Punjabi
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی
'Punjabi' written in Shahmukhi script (top) and Gurmukhi script used in (bottom)
Pronunciation	[pəɲˈdʒab̆.bi] ⓘ
Native to	Pakistan and India
Region	Punjab Hazara Azad Kashmir
Ethnicity	Punjabis
Native speakers	148 million (2011–2017)[a]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northwestern Punjabi
Early forms	Prakrit (debated)[b] Apabhraṃśa (debated) Old Punjabi[2][3][4] Middle Punjabi[5][6] Early Modern Punjabi[7]
Standard forms	Standard Punjabi
Dialects	See Punjabi dialects
Writing system	Shāhmukhī (majority, Pakistan) Gurmukhī (official, India) Punjabi Braille Historical Laṇḍā (Multani, Mahajani) Tākri Devanāgarī
Official status
Official language in	India Punjab[8][9] Haryana (additional)[10] Delhi (additional)[11] West Bengal (additional)[c]
Regulated by	Pakistan: Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture India: Department of Languages[13]
Language codes
ISO 639-1	pa
ISO 639-2	pan
ISO 639-3	pan
Glottolog	lahn1241
Linguasphere	59-AAF-e
Geographic distribution of Punjabi language in Pakistan and India.
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Punjabis
History Indus Valley Civilization Aryan migrations Gandhara Trigarta Taank Kingdom Hindu Shahis Langah Sultanate Misls Sikh Empire Kingdom of Bahawalpur Princely state of Bahawalpur British Punjab Partition of Punjab West Punjab East Punjab
Homeland Punjab Punjab, Pakistan Punjab, India Hazara Azad Kashmir Islamabad Dera Ismail Khan
Tribes List of Punjabi tribes
Punjabi regions Bagar Bahawalpur Bars (Sandal • Kirana • Neeli • Ganji • Gondal • Jungle) Bhatiore Bhattiana Chhachh Derajat Doabs (Indus Sagar • Chaj • Rachna • Bari • Bist) Galyat Hazara Kachhi Kashmir (south-western) Majha Malwa Multan Pothwar Puadh
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Culture Language Dialects and varieties Shahmukhi Gurmukhi Clothing Cuisine Calendar Wedding traditions Dance Festivals Punjabization India Pakistan Literature Qisse Folklore Poetry Media Music Folk music Religion Islam Sikhism Hinduism Christianity Folk Sport Television
Politics Nationalism Reunification Punjabiyat Punjabi Language Movement Punjabi Suba movement
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Punjabi,^[d] sometimes spelled Panjabi,^[e] is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Punjab region of Pakistan and India, spoken predominantly by the Punjabi people. With approximately 148 million native speakers, it is the eighth most spoken native language in the world. It also has a few million additional speakers which, along with native speakers, makes it the twelfth most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world.^[16]

Punjabi is the most widely-spoken first language in Pakistan, with 114.5 million native speakers,^[f] according to the 2017 census and the 11th most widely-spoken in India, with 31.1 million native speakers, according to the 2011 census, with official status in the state of Punjab; additional in Haryana and West Bengal, as well as Delhi. It is the third most widely-spoken language in Canada, after the official languages English and French, with approximately a million native speakers (2.6% of the population). Apart from Canada, it is also spoken among other significant overseas diaspora, in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and the Gulf states. It was also spoken in Afghanistan, by communities of Punjabi descent, in form of related dialects but is reported to be extinct in the present-day.^[17]

Punjabi is a diagraphic language as it uses more than one writing system. In Pakistan, it is written using the Shahmukhi alphabet, based on the Perso-Arabic script; in India, it is written using the Gurmukhi alphabet, based on the Indic scripts. Other historical scripts and writing systems used for Punjabi include Laṇḍā (Multani and Mahajani), Tākri and Devanāgarī, which are no longer used.

Forming a part of the Northwestern branch of Indo-Aryan languages, alongside Sindhic, it is most closely related to other Indo-Aryan languages, namely Dogri, Kangri and Sindhi. It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some Dardic and Central Indo-Aryan languages. It is the third-most spoken Indo-Iranian and Indo-Aryan language after Hindi-Urdu and Bengali.

Modern Punjabi gradually developed from Old Punjabi, whose origin is still debated amongst linguists and historians, to Middle Punjabi and Early Modern Punjabi. It came under a degree of influence from Persian and Arabic during the medieval era with classical Punjabi literature. Today, the language has a wide variety of dialect groups which form a dialect continuum with one another. Standardized varieties based on the Majhi dialect (Central Punjabi), with influences from Western Punjabi in Pakistan and Eastern Punjabi in India, are used.

