Punjabi
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ • پنجابی
The word "Punjabi" written in Shahmukhi (Nast'aliq style), Gurmukhi
Native to	Punjab region
Native speakers	100 million, including Lahnda variants (2010)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northwestern[2] Punjabi
Standard forms	Majhi Hindko Saraiki
Dialects	See Punjabi dialects
Writing system	Perso-Arabic (Shahmukhi alphabet) Gurmukhi Punjabi Braille
Official status
Official language in	Pakistan Punjab (Provincial)  India Punjab (Primary official) Delhi (Secondary official) Haryana (Secondary official)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	none pa – Eastern Punjabi
ISO 639-2	none Individual codes: lah – Lahnda pan – Eastern Punjabi
ISO 639-3	lah – inclusive code Individual codes: lah – Lahnda pnb – Western Punjabi hno – Northern Hindko hnd – Southern Hindko jat – Jakati xhe – Khetrani phr – Pahari-Potwari pgg – Pangwali skr – Saraiki pan – Eastern Punjabi
Glottolog	lahn1241  (Lahnda)[3] east2727  (Eastern Punjabic)[4]
Linguasphere	59-AAF-e
Areas (red) where Punjabi is the native language, compared to all Indo-Aryan languages (dark grey)
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Punjabi /pʌnˈdʒɑːbi/^[5] (Shahmukhi: پنجابی paṉjābī; Gurmukhi: ਪੰਜਾਬੀ pañjābī)^[6] is a Northwestern Indo-Aryan language spoken by over 100 million native speakers worldwide, making it the 10th most widely spoken language (2015)^[7][8] in the world. It is the native language of the Punjabi people who inhabit the historical Punjab region of Pakistan and India. Among the Indo-European languages it is unusual in being a tonal language.^[9][10][11]

Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan,^[12] the seventh-most widely spoken in India,^[13] and the third-most spoken native language in the Indian Subcontinent. Punjabi is the fourth-most spoken language in the United Kingdom^[14] and third-most spoken native language (after English and French) in Canada.^[15][16] The language also has a significant presence in the United Arab Emirates, United States, Saudi Arabia, and Australia. Punjabi's cultural language link in the Indian Subcontinent is vast due to Bollywood with many songs partially or fully sung in Punjabi.^[17][18][19]

History[edit]

Punjabi is a Northwestern Indo-Aryan language. It is considered to be a direct descendant of Sanskrit, through Sauraseni Prakrit and Śauraseni Apabhraṃśa (Sanskrit:अपभ्रंश; corruption or corrupted speech). It has been influenced by Turkic languages, Persian, Arabic, Portuguese and English. Punjabi emerged as an Apabhramsha, a degenerated form of Prakrit, in the 7th century A.D. and became stable by the 10th century.^[20][21][22]

By the 10th century, many Nath poets were associated with earlier Punjabi works. Arabic and Persian influence in the historical Punjab region began with the late first millennium Muslim conquests on the Indian subcontinent. Persian language was introduced in the subcontinent a few centuries later by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties including that of Mahmud of Ghazni. Fariduddin Ganjshakar of Pak Pattan is generally recognised as the first major poet of the Punjabi language.^[23] Roughly from the 11th century to 19th century, many great Sufi saints and poets preached in the Punjabi language. Bulle Shah is considered one of the greatest Sufi poets. Punjabi Sufi poetry developed under Shah Hussain (1538–1599), Sultan Bahu (1628–1691), Shah Sharaf (1640–1724), Ali Haider (1690–1785), Saleh Muhammad Safoori (son of Hazrat Mai Safoora Qadiriyya, whom Ali Haider had given great tribute) and Bulleh Shah (1680–1757).

Sufi poets have enriched Punjabi literature

The Sikh religion originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region and Punjabi is the predominant language spoken by Sikhs.^[24] Most portions of the Guru Granth Sahib use the Punjabi language written in Gurmukhi, though Punjabi is not the only language used in Sikh scriptures.

Varan Gyan Ratnavali by 16th century historian Bhai Gurdas

The Janamsakhis, stories on the life and legend of Guru Nanak (1469–1539), are early examples of Punjabi prose literature. Guru Nanak himself composed Punjabi verse incorporating vocabulary from Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, and other Indic languages as characteristic of the Gurbani tradition.

