|ca. 18.5 million (1993–2007)|
|ISO 639-3||lah – inclusive code
jat – Jakati
pmu – Mirpur Panjabi
hno – Northern Hindko (Kagani)
phr – Pahari-Potwari
skr – Seraiki
hnd – Southern Hindko (Hindko)
xhe – ? Khetrani
(Note: What Ethnologue includes as "Western Punjabi" is the Eastern Punjabi of Pakistan)
Lahnda // or Western Punjabi are those Indo-Aryan varieties in parts of Pakistani Punjab that are transitional between Eastern Punjabi and Sindhi. The literary language of Lahnda speakers has traditionally been Standard Punjabi.:2
Lahnda means "western" in Punjabi. It was coined by William St. Clair Tisdall (in the form Lahindā) probably around 1890 and later adopted by a number of linguists—notably George Abraham Grierson—for a dialect group that had no general local name.:883 The southern varieties are locally called Saraiki, and northwestern varieties Hindko.
Since Sindhi, Punjabi, and Hindustani are spoken in a region that has witnessed significant ethnic and identity conflict, all have been exposed to the dialect-versus-language debate. Recently, Saraiki and Hindko are being cultivated as literary languages. The development of the standard written language began after the founding of Pakistan in 1947, driven by a regionalist political movements.:838 The national census of Pakistan has counted Saraiki and Hindko speakers since 1981.:46
The varieties of Lahnda are:
- A problematic group of northern dialects wanting a linguistic survey, including Sawain (Sohain), Hindki of Hazara (Kagani), Tinauli
- Hindko proper
- Mirpur Punjabi?
Khetrani is commonly included, but may be a remnant Dardic language. Some of the northern dialects of what has for geographical reasons been considered Gujarati are actually closer to Lahnda. There is also a Lahnda language in Afghanistan and west iran in the form of Jakati.
Lahnda has several traits that distinguish it from Punjabi, such as a future tense in -s-. Like Sindhi, Siraiki retains breathy-voiced consonants, has developed implosives, and lacks tone. Hindko, also called Panjistani or (ambiguously) Pahari, is more like Punjabi in this regard, though the equivalent of the low-rising tone of Punjabi is a high-falling tone in Peshawar Hindko.
Sindhi, Lahnda, Punjabi, and Western Pahari form a dialect continuum with no clear-cut boundaries. Ethnologue classifies the western dialects of Punjabi as Lahnda, so that the Lahnda–Panjabi isogloss approximates the Pakistani–Indian border. However, this does not accord with linguistic description, and is not accepted by specialists.
- Lahnda reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
Jakati reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
Mirpur Panjabi reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
Northern Hindko (Kagani) reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
Pahari-Potwari reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
Seraiki reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
Southern Hindko (Hindko) reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
(Additional references under 'Language codes' in the information box)
- Ernst Kausen, 2006. Die Klassifikation der indogermanischen Sprachen (Microsoft Word, 133 KB)
- "Lahnda". Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2005.
- Tolstaya, Natalya I. (1981). The Panjabi Language. Routledge. ISBN 9780710009395.
- Grierson, George A. (1930). "Lahndā and Lahndī". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 5 (4): 883–887. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00090571.
- Shackle, Christopher (2010). "Lahnda". In Brown, Keith; Ogilvie, Sarah. Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World. Oxford: Elsevier. p. 635. ISBN 9780080877754.
- Rahman, Tariq. 1997. Language and Ethnicity in Pakistan. Asian Survey, 1997 Sep., 37(9):833-839.
- Shackle, C. 1977. Saraiki: A Language Movement in Pakistan. Modern Asian Studies, 11(3):379-403.
- Javaid, Umbreen (2004). "Saraiki political movement: its impact in south Punjab". Journal of Research (Humanities) (Lahore: Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of the Punjab) 40 (2): 45–55. (This PDF contains multiple articles from the same issue.)
- Masica (1991)
- Lahnda language reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)