INTRODUCTION Lahndi is a modern Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo- European family- The word "Lahndi" 1 means "the language of the West". It is spoken in Pakistan over a vast area lying approximately between 70° and 74° east longitude and 28° and 34° north latitude. Commencing somewhat south of the point where the Sutlej River merges into the Indus River the western boundary of the Lahndi tract runs northwards along the right bank mountainous regions of the Indus to reach its destination somewhat north of Peshawar. The eastern boundary begins south of the town of Bahawalpur, passes northwards through the towns of Sahiwal, Gujranwala and Jehlum and terminates somewhat north of the city of Muzaffarabad, The area mainly covers the bigger, western part of the Pakistani Punjab (roughly two-thirds of die total) and the former District of Bahawalpur situated to the south of the above district. It stands to reason that these boundaries are rather conventional, since, for instance, the change from Lahndi to its eastern "neighbour" Punjabi is gradual and in the western subdialects of the latter, e.g. in Lahauri we can detect peculiarities typical of Lahndi, West of the conventional eastern boundary there occur forms of speech with some peculiari- ties of Punjabi. The further west we go, the less traces we find of Punjabi and, according to George Grierson we may consider, Lahndi to be finally established on the Districts of Multan and Jhang. 1 We have found out the exact pronunciation of the name of the lan- guage by asking persons whose mother tongue it is, particularly philolo- gists. The point is that the sign h, used in the English transliteration Lahndi (Landa) instead of a certain sign employed in Lahndi, is not pronounced, but only indicates the rising tone of the given word which is pronounced as Jlrtdf or IcndJL 14 The linguistic environment of Lahndi is roughly the following. To the west of its zone Pushto and Balochi are spoken, with Sindhi in the southwest, Rajasthani in the south, Punjabi in the east, Kash- miri in the northeast, Shina in the north, and Kohistani in the north- west. Pushto and Balochi are Iranian languages; Sindhi, Rajasthani and Punjabi are Modern Indo-Aryari; Kashmiri, Shina and Kohistani are Dardic languages. Since the bulk of Lahndi speaking people live in the pre-parti- tion western Punjab, British linguists termed the language Western Punjabi, pointing, however, to the features that distinguish it con- siderably from Punjabi. Since most of the Jats speak Lahndi, the language is sometimes called Jatki. And in view of the fact that Multan is the central area in which the language is a vernacular, it is also referred to as Multani. Actually, however, the names Jatki and Multani have a narrower meaning and in correct usage denote only two corresponding dialects of Lahndi. In recent years the lan- guage under consideration comes to be mostly termed in Pakistan Seraiki or Saraiku According to the returns of the 1931 Census /Candar, 38/, 8,566,000 people spoke Lahndi. Prior to the partition of India in the rural areas, where the overwhelming majority of Lahndi speaking people reside, there was a 0: 1 ratio between the Muslims, on the one hand, and thexflindus and Sikhs, on the other. In the towns it was 1:1 (Jukes, V). After the partition nearly all the Hindus (ex- cept a small number of representatives of the lowest castes) and all the Sikhs moved to India. Therefore, nearly all the Lahndi speak- ing people in Pakistan are Muslims. There is no exact data now on the number of people speaking the tongue, since the Census of 1961 in Pakistan deliberately did not single them out, regarding: such people as among the 26,196,000 who spoke Punjabi. The figure is obviously exaggerated, since many Muslim refugees from India in their attempt to settle in Punjab, an economically more developed area, declared themselves Punjabis, though in effect they were not. Estimates put the number of Lahndi speaking people in 1960 at 10 million /Chatterji, 145/. if we take into account the growth of the population, 1973 saw over 13 million people, in the country, whose native tongue was Lahndi. In addition, in India Lahndi is known by at least several tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people* Unfortunately, no special efforts were made in that country \ to detect Lahndi speaking population on a nationwide scale. And in 15 the areas where it was done, not all the population was covered. For instance, the figures giveu in the Handbook by Amal Sarker /Sarker, 48, 58 and others/ are obviously understated (for instance, 1971 for Hyderabad and Ut tar Pradesh State)* The author does not take into account precisely the territories (such asPunjab,Delhi and others) where most of the Lahndi