| Part of a series on the |
| Culture of Pakistan |
|---|
 |
| Traditions |
| folklore |
| Sport |
Pakistan is a multilingual country with over 70 languages spoken as first languages.[2][3] The majority of Pakistan's languages belong to the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family.[4][5]
Urdu is the national language and the lingua franca of Pakistan, and while sharing official status with English, it is the preferred and dominant language used for inter-communication between different ethnic groups.[2][3] Numerous regional languages are spoken as first languages by Pakistan's various ethnolinguistic groups. Languages with more than a million speakers each include Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki, Urdu, Balochi, Persian, Hindko, Pahari-Pothwari[a] and Brahui.[6] There are approximately 60 local languages with fewer than a million speakers.[7][8]
- ^ "Article: 251 National language". Retrieved 23 July 2018.
- ^ a b Ashraf, Hina (22 March 2022). "The ambivalent role of Urdu and English in multilingual Pakistan: a Bourdieusian study". Language Policy. 22 (1): 25–48. doi:10.1007/s10993-022-09623-6. ISSN 1573-1863. PMC 8939399. PMID 35340722.
- ^ a b Ashraf, Muhammad Azeem; Turner, David A.; Laar, Rizwan Ahmed (January 2021). "Multilingual Language Practices in Education in Pakistan: The Conflict Between Policy and Practice". SAGE Open. 11 (1): 215824402110041. doi:10.1177/21582440211004140. ISSN 2158-2440. S2CID 232484396.
- ^ Rengel, Marian (15 December 2003). Pakistan: A Primary Source Cultural Guide. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-8239-4001-1.
- ^ Kachru, Braj B.; Kachru, Yamuna; Sridhar, S. N. (27 March 2008). Language in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-139-46550-2.
- ^ "POPULATION BY MOTHER TONGUE, SEX AND RURAL/ URBAN" (PDF). www.pbs.gov.pk. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
- ^ Eberhard, Simons & Fennig 2022.
- ^ "Endangered Languages Project - Torwali - Challenges to the linguistic diversity of North Pakistan". www.endangeredlanguages.com. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).