Punjabi is unusual among the Indo-Aryan languages and the broader Indo-European language family in its usage of lexical tone. It has been described as the only major tonal language of South Asia.

History

Etymology

The word Punjabi (sometimes spelled Panjabi) has been derived from the word Panj-āb, Persian for 'Five Waters', referring to the five major eastern tributaries of the Indus River. The name of the region was introduced by the Turko-Persian conquerors^[18] of South Asia and was a translation of the Greek name, Pentapotamia and the Sanskrit name, Panchanada, which means 'Land of the Five Rivers'.^[19][20]

Panj is cognate with Sanskrit pañca (पञ्च), Greek pénte (πέντε), and Lithuanian Penki, all of which meaning 'five'; āb is cognate with Sanskrit áp (अप्) and 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.

The Punjabi language has, historically, been known by many names. During the Islamic Golden Age and early medieval era, it was most widely known as Multānī. During the late medieval era, the term Lahaurī was also used for the language. During the early Mughal era, both the terms Multānī and Lahaurī were used for the language until the term Pañjābī replaced them and forged the language's identity with the ethnic and geographical identity. After that and up until now, the historic terms Multānī and Lahaurī are used to refer to the forms of Punjabi spoken around Multan and Lahore, respectively.

Origin

Punjabi developed from Prakrit languages and later Apabhraṃśa (Sanskrit: अपभ्रंश, 'deviated' or 'non-grammatical speech')^[21] From 600 BC, Sanskrit developed as the standard literary and administrative language and Prakrit languages evolved into many regional languages in different parts of India. All these languages are called Prakrit languages (Sanskrit: प्राकृत, prākṛta) collectively. Paishachi Prakrit was one of these Prakrit languages, which was spoken in north and north-western India and Punjabi developed from this Prakrit. Later in northern India Paishachi Prakrit gave rise to Paishachi Apabhraṃśa, a descendant of Prakrit.^[1][22] Punjabi emerged as an Apabhramsha, a degenerated form of Prakrit, in the 7th century AD and became stable by the 10th century. The earliest writings in Punjabi belong to the Nath Yogi-era from 9th to 14th century.^[23] The language of these compositions is morphologically closer to Shauraseni Apbhramsa, though vocabulary and rhythm is surcharged with extreme colloquialism and folklore.^[23] The precursor stage of Punjabi between the 10th and 16th centuries is termed 'Old Punjabi', whilst the stage between the 16th and 19th centuries is termed as 'Medieval Punjabi'.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

Arabic and Persian influences

The Arabic and modern Persian influence in the historical Punjab region began with the late first millennium Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent.^[24] Many Persian and Arabic words have been incorporated into Punjabi.^[25][26] So Punjabi relies heavily on Persian and Arabic words which are used with a liberal approach to language. Many important words like ਅਰਦਾਸ, ਰਹਿਰਾਸ, ਨਹਿਰ, ਜ਼ਮੀਨ, ਗਜ਼ਲ, etc. are derived from Persian and Arabic. After the fall of the Sikh empire, Urdu was made the official language of Punjab (in Pakistani Punjab, it is still the primary official language), and influenced the language as well.^[27]

In fact, the sounds of ਜ਼, ਖ਼, ਸ਼, and ਫ਼ have been borrowed from Persian. Later, it was lexically influenced by Portuguese (words like ਅਲਮਾਰੀ/الماری), Greek (words like ਦਾਮ/دام), Chagatai (words like ਕ਼ੈੰਚੀ, ਸੁਗ਼ਾਤ/قینچی،سوغات), Japanese (words like ਰਿਕਸ਼ਾ/رکشا), Chinese (words like ਚਾਹ, ਲੀਚੀ, ਲੁਕਾਠ/چاہ، لیچی، لکاٹھ) and English (words like ਜੱਜ, ਅਪੀਲ, ਮਾਸਟਰ/جج، اپیل، ماسٹر), though these influences have been minor in comparison to Persian and Arabic.^[28]

Note: In more formal contexts, hypercorrect Sanskritized versions of these words (ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ pradhān for ਪਰਧਾਨ pardhān and ਪਰਿਵਾਰ parivār for ਪਰਵਾਰ parvār) may be used.