speaking people reside. Peculiarities of Lahndi are examined in works by such eminent scholars as George Grierson /Grierson , Grierson /, G.Bailey, A. Jukes and others. It is noteworthy tha't^ GI Bailey, comparing Lahndi with Punjabi, points to a very great difference existing even between the subdialects of Punjabi merging into Lahndi (the District of Wazirabad) and Lahndi proper (he terms the latter Western Punjabi) /Bailey, 1/. Great attention is paid to Lahndi by India's most prominent linguist, SoK.Chatterji. Placing Lahndi in the same row as other modern Indian languages, he at the same time points to the peculiari- ties of the language, and on this ground contrasts it and Sindhi to the other languages of the group /Chatterji, 66, 83, 116, 117, 129/. Pecu- liarities and issues concerning Lahndi as an independent language are stressed in the works of the Punjabi linguists VaB. Arun /Aran , X, Aran 2 , 38-65/* Duni Chandar /Chandar, 39/, B»S,Sandhu /Sandhu, 26/. Indian and Pakistani scholars point out in their works Lahndi 's considerable influence on a number of modern Indian languages, in- cluding Punjabi and Urdu. Thus, die linguist Prem Prakas Singh of Punjab writes that "Punjabis specific features stem, first and fore- most, from Lahndi'* /Prakas, 320/ « He also speaks about Lahndi's influence on Urdu, and in particular about the penetration into the latter of Lahndi postpositions beginning with the sound /k/. The Pakistani linguist Sheikh Ikram-Ul-Haq writes of the in- fluence of Multani, the central dialect of Lahndi, on Urdu, Punjabi and some other modem Indian languages /Haq, 47/ It sould be noted that some writers tend at times to confound Lahndi with Punjabi. The explanation lies either in the fact that they arc not adequately informed, or in their desire to exaggerate the im- portance of Punjabi. This view reminds one of the erroneous posi- tion taken by the scholars who in their turn regard Punjabi and some other Indian languages merely as dialects of Hindi. Lahndi despite its peculiarities, is kindred to Punjabi and Sindhu This kinship was emphasised by Prof. Kohli who wrote: "Lahndi and Sindhi are the sister languages which have a near rela- tion,., with Punjabi" ./Kohli, 62/. 16 According to Grierson the substratum of Punjabi is a language which had features common with peculiarities of modem Lahndi and was spoken on the territory now covered by Indian and Pakistani Punjab. However, in the process of its development this language in the eastern areas came under such an extensive influence of one of the dialects of Western Hindi, that the latter overlying the former obliterated or hid many of its important peculiarities* All this is reflected in modern Punjabi; In the western areas (mainly the greater part of Pakistani Punjab) the language under investigation was not subjected to the influence of Western Hindi or had little of that in- fluence and therefore preserved its peculiarities, as seen in modern Lahndi /Grierson , 615/ „ Despite the Hindi influence on Punjabi, the latter nevertheless preserved a number of grammatical and lexical peculiarities As the more archaic Lahndi, it has, for instance, many words with double consonants. Though Lahndi is kindred to Punjabi, it has the following basic distinctions: 1) whereas Punjabi is mainly an analytic language, Lahndi, as we shall attempt to show further on, reveals a considerable amount of synthetic forms; 2) Lahndi possesses many specific phonetic features which make it differ from Punjabi, such as the presence of special sounds, pecu- liarities of tones (see the "Phonetics" section and other sections); 3) as distinct from Punjabi, it is typical of both Lahndi and Sindhi to frequently use pronominal suffixes attached to a word ag- glutinatively. In Punjabi these suffixes are found only in transitional forms of speech coming from Lahndi and in the written literary lan- guage of authors who know Lahndi, but write in Punjabi; 4) it is typical of Lahndi to build the future tense forms by suf- fixing -s-, whereas Punjabi builds the same by using the suffix -g-, not to mention a number of other distinctions ; 5) Lahndi is void cf durative forms of the predicate, typical of Punjabi and Hindi, but possesses its own pattern expressing the equivalent aspect of the verb; 6) in Lahndi there is a peculiar system of personal negative verbs of being, which is not characteristic of Punjabi; 7.) in both languages there is a considerable difference between the systems of the verb "to be", with Lahndi having two verbs of being possessing multivarious and ramified systems; 2 584 17 8) there are peculiar forms of the verb, for instance, verbal-ad- verbial and participial; 9) widely used in Lahndi are synthetic forms of the passive, which is not typical of Punjabi. In the