Punjabi Sufi poetry also influenced other Punjabi literary traditions particularly the Punjabi Qissa, a genre of romantic tragedy which also derived inspiration from Indic, Persian and Quranic sources. The qissa of Heer Ranjha by Waris Shah (1706–1798) is among the most popular of Punjabi qissas. Other popular stories include Sohni Mahiwal by Fazal Shah, Mirza Sahiban by Hafiz Barkhudar (1658–1707), Sassui Punnhun by Hashim Shah (1735?–1843?), and Qissa Puran Bhagat by Qadaryar (1802–1892).^{[citation needed]}

Modern Punjabi[edit]

Gurmukhi alphabet excluding vowels

Standard Punjabi[edit]

• However Punjabi is spoken in many dialects in an area from Islamabad to Delhi. The Majhi dialect has been adopted as standard Punjabi in Pakistan and India for education,media etc. The Majhi (in Shahmukhi ماجھی، in Gurumukhi ਮਾਝੀ) dialect originated in the Majha region of the Punjab. The Majha region consists central districts of Pakistani Punjab and in India around Amritsar and Gurdaspur regions, known. The two most important cities in this area are Lahore and Amritsar.
• In India technical words in Standard Punjabi are loaned from Sanskrit similarly to other major Indian languages, but it generously uses Arabic, Persian, and English words also in the official language. In this sense, Punjabi is different from Hindi, Bangla and Gujrati languages,where emphasis is given only to words from the Sanskrit language. In India, Punjabi is written in the Gurumukhī script in offices, schools, and media. Gurumukhi is considered the standard script for Punjabi, though it is often unofficially written in the Devanagari or Latin scripts due to influence from Hindi and English, India's two primary official languages at the Union-level.
• In Pakistan, Punjabi is generally written using the Shahmukhī script, created from a modification of the Persian Nastaʿlīq script. In Pakistan, Punjabi loans technical words from Persian and Arabic languages like Urdu.

Official status[edit]

In India, Punjabi is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India. It is the first official language of the Indian State of Punjab. Punjabi has also second official status in Delhi along with Urdu, Haryana. In Pakistan, no regional ethnic language has been granted official status at the national level, and as such Punjabi is not an official language at the national level, even though it is the most spoken language in Pakistan after Urdu. It is, however, the official provincial language of Punjab, Pakistan, the second largest and the most populous province of Pakistan as well as in Islamabad Capital Territory. The only two official national languages in Pakistan are Urdu and English, which are considered the lingua francas of Pakistan.

Punjabi in modern culture[edit]

Punjabi is becoming more acceptable among Punjabis in modern media and communications. Punjabi has always been an integral part of Indian cinema. A large number of Hindi movies now incorporate Punjabi vocabulary in music and dialogue. Punjabi pop and folk songs are very popular both in India and Pakistan at the national level. The number of students opting for Punjabi literature has increased in Pakistani Punjab. Punjabi cinema in India has also seen a revival and more and more Punjabi movies are being produced. In India, the number of students opting for Punjabi Literature as an optional subject in IAS examinations has increased along with the success rate of the students. Punjabi music is very popular today throughout the world.^[25]

Dialects and related languages[edit]

The major dialects of Punjabi include Majhi, Doabi, Malwai, Powadhi, Pothohari, and Multani. The dialects in the Lahnda dialect continuum, including Saraiki and Hindko, are considered as dialects of Punjabi by many linguists but as distinct languages by others.^[26]

In Indo-Aryan dialectology generally, the presence of transitional dialects creates problems in assigning some dialects to one or another "language".^[27][28] However, over the last century there has usually been little disagreement when it comes to defining the core region of the Punjabi language. The British linguist George Abraham Grierson came to the conclusion that a group of dialects known collectively as "western Punjabi" spoken north and west of the Punjab heartland, in the Indus valley itself and on the lower reaches of the other four tributaries (excluding the Beas River), in fact constituted a language distinct from Punjabi. He named this group of dialects "Lahnda" in a volume of the Language Survey of India (LSI) published in 1919.^[29] He grouped as "southern Lahnda" the dialects that are now recognized as Saraiki. In the National Census of Pakistan (1981) Saraiki and Hindko (previously categorized as "Western Punjabi"), got the status of separate languages,^[30] which explains the decrease in the percentage of Punjabi speakers.

