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Languages in Pakistan

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Pakistan has two major languages. The first language is the Urdu, which is the national language and the second, is English which is mainly used in dealing with foreign relations. Aside from these two official languages there are also recognized regional languages such as the Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi, Pashto, and Saraiki. These mentioned languages together with other used languages, belong to the Indo-Iranic Language group. Some of these languages are being spoken by hundreds of thousands people while others only have a few thousands of speakers. All of the languages in Pakistan have interacted with each other for several centuries already. As a result of such interaction, there was borrowing of several words thus making it difficult for languages to be distinguished from each other.

Back in history, Urdu has been hailed as the national language of Pakistan or their “Lingua Franca”. The importance of the Urdu language developed during the conquests of Islamic invaders that took place during the Mughal Empire. Urdu was selected as the neutral language that aimed to unite the various groups of Pakistan. On the other hand, there was only 8% of the entire population who spoke Urdu as the first language. It only became more and more popular as newer generations replace the old ones. The regional languages spoken by native speakers were Punjabi consisting 44% of the entire population, Sindhi at 14% and Baluchi comprising 4%. The differences in the language at present somehow contribute to disunity in the country.