latter we rarely find synthetic forms of the passive (formed by suffexing ~P) which are borrowed from Lahndi* Typical of both Panjabi and Hindi is an analytic pas- sive; 10) it is typical of the ergative voice of the main dialects of Lahndi to use the word denoting the agent (doer) of an action without a special postpositiono Moreover, instead of the ergative construc- tion there frequently occurs a mononuclear sentence with a predicate containing a pronominal suffix expressing the doer of an action.. Punjabi is characterised by using a special ergative postposition; 11) Lahndi possesses a specific declension system distinct from that of Punjabi; 12) the presence of an internal inflexion that serves to build forms of certain grammatical categories; 13) peculiarities of other parts of speech, for instance, of pro- nouns, adverbs, postpositions, etc n ) ; 14) a number of syntactic peculiarities, such as, for instance, the semi^ergative construction* specific features of the ergative construction, the presence of special word-sentences, sentences without a link-verb etc; 15). the specific character of much of the Lahndi vocabulary,, A* jukes, the compiler of the biggest Lahndi dictionary, writes: "The Western Punjabi, or Jatki language is quite a different language from that spoken in the Eastern Punjab/ 1 Jukes observes that the linguist H* Martin Clark, when comparing the dictionary with that of Bhai Mai Singh, found on every page of the Lahndi dictionary, containing an average of 36 words, only about two that coincided with Punjabi ones /Jukes, V/. Naturally, a specific vocabulary is characteristic primarily of the language of rural localities, where Lahndi is less under the in- fluence of Punjabi and Urdu, all the more that the bulk of the popula- tion is illiterate there or semi-literate and does not read the publi- cations in Urdu and Punjabi that come out in Lahore in the Arabic scripts As to the urban population, part of it speaks Lahndi influenc- ed to a certain degree by Urdu and sometimes by Punjabi; 16) all the above-mentioned peculiarities of Lahndi make the language difficult to understand for speakers of Punjabi, as we have ascertained in practice* 18 In. addition to the kindred ties with Punjabi and Sin dhi Lahndi also experiences the influence of Dardic languages in the field of grammer and vocabulary, Lahndi is a language deep-rooted in history and closely linked with ancient culture. This applies particularly to the language's most significant dialect, Multani, which according to the contemporary Pakistani linguist Sheikh Irkam-Ul-Haq is the most widely spoken form of speech in Pakistan. Five million speakers of Multani reside on a vast area amounting to 75,000 square miles /Haq. 44/. Multan is the ancient cultural and economic centre of the rich Indus valley. Four thousand years ago the Aryans coming down from the North found this flourishing town which they called Mool-Asthan, or Mool- Taran, which means "basic city". The richness of Indus Valley had over the centuries attracted conquerors. These included Egyptians, Babylonians, Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, Afghans and English /Haq. 44/. Lahndi has certain literary traditions. The famous Adi Granth (the Scripture of the Sikhs) includes not only the compositions of Sikh Gurus, but also the hymns and verses of various Hindu and Muslim saints and poets. The Adi Granth contains sections in Per- sian, Hindi, Punjabi and Lahndi. The ancient base of Lahndi is revealed in the verses of the poet Sheikh Farid Shakarganj who was bom in a village near Multan in 1173 A..D. and died in 1266 A.D* His verses also contain borrowed Persian and Arabic words. Prior to the dissemination of Islam (714 A.D.) the language- predecessor of Lahndi was subjected to considerable sanskritisa- tion. This is borne out by the family-hymns of Dutts, one of thcmost ancient branches of Brahmins. These hymns retain ancient Lahndi verbs, but contain many Sanskrit nouns. With the dissemination of Islam there came a period when many borrowings from Persian and Arabic found their way into Lahndi. In the Middle Ages and even earlier inhabitants of the Lahndi tract (mainly those of Multan) several times migrated in large num- bers to Delhi. These included the armies they made up, which were entering the city (e.g. 9th and 14th centuries). According to some scholars, from that time on Lahndi began to exercise its influence upon Urdu. Of the early Works in Lahndi one should note a versified book on the Muslim rules of bathing, shrouding and burying the dead, entitled 2-2 584 19 Masail~i-Ghusal-o-Kafan-o-Dafan written in 1137 A.D. by Nur Muham- mad of Shergarh, and a more famous book by Hazrat Mian Abdul Ha- kim "Yusuf and Zuleikha'Y produced in 1218 AoD. /Haq. 51/* In 