Standard dialect[edit]

The Majhi dialect spoken around Amritsar and Lahore is Punjabi's prestige dialect. Majhi is spoken in the heart of Punjab in the region of Majha, which spans Lahore, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Kasur, Tarn Taran, Faisalabad, Nankana Sahib, Pathankot, Okara, Pakpattan, Sahiwal, Narowal, Sheikhupura, Sialkot, Chiniot, Gujranwala and Gujrat districts. Majhi retains the nasal consonants /ŋ/ and /ɲ/, which have been superseded elsewhere by non-nasals /ɡ/ and /d͡ʒ/ respectively. The Majhi (and Lahnda) spoken in Pakistan is more Persianized in vocabulary, and the usage of the sounds /z/, /x/ and /ɣ/ is more common.

Etymology[edit]

The word Punjabi is derived from the word Panj-āb, Persian for "Five Waters", referring to the five major eastern tributaries of the Indus River. Panj is cognate with Sanskrit pañca and Greek pente "five", and "āb" is cognate with the Av- of Avon. The historical Punjab region, now divided between India and Pakistan, is defined physiographically by the Indus River and these five tributaries. One of the five, the Beas River, is a tributary of another, the Sutlej.

In India, Punjabi is written in Gurmukhī, a standardized script. The word Gurmukhi translates into 'from the Guru's mouth'.^[31] In Pakistan, the Shahmukhī script, meaning "from the King's mouth", based on the Persian abjad is used.^[32]

Geographic distribution[edit]

Pakistan[edit]

Administrative divisions of Punjab Pakistan

Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan. Punjabi is the provincial language in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. Punjabi is spoken as a native language by over 44.15% of Pakistanis. About 70.0% of the people of Pakistan speak Punjabi as either their first or second language, and for some as their third language. Lahore, the capital of the Punjab Province of Pakistan, is the largest Punjabi-speaking city in the world. 86% of the total population of Lahore is native Punjabi and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, is 71% native Punjabis at 3rd after Faisalabad where 76% are native. There are also large number of Punjabi speakers in Karachi.

In the 1981 National Census of Pakistan the Saraiki, Pothohari and Hindko dialects of the Western Punjabi were accorded the status of separate languages, which explains the decrease of the percentage of Punjabi speakers.

India[edit]

Districts of Indian Punjab along with their headquarters

Punjabi is spoken as a native language, second language, or third language by about 30 million people in India. Punjabi is the official language of the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. Some of its major urban centres in northern India are Ambala, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, and Delhi.

Punjabi diaspora[edit]

Southall Station (United Kingdom) sign in Punjabi, in the Gurmukhī script

Punjabi is also spoken as a minority language in several other countries where Punjabi people have emigrated in large numbers, such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, where it is the fourth-most-commonly used language,^[35] and Canada, where it is the third-most-spoken language.^[36]

There were 76 million Punjabi speakers in Pakistan in 2008,^[37] 33 million in India in 2011,^[38] 1.3 million in the UK in 2000,^[39] 368,000 in Canada in 2006,^[40] and smaller numbers in other countries.

Phonology[edit]

The long vowels (the vowels with [ː]) also have nasal analogues.

Tone[edit]

Punjabi has three phonemically distinct tones that developed from the lost murmured (or "voiced aspirate") series of consonants. Phonetically the tones are rising or rising-falling contours and they can span over one syllable or two, but phonemically they can be distinguished as high, mid, and low.

A historical murmured consonant (voiced aspirate consonant) in word initial position became tenuis and left a low tone on the two syllables following it: ghoṛā [kòːɽɑ̀ː] "horse". A stem-final murmured consonant became modally voiced and left a high tone on the two syllables preceding it: māgh [mɑ́ːɡ] "October". A stem-medial murmured consonant which appeared after a short vowel and before a long vowel became modally voiced and left a low tone on the two syllables following it: maghāuṇā [məɡɑ̀ːʊ̀ɳɑ̀ː] "to have something lit". Other syllables have mid tone.^[42]

Grammar[edit]

The grammar of the Punjabi language concerns the word order, case marking, verb conjugation, and other morphological and syntactic structures of the Punjabi language. The main article discusses the grammar of Modern Standard Punjabi as defined by the sources cited therein.

Writing systems[edit]

There are two ways to write Punjabi: Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi. The word Gurmukhi translates into "Guru's mouth",^[31] and Shahmukhi means "from the King's mouth".^[32]

In the Punjab province of Pakistan, the script used is Shahmukhi and differs from the Urdu alphabet in having four additional letters.^[43] In the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi and other parts of India, the Gurmukhī script is generally used for writing Punjabi.^[43]

Sample text[edit]

This sample text was taken from the Punjabi Wikipedia article on Lahore.

