UNREVEALING LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC INQUIRY INTO THE DECLINE OF SARAIKI

Abstract

 This study investigates the possible endangerment of the Saraiki language in Pakistan. A language with a rich literary and cultural heritage that dates back thousands of year It is a striking example of a potentially endangered language, despite its numerical strength, it is often considered the fourth largest language of Pakistan by population (Eberhard et al; 2024).Saraiki is the major language of the area which is spoken by approximately 20 million (Shackle, 2001). This study employed the concept of ethnolinguistic vitality which was first introduced by Bourhis, Glies, and Taylor in 1970 to highlight the factors that determine language maintenance and shift. There are three important factors that determines the vitality of the language, Demographic factors, and institutional support and status factors. Using the perspective of the language endangerment Saraiki is classified by UNESCO in its “Atlas of the world's languages in danger” as a “Definitely Endangered” language(Moseley,2010).This article explores the sociolinguistic, economic and cultural elements behind Saraiki’s decline through a quantitative survey from three major Saraiki-speaking districts: Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, and Bahawalpur. The findings reveal that Saraiki, despite being spoken by over 20 million people, is experiencing significant attrition among Genz due to the dominance of Urdu and English in education, urbanization, and socioeconomic pressures. Quantitative data (n = 300) shows the minority of participants under age 30 rarely use Saraiki in formal or educational settings, while the majority of the respondents identify Urdu as their preferred language of communication in urban contexts. The study concludes that language endangerment in Pakistan reflects broader UNESCO (2010), nearly half of the world’s 7,000 languages are at risk of extinction by the end of the twenty-first century. Pakistan, one of Asia’s most linguistically diverse nations, hosts over 70 languages across multiple families, including Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Dravidian, and isolated linguistic groups (Rahman, 2002). Yet this diversity is overshadowed by the dominance of Urdu the antisocial inequalities and recommends educational, policy and community based revitalization strategies to sustain linguistic diversity.