1819 the Bible was translated into Multani, and later the Koran* The following books have been also written in the language: i Pakki Roti, a book on religious observances, Bagh o Bahar - trans- lation of Story of four Derveshes, Shahnamah-i-Hind, a. history of events from the Arab conquest of Multan to the time of Emperor Aurangzeb, and Loh Geet, a collection of Multani popular songs compiled by Dr. Mehar Abdul Haq u Other collections of songs, stories and tales have also been published in Lahndi. For instance, 1954 saw the publication of } tales in Pothohari, a dialect of Lahndi. These tales were collected by Prof. Vanjara BedL The Lahndi folklore is very rich and varied. Also noteworthy are the following poetical books written in Lahndi: Khyaban-i-Khurram (of Bahawalpur), dew an-i-F arid, the work by philologist Sheikh Ikram-Ul-Haq (Farid the Lyricist) who examines the original divan by Farid; NijatuUMomineen by Abdul Karim, Noor Namah by Noor Mohd, Karbala Namah by Akbar Shah, Bazar Be Khizd by Jala, Saiful Maiuh bu Lutf AH Sayad, and versified stories of Sas^ si Punnu Mirza Sahban, Shah Bahram. In 1967 an anthology of Multani poets by Kaifi, was under print» The well-known book " Janam Sakhi" on the life of the Sikh Guru (Jan) is written in Lahndi mixed with many elements of Punjabi. f Lahndi is a research subject of a number of monographs, ar- ticles, and dictionaries (for details see Bibliography). Particularly noteworthy are the Persian-Multani dictionary Nisab Zaroori,. George i Wilson's grammer and dictionary, a rather comprehensive work by George Grierson /GriersonV> the monographs by FL Bahri on Lahndi \ phonetics and phonology /Bahri , Bahri 2 /, the dictionary by A.Jukes! and the dictionary of the Pothohari dialect (Poth) compiled in Indian Punjab. Nowadays some Lahndi speaking scholars in Pakistan are trying to create research works on their native tongue. Akhtar Waheed, who I- died young, wrote and published a short Multani grammar /Haq, 53/. Unfortunately, the manuscript on Multani grammar by Sadullah Khan Mallezai /Haq 53/, has been lost, Dictionary of Seraiki has been compiled by Bashir Ahmad Zami from Balhawalpur. Different problems of Multani and Multani literature are being tackled by philologist Shoikh Ikram Ul-Haq, who has been mentioned repeatedly. 20 There are a number of periodicals in Lahndi. For instance "Akhtar", a weekly published in Multan and the monthly Journal Seraiki Adab published in Bahawalpur. Newspapers Al-Aziz ani Punjnad were also published, but are now defunct. In the districts inhabited by Lahndi speaking people there are several cultural and research centres (for instance, the Multan Aca- demy and the Bahawalpur Academy), which also carry out research into literature in Lahndi, its grammar, and where research works are published. In view of a number of unfavourable historic conditions Lahndi speaking peoplehave not as yet developed an extensive literature of their own. A considerable role is also played by the fact that Urdu is the only national language in Pakistan, and that it is actively used in the schools. As Pakistani scholars point out representatives of Lahndi speak- ing intellectuals call for a more intensive development of the written form of their mother tongue and the creation of broad foundations for native literature. Speaking in 1962 at the first linguistic conference in Pakistan Sheikh Ikram Ul-Haq said: "It is an irony of fate that political re-groupings have brought into prominence regional languages like Panjabi, Sindhi and Balochi, and the parent language has been relegated to a comparatively secon- dary position* The importance of Multani could be judged from the fact that it is the most widely spoken language in West Pakistan^. The problems of this language arise out of neglect. There has been no attempt to collect, print and publish the various works that lie scattered about. There has been no attempt to compile its authorita- tive dictionary. "/Haq. 44, 52/* During the last decade or so a certain degree of progress has been observed in the field. This is testified by compiling a new dictionary of Multani by B.A« Zami, the publication of an anthology of Multani poets by Kaifi and opening in December 1966 a special section of literature in Multani (Seraiki) in the Central library of Bahawalpur, since, as the press pointed out, there existed in the dialect valuable literature and historical works /Pakistan Times? 