Gurmukhi:

Shahmukhi:

Transliteration: lahaur pākistānī panjāb dī rājdā̀ni ài. lok giṇtī de nāḷ karācī tõ bāad lahaur dūjā sáb tõ vaḍḍā šáir ài. lahor pākistān dā siāsī, rátalī te paṛā̀ī dā gáṛ ài te is laī ínū̃ pākistān dā dil vī kihā jāndā ài. lahaur dariāe rāvī de kaṇḍè te vasdā ài. te isdī lok giṇtī ikk karoṛ de neṛe ài.

Translation: Lahore is the capital city of the Pakistani Punjab. After a number of people from Karachi, Lahore is the second largest city. Lahore is Pakistan's political stronghold and education capital and so it is also the heart of Pakistan. Lahore lies on the bank of the Ravi River. And, its population is close to ten million people.

IPA: [lə̄ɦɔ̄ːɾ pāːkɪ̄st̪āːnīː pə̄̃d͡ʒāːb d̪īː ɾāːd͡ʒt̪àːnɪ̄ ɦɛ̀ː ‖ lōk ɡɪ̄ɳt̪īː d̪ē nāːl kə̄ɾāːt͡ʃīː t̪ō̃ bāːə̄d̪ lə̄ɦɔ̄ːɾ d̪ūːd͡ʒāː sə́p t̪ō̃ ʋːə̄ɖāː ʃə̄ɦɪ̄ɾ ɦɛ̀ː ‖ lə̄ɦɔ̄ːɾ pāːkɪ̄st̪āːn d̪āː sɪ̄āːsīː | ɾə́ɦt̪ə̄līː t̪ē pə̄ɽɦàːīː d̪āː ɡə́ɽɦ ɦɛ̀ː t̪ē ɪ̄s lə̄īː ɪ́ɦnū̃ pāːkɪ̄st̪āːn d̪āː d̪ɪ̄l ʋīː kɪ̄ɦāː d͡ʒā̃ːd̪āː ɦɛ̀ː ‖ lə̄ɦɔ̄ːɾ d̪ə̄ɾɪ̄āːē ɾāːʋīː d̪ē kə̄̃ʈè t̪ē ʋə̄̃sd̪īː ɦɛ̀ː ‖ t̪ē īsd̪īː lōk ɡɪ̄ɳt̪īː ɪ̄kː kə̄ɾōɽ d̪ē nēɽē ɦɛ̀ː ‖]

Gallery[edit]

• 

  Book about Punjabi in Shahmukhi

• 

  Guru Granth Sahib in Gurmukhi

• 

  Punjabi Gurmukhi Script

• 

  Punjabi Shahmukhi script

• 

  Bhulay Shah Poetry in Punjabi (Shahmukhi script)

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  Munir niazi Poetry in Punjabi (Shahmukhi script)

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  Gurmukhi alphabet

See also[edit]

• Punjabi Wikipedia
• Languages of Pakistan
• Languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers
• List of Punjabi-language newspapers
• Hindi-to-Punjabi Machine Translation System

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• Grierson, George A. 1904–1928. Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India. Calcutta.
• Masica, Colin. 1991. The Indo-Aryan languages. Cambridge Univ. Press.

Further reading[edit]

• Bhatia, Tej. 1993 and 2010. Punjabi : a cognitive-descriptive grammar. London: Routledge. Series: Descriptive grammars.
• Gill H.S. [Harjit Singh] and Gleason, H.A. 1969. A reference grammar of Punjabi. Revised edition. Patiala, Punjab, India: Languages Department, Punjab University.
• Shackle, C. 1972. Punjabi. London: English Universities Press.
• Chopra, R. M., Perso-Arabic Words in Panjabi, in: Indo-Iranica Vol.53 (1–4).
• Chopra, R. M.., The Legacy of The Punjab, 1997, Punjabee Bradree, Calcutta.
• Singh, Chander Shekhar (2004). Punjabi Prosody: The Old Tradition and The New Paradigm. Sri Lanka: Polgasowita: Sikuru Prakasakayo.
• Singh, Chander Shekhar (2014). Punjabi Intonation: An Experimental Study. Muenchen: LINCOM EUROPA.

External links[edit]

• Let's Learn Punjabi Animation Punjabi Film on YouTube
• English to Punjabi Dictionary
• Learn how to read Gurmukhi, Muharni and count in Gurmukhi/Punjabi
• Listen to some basic Punjabi words on WikiBabel
• Online Punjabi keyboard for typing in Punjabi