Modern times

Modern Punjabi emerged in the 19th century from the Medieval Punjabi stage.^[3] Modern Punjabi has two main varieties, Western (Lahnda Punjab) and Eastern Punjabi (Charda Punjab), which have many dialects and forms, altogether spoken by over 150 million people. The Majhi dialect, which is transitional between the two main varieties, has been adopted as standard Punjabi in India and Pakistan for education and mass media. The Majhi dialect originated in the Majha region of the Punjab.

In India, Punjabi is written in the Gurmukhī script in offices, schools, and media. Gurmukhi is the official standard script for Punjabi, though it is often unofficially written in the Latin scripts due to influence from English, one of India's two primary official languages at the Union-level.

In Pakistan, Punjabi is generally written using the Shahmukhī script, which in literary standards, is identical to the Urdu alphabet, however various attempts have been made to create certain, distinct characters from a modification of the Persian Nastaʿlīq characters to represent Punjabi phonology, not already found in the Urdu alphabet. In Pakistan, Punjabi loans technical words from Persian and Arabic, just like Urdu does.

Geographic distribution

Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan, the eleventh-most widely spoken in India, and also present in the Punjabi diaspora in various countries.

Pakistan

Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan, being the native language of 80.5 million people, or approximately 39% of the country's population.

Beginning with the 1981 and 2017 censuses respectively, speakers of the Western Punjabi's Saraiki and Hindko varieties were no longer included in the total numbers for Punjabi, which explains the apparent decrease.

Pothwari speakers however are included in the total numbers for Punjabi.^[31]

India

Punjabi is the official language of the Indian state of Punjab, and has the status of an additional official language in Haryana and Delhi. Some of its major urban centres in northern India are Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Ambala, Patiala, Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Firozpur and Delhi.

In the 2011 census of India, 31.14 million reported their language as Punjabi. The census publications group this with speakers of related "mother tongues" like Bagri and Bhateali to arrive at the figure of 33.12 million.^[32]

Punjabi diaspora

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, and Canada.^[31]

There were 670,000 native Punjabi speakers in Canada in 2021,^[34] 300,000 in the United Kingdom in 2011,^[35] 280,000 in the United States^[36] and smaller numbers in other countries.

Punjabi speakers by country

Approximate number of Punjabi speakers by country ^{[citation needed]}

Country	Native number of speakers	Source
Pakistan	80,540,000	Census
India	33,124,726	Census
Saudi Arabia	800,000	Ethnologue
Canada	670,000	Census
UK	291,000	Census
USA	280,867	Census
Australia	239,033	Census
UAE	201,000	Ethnologue

Major dialects

Standard Punjabi

Standard Punjabi refers to the standardized varieties of the Punjabi language. Punjabi's standard varieties are based on the Majhi (Central Punjabi), which is the most widespread and spoken dialect of Punjabi and is transitional between both Western and Eastern Punjabi. It first developed in the 12th century and gained prominence when Sufi poets such as Shah Hussain, Bulleh Shah among others began to use the Lahore/Amritsar-spoken dialect with infused Persian vocabulary in their works in the Shahmukhi script.^[37] Later the Gurmukhi script was developed based on Standard Punjabi by the Sikh Gurus.^[38]

The standardized Punjabi varieties, developed in Pakistan tend to have more influence from the western dialects on the Majhi base, while the standardized variety of India has more influence from the eastern dialects.

Eastern Punjabi

The Punjabi variety predominantly spoken in the Indian Punjab, and also by partition migrants and their descendants in Pakistan, is known as "Eastern Punjabi". It includes dialects like Malwai, Doabi, Puadhi and extinct Lubanki.^[39]

Western Punjabi

The diverse group of Punjabi varieties spoken in the western areas of Pakistani Punjab, as well as in neighbouring Hazara region and parts of Azad Kashmir is known as "Western Punjabi" or "Lahnda" (لہندا, lit. 'western').^[40][41] These include groups of dialects like Saraiki, Pahari-Pothwari, Hindko and extinct Inku; common dialects like Jhangvi, Dhanni and Thali which are usually grouped under the term Jatki Punjabi; and the mixed variety of Punjabi and Sindhi called Khetrani.^[42]

Phonology

While a vowel length distinction between short and long vowels exists, reflected in modern Gurmukhi orthographical conventions, it is secondary to the vowel quality contrast between centralised vowels /ɪ ə ʊ/ and peripheral vowels /iː eː ɛː aː ɔː oː uː/ in terms of phonetic significance.^[43]