1LXII, 1966/. According to the Pakistani press, some time back representatives of the Lahndi (Saraiki) speaking people demanded official status for their mother tongue and even pointed out that it was necessary to establish a new province out of the areas inhabited by the Lahndi (Saraiki) speaking people* Thus, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, 2-3 584 21 September % 1969 (p 10), carried an article under the heading"Official Status for Saraiki Demanded". The newspaper says that early in September 1969 a Saraiki Adabi (literary) Conference was held in Multan "attended by representatives of various Saraiki literary organi- sations of Multan, Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan, Mianwali, Dera Ismail Khan, Bahawalpur, Rahimyarkhan and Bahawalnagar.,,. A re- solution adopted at the Conference said Saraiki was an independent language having a very rich literary heritage which needs to be given proper recognition. It also demanded that... a new province for Saraiki speaking people comprising Multan and Bahawalpur Division and Districts of Mian Wala and Dera Ismail Khan be established... The participants of the Conference demanded that Saraiki should be given its due status at the University level along with Punjabi, Pushto, Sindhi and Baluchi..., Mr. N ah ar Abdul Haque, a prominent philologist has demanded the introduction of Saraiki language as medium of in- struction at primary level 1 ',. The central dialect of Lahndi is Multani. It is spoken over a greater area than that of each other dialect, the number of its spear kers being also bigger, and it serves as a vernacular in the region which is culturally and economically most developed throughout the Lahndi tract. Multani has influence on all other dialects, gradually turning into the prop dialect. There can be no doubt that with the creation of broad foundations for literature the centralising role of Multani will become still greater. Lahndi is represented by two groups of dialects: 1) an extensive southern group (that of the Plains) and 2) a relatively less important northern group (that of mountains). The conventional boundary line between them runs along the southern foothills of the Bait Range, though on the territory of Gujranwala and Gujrat part of the Plateau is included in the zone of the southern dialects* The main dialects of the southern group are as follows: a) Multani. As has been already pointed out, this is the central, most important and most influential dialect of Lahndi having 5 mil- lion speakers. It is the vernacular of Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Mu- zaffargarh and Bahawalpur. Its sphere also includes part of the ter- ritory of Jhang, Sahiwal, Khairpur and Baluchistan; b) Jatki is spoken in Shahpur (between the Jehlum and Chenab rivers), Jhang, Lyallpur, Sahiwal, Gujranwala and Gujrat. Grierson for some reason regards the dialect as the "standard proper /Grier- son, 239/, although it plays a role of lesser importance than Multani* Apparently the fact that the dialect had been relatively well described by Wilson in that period of time influenced Grierson who therefore let other factors determining the importance of the dialect escape his attention; c) Thali, whose speakers inhabit the Thai desert and parts of the territory of Mianwala, Jehlum, Shahpur, Jhang, Dera Ghazi Khan and Ban nu. The mountainous northern dialects are spoken in the Salt Range area and north of it. These are Pothohari, Chibhali, Poonchi, Awan- kari, the Shahpur dialect of the Salt Range, Ghebi, Dhanni, Peshawar Hindko, Tinauli and Dhundi-Kairali. George Grierson divides the nor- thern dialects into two groups; 1) the north-western and 2) the north- eastern., But such a classification seems inexpedient, since it is i difficult to draw a dividing line between these groups of dialects. The main differences between the northern dialects and the southern ? : are as follows; L In the northern dialects many nouns take the termination -e or -Tin analytic cases- 2* More typical of the north is the usage of the coordinating- t: relational postposition (our term) naov rco~instead of <Ja(though the 1 dialects Dhanni, Tinauli and the Hindko of Peshawar use da). ^ 3. More typical of the north is the participle I attaching -no % (-na), instead of -da (the same three dialects providing the exception). 4. In some northern dialects there is a tendency to use r instead \ of the celebral n, e.g. kor instead of kon 'who?' and intra instead of r itna 'so numerous'. 