Lahnda in the context of "Pakistani Punjab"

Saraiki ( سرائیکی Sarā'īkī, IPA: [səɾaːiːkiː]; also spelt Siraiki, or Seraiki) is an Indo-Aryan language of the Lahnda group. It is spoken by 28.84 million people, as per the 2023 Pakistani census, taking prevalence in Southern Punjab with remants in Northern Sindh and Southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Saraiki is characterized by several distinctive phonological features, including the absence of tonal contrasts, the retention of voiced aspirated consonants, and a notable series of implosive consonants. These features, documented in major linguistic surveys, give the language a phonetic structure unique within the region. In addition, Saraiki shows grammatical and phonological traits shared with Sindhi, reflecting historical and areal connections between the two languages.

Hindko (ہندکو, romanized: Hindko, IPA: [ˈɦɪndkoː]) is a cover term for a diverse group of Lahnda dialects spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds in several areas in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northwestern regions of Punjab.

The name "Hindko" means "the Indian language" or "language of Hind", and refers to the Indo-Aryan speech forms spoken in the northern Indian subcontinent, in contrast to the neighbouring Pashto, an Iranic language spoken by the Pashtun people. An alternative local name for this language group is Hindki. A speaker of Hindko may be referred to as Hindki, Hindkun, or Hindkowan (Hindkuwan).

Khatri (IPA: [kʰət̪ɾiː]) is a caste originating from the Malwa and Majha areas of Punjab region of South Asia that is predominantly found in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Khatris claim they are warriors who took to trade. In the Indian subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantile professions such as banking and trade. They were the dominant commercial and financial administration class of late-medieval India. Some in Punjab often belonged to hereditary agriculturalist land-holding lineages, while others were engaged in artisanal occupations such as silk production and weaving.

The Khatris of Punjab, specifically, were scribes and traders during the medieval period, with the Gurumukhi script used in writing the Punjabi language deriving from a standardised form of the Lāṇḍa script used by Khatri traders; the invention of the script is traditionally ascribed to Guru Angad. During the medieval period, with the rise of Persian as an elite vernacular due to Islamic rule, some of the traditional high status upper-caste literate elite such as the Khatris, Kashmiri Brahmins and Kayasthas took readily to learning Persian from the times of Sikandar Lodi onwards and found ready employment in the Imperial Services, specifically in the departments of accountancy (siyaq), draftsmanship (insha) and offices of the revenue minister (diwan).