Doabi is a dialect of the
Punjabi language
Punjabi (; ; , ), sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It has approximately 113 million native speakers.
Punjabi is the most widely-spoken first language in Pakistan, with 80.5 ...
. The dialect is named for the region in which it was historically spoken,
Doaba
Doaba also known as Bist Doab, is the region of Punjab, India that lies between the Beas River and the Sutlej River. People of this region are given the demonym "Doabia". The dialect of Punjabi spoken in Doaba is called "Doabi". Th ...
(also known as
Bist Doab
Doaba also known as Bist Doab, is the region of Punjab, India that lies between the Beas River and the Sutlej River. People of this region are given the demonym "Doabia". The dialect of Punjabi spoken in Doaba is called "Doabi". Th ...
); the word
doab
''Doab'' () is a term used in South Asia Quote: "Originally and chiefly in South Asia: (the name of) a strip or narrow tract of land between two rivers; spec. (with) the area between the rivers Ganges and Jumna in northern India." for the tract ...
means "the land between two rivers" and this dialect was historically spoken in the
doab
''Doab'' () is a term used in South Asia Quote: "Originally and chiefly in South Asia: (the name of) a strip or narrow tract of land between two rivers; spec. (with) the area between the rivers Ganges and Jumna in northern India." for the tract ...
between the
Beas River
The Beas River (Sanskrit: ; Hyphasis in Ancient Greek) is a river in north India. The river rises in the Himalayas in central Himachal Pradesh, India, and flows for some to the Sutlej River in the Indian state of Punjab. Its total length is ...
and
Sutlej River
The Sutlej or Satluj River () is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. The Sutlej River is also known as ''Satadru''. It is the easternmost tributary of the ...
. Its occurrence in parts of
Pakistani Punjab owes to
post-1947 migration of Muslim populace from East Punjab. The region it is now spoken includes: the
Jalandhar,
Hoshiarpur
Hoshiarpur () is a city and a municipal corporation in Hoshiarpur district in the Doaba region of the Indian state of Punjab. It was founded, according to tradition, during the early part of the fourteenth century. In 1809, it was occupied b ...
,
Kapurthala
Kapurthala is a city in Punjab state of India. It is the administrative headquarters of Kapurthala District. It was the capital of the Kapurthala State, a princely state in British India. The aesthetic mix of the city with its prominent buil ...
and
Nawanshahr
Nawanshahr is a municipal council in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district in the Indian state of Punjab. It was previously a town that became a district in 1995.
History
Nawanshahr was founded by migrants from Rahon, a city located near the S ...
districts of
Indian Punjab
Punjab (; ) is a state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the north and northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast, and ...
, including the areas known as the Dona and
Manjki; and the
Toba Tek Singh
Toba Tek Singh ( pnb, , ur, ) is a city and capital of Toba Tek Singh District in the Pakistani province of Punjab. It is surrounded by cities of Gojra, Kamalia, Rajana, Pir Mahal and Shorkot.
History
The city and district is named a ...
and
Faisalabad
Faisalabad (; Punjabi/ ur, , ; ), formerly known as Lyallpur (Punjabi, Urdu: لائل پور), named after the founder of the city, but was renamed in 1977 in honour of late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. It is the 3rd largest city of Pakis ...
districts of
Pakistani Punjab.
The sub dialects of Doabi include Dona and Manjki.
Analysis
The Doabi dialect in its eastern part blends with the Malwai dialect of Ludhiana district, and in its Northern side, it shares the linguistic features of Pahari. Some of the linguistic Linguistic features of the Doabi dialect that separate it from other Punjabi dialects are as below:
Consonants
* does not occur word initially
Vowels
Doabi has ten vowels. These are
For example:
Other suprasegmental phonemes
Tone, stress and nasalization in Doabi are phonemic.
Tone
Three tones are used in Doabi; low, mid and high. For example;
Stress
Stress in Doabi is realized in two ways, syntagmatically and paradigmatically.
Syntagmatically, stress-shift results in change of meaning. This kind of stress is often orthographically unmarked, and may shift any tone present in a word to the stressed syllable.
For example:
Paradigmatically, Doabi has stressed and unstressed syllables;
Some basic vocabulary items
Features
Substituting letters
Doabi's drop the letter "v" at the start of a word and use the letter "b"
as in "Vada" (big) to "Bada". They also use the letter "o" elsewhere in a word instead of a "v" as in "Khvab" (dream) to "Khoaab". A distinctive feature of Doabi is the use of the "w" sound. Where "v" appears in the middle of a word in standard Punjabi, Doabis use "w" so that "hava" (wind) becomes "hawa". Also, the vowel "u" is pronounced with an "o". Accordingly, "khush" (happy) becomes "khosh" or "kuht" (to beat) becomes "koht". In Doabi, any word beginning with "i" is pronounced with "e". For example, the word "khich" (to pull) is pronounced as "khech" or the word "vich" (inside) is pronounced as "bech".
Doabis do not use "z" and therefore substitute "j". This is common in the Punjabi language as "z" is not indigenous to the area.
Sentence structure
Doabi's end sentences with "aa" (present tense) and "sigey" (past —tense), instead of "han" (present tense) and "san" or "si" (past tense). "Aiddan", "Jiddan", "Kiddan" are all commonly used adverbs in Doabi as opposed to the "Aistaran/Enj," "Jistaran/Jivven," and "Kistaran/Kivven," used in Punjabi's
prestige dialect
Prestige refers to a good reputation or high esteem; in earlier usage, ''prestige'' meant "showiness". (19th c.)
Prestige may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Films
* ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnet ...
,
Majhi.
Present Tense: Usage of aa (sing.) and aa (plu.)
Examples:
Past Tense: Uninflected sī, or number- and gender-inflected sīgā/sīgī/sīge/sīgīā, in Doabi
Examples:
Vocabulary
See also
*
Languages of Pakistan
Pakistan is a multilingual country with dozens of languages spoken as first languages. The majority of Pakistan's languages belong to the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family.
Urdu is the national language and the lingua fr ...
*
Languages of India
Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families together are sometimes know ...
*
List of Indian languages by total speakers
India is home to several hundred languages. Most Indians speak a language belonging to the families of the Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European (c. 77%), the Dravidian (c. 20.61%), the Austroasiatic ( Munda) (c. 1.2%), or the Sino-Tibetan (c. 0 ...
*
Malwi dialect
Malwai is a Punjabi dialect spoken in the Malwa region of Punjab. Major Malwai speaking centers are Ferozepur, Fazilka, Faridkot, Muktsar,The language spoken in some southern villages of Fazilka, Muktsar and Bahawalnagar districts forms a dialec ...
*
Puadhi language
References
{{Punjabi dialects
Languages of Punjab, Pakistan
Languages of Punjab, India
Languages of India
Punjabi culture
Punjabi dialects