5. Tones in the northern dialects have their peculiarities* Whe- reas it is typical of the southern dialects to use a rising tome of one variety (which starts in a rather low register, rises considerably and falls a little at the end), contrasted by a level (even) tone, the northern dialect Awankari, for instance, in addition to such a ris- ] ing tone has a second variant. Its peculiarity is to start in the middle register, to relatively slightly rise and then to fall beneath the middle register. Both variants phonologically combine with the level tone* A small group of words in Awankari also has a falling tone* 6o There are differences between the northern and southern dialects in vocabulary as welL Whereas it is more typical of the southern dialects to use the verbs vanjun *to go' and avun *tb come , in the north gachna (julan) and achna respectively are rather widely employed (although in Awankari and Ghebi vanjun and avun are used 2-4 584 23 more frequently; in the north one may more often come across bagan *to be- able', whereas in the south they use sakkuiu The southern dialects also see more frequent employment of the possessive pro- nouns mera *my 9 and tera 'thy' borrowed from Punjabi, but this is parallel with the Lahndi vernaculars manda and tanda. However, it should be taken into account that it is impossible to sharply delimit the dialects of both groups, since they are va- riants of one and the same language. Frequently forms, on the whole more typical of one group of dialects, are used in the other. Thus, in the northern dialects Dhanni, Tinauli and the Hindko of Peshawar there occur the postposition da and participle I in-rfa, which is more characteristic of the southern group,, However, in one of the plays by Sant Singh Sekhon written in the southern dialect Jatki (the Lyall- pur area) we have come across participles both in -rfa (karendof dasendT) and in -no (puchnT, ahnT)„ As illustrative material for this treatise we have used the play by Sant Singh Sekhon "Siala dinaiKT written in Jatki (spoken in Lyallpur), the modern newspaper "Akhtar" \ in Multani, texts in Lahndi collected by Grierson /Grierson /, Wil- son /Wilson/, Dames /Dames/, Rose /Rose/, Bomford /Bomford/, Bahri /Bahri /, small texts from different sources, etc., and also dictionaries of Lahndi by jukes /Jukes/, Wilson /Wilson/, O'Brien /O'Brien/, as well as the dictionary of the Pothonari dialect issued in 1960 in the town of Patiala Punjab /Poth/. Since it is very difficult to illustrate all the propositions of the work solely with material' of the Multani dialect, the author resorts at times to examples from other dialects. This material enriches our notion of the language, sin qe apart from Multani other dialects of Lahndi are rather widely spoken as well. In a number of places forms of several dialects are compared. This is not only of practical im- portance, but also provides useful material for further research. When presenting the theoretical points which do not necessarily require comparison and in which the general tangibly prevails over the particular, especially in the section dealing with syntax, the author provides illustrations from various dialects without distinctive marks. Dissatisfied with a number of traditional unhappy methods of describing linguistic material, and also confronted with specific cases which have not been described, the author offers his own solu- tion of several issues, some additions and changes and new terms involved by all this. This applies, first and foremost, to a new tense- aspect system, the mutually subordinating type of connection bet- 24 , f ■ rr called "interaction", the notions and : W een parts of the sentence calie ^ ^ semi . e rgative con- \ terns "the qualitative-precuca ™*"^ „ f . neW system of action", '^e semi-corre latwe «£-« rg ative-causative, pas- -oices (including the ergaUve, ausaU J^ ^ ^ eive -causative), a new noUon o vo> ^ e ^ ^ h „ m ent of a more suitable concep egar ; ^ ^cennng morphological (see Panfclov), a «■£» ^ intro duced where we deal System of cases. Kew terms ^ ave be ^^ ena wi th phenomena earlier not **>««»*>« terms, or are not denoted at i ell. In the" method. imde t o Prof. Hardev Bahn ol Al- The author expresses lus ^ cons ultations and some lah abad University for . number o v^ ^ q{ ^ ma terials granted, to the pbik J^ ^ and other .atenals, for kindly baving -^/k f the 'Bbakra" hydroproject and to to engineer Avtar Singh Nag* *£J\ w ta studying Lahndy.aU ti s esteemed father for the ..«*»« s ^ ^ . g ■*. persons ^-d - *P *- • ^^ ^ M dronov extremely grateful to hs o U a«u e> and others for their valuable vemarK U. A. SMIRNOV THE LAHNDI LANGUAGE «NAUKA» PUBLISHING HOUSE Central Department of Oriental Literature Mo scow 1975 4M G 50 Translated from the Russian by E.H. Tsipan (an authorized translation) Editorial Board: V.M* Solntsev (Chairman), N.A. Dvoryankov, N.A. Lisovskaya (Scientific Secretary), Y*Y. Plam, G.D. Sanzheyev The book describes the language of 13,5 million Lahndi (Saraiki) speaking people who inhabit a rather vast territory in Pakistan. Vft*«.Lahndi Language** considers in detail pho- netics, morphology, syntax and other aspects of the given form of speech, /Hie author propounds a number of his own theoreti- cal propositions dealing with linguistics* c 70104*12 C 013(02)-75 26W5 (CjrjiaBHaa peflaKmia BocTOTHoii jwrepaTypbi M3flaTejibCTBa "HayKa", 1975