urdu. A lot of institutions are working diligently to enhance the progressive.
English; The official Language of Pakistan:-
English has the status of official language in Pakistan state departments and main institutions i.e. legislature, judiciary, administration and press do well with English educational institutes as well. However, people have less approach to understand it widely as compared to other languages prevailing in the country.
Provincial language:-
Punjabi:- Rich in its literature and culture, sweet in accentuation, Punjabi is widely spoken in Punjab province. It is regularly spoken by 45% of total population covering the area of 205344 km Punjab. “Sufi” poets did much to beautiful the language through their poetry and prose. They poured their message of welfare of mankind into it and proffered to preach their teaching in Punjabi. ‘Heer Waris shah’ ‘Sassi Punnu’ ‘Sohni Manhwal’ ‘Qissa Saif-ul-Mulk’ are famous folk tales of Punjabi literature.
Punjabi dialects include
•    Majhi:- spoken in Lahore, sheikhupura, Gujranwala, and some other districts of upper Punjab.
•    Rachnavi spoken in Khanewal, Faislabad, Chaniot, Okara, Sargodha and some of the districts Punjab.
•    Doabi:- Spoken by the people inhabited  between bias and satluj.
•    Malavi:- Spoken by migratory of Anbala, Ludhyana, Hisar, Haryana.
•    Hindko / Pothohari:- Spoken in Attock, Marree, Noshehra etc.
Pashto:- Pashto is very ancient language of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which shares the common border with ‘KABUL’ and ‘GHAZNI’ two historical cities of Afghanistan. 15% to 20% of
Population speak Pashto fluently. There are two major dialects of Pashto language i.e. Pakhto and Pashto “Patt Fazana” is a presentable pace of Pashto literature. ‘Khush Hal Khattak’ ‘Rehman Baba’ ‘Durdana Khan’ ‘Abdur Rehman Khan’ are the famous poets of Pashto language.
Dilects of Pashto are tough to utter vocally.
Balochi:- As compared to other provincial languages, Balochi has the Shortest circle of dominance including only 4% of Pakistan. It is mostly spoken in Balochistan province and is the major language of the province. Balochi language is trusty of traditions and customs of Baloach race. Balochistan shares the border of 805 km with Iron. Therefore the transfer of traits and sharing of customs affected Balochi by Persian, the language of Iranians. The major dialects are Qalati, Kharani, Chagai, Sarhaddi and Panjguri.
Sindhi:- Prevailing its influence on 14% total population, sindhi is one of the major provincial languages. It is mostly spoken in sindh province. Being very rich in its literature sindhi provides new horizones of research and insprovent to many other local languages. Sindh university and Jam Shoru university has started many research programmes on ancients sindhi literature. It is taught as compulsory subject on primary and secondary level. Sachal Sar mast and shah Abd-ul-hatif are the valuable and famous ancient sindhi poets.
SARAEKI:- A Dominant Regional language.
Saraiki is commonly spoken on the confluence belt of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. It is a language of more than 20 million people. The beauty of language depicts that it is simultaneously close to Punjabi and Sindhi. Bahaudin Zakria University of southern Punjab has started many short courses and launched its master programme in Saraiki
Language. A sub language ‘Jhangvi’ spoken in Jhang, Sargodha Faisalabad, Khanewal and Khushab is called “Local Saraiki”. H.E.C. of Pakistan is scheduling programmes to promote the language.
Minor Languages:- Minor languages include Shina, Tawali, Khetrani, Brahevi, chitrali, Gujrati, Hazarwi, Marwani, Ormuri, Dhatki, Wakhi, Sansi, Memoni and Jandawra. A few of them seems to be vanished soon and some others are also highly endangered.

August 13, 2010 | Zia Saqib | 1 Comment | 898 views