The Punjabi dialects and languages or Punjabic are a
series of dialects and languages spoken in the
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
region of Pakistan and India with varying degrees of official recognition. They have sometimes been referred to as ''Greater Punjabi''.
The literary languages that have developed on the basis of dialects of this area are Standard
Punjabi
Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan
* Punjabi language
* Punjabi people
* Punjabi dialects and languages
Punjabi may also refer to:
* Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
in eastern and central Punjab,
Saraiki in the southwest, and
Hindko and
Pahari-Pothwari in the north and north-west.
A distinction is usually made between
Punjabi
Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan
* Punjabi language
* Punjabi people
* Punjabi dialects and languages
Punjabi may also refer to:
* Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
in the east and the diverse group of "
Lahnda
Lahnda () () also known as Lahndi or Western Punjabi, is a group of north-western Indo-Aryan language varieties spoken in parts of Pakistan and India. Its validity as a genetic grouping is not certain. Terms like ''Lahnda'' or ''Western Punja ...
" in the west. "Lahnda" typically subsumes the Saraiki and Hindko varieties, with
Jhangvi
Jhangli (), Jangli () or Rachnavi () is an Indo-Aryan dialect spoken in Punjab. It is intermediate between Standard Punjabi and Saraiki. Its name is derived from the Pakistani city of Jhang. It is spoken throughout a widespread area, starting f ...
and
Shahpuri intermediate between the two groups. Commonly recognised Eastern Punjabi dialects include
Majhi (the standard),
Doabi,
Malwai, and
Puadhi. The "Lahnda" variety of
Khetrani
Khetrānī, or Khetranki, is an Indo-Aryan language of north-eastern Balochistan. It is spoken by the majority of the Khetrans, a Baloch tribe that occupies a hilly tract in the Sulaiman Mountains comprising the whole of Barkhan District as well ...
in the far west may be intermediate between Saraiki and Sindhi.
The varieties of "Greater Punjabi" have a number of characteristics in common, for example the preservation of the
Prakrit
The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...
double consonants in stressed syllables. Nevertheless, there is disagreement on whether they form part of a single
language group, with some proposed classifications placing them all within the Northwestern zone of
Indo-Aryan, while others reserving this only for the western varieties, and assigning the eastern ones to the Central zone alongside
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...
.
Standard Punjabi
''Standard Punjabi,'' sometimes referred to as Majhi in India or simply as “Punjabi”, is the most widespread and largest dialect of 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. Later the
Gurmukhi script was standardized based on Majhi using pre-existing
Laṇḍā scripts by the Sikh Gurus.
Standard Punjabi is spoken by the majority of the people in
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 Paki ...
,
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest ...
,
Gujranwala,
Sheikhupura,
Kasur,
Sialkot
Sialkot ( ur, ) is a city located in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the capital of Sialkot District and the 13th most populous city in Pakistan. The boundaries of Sialkot are joined with Jammu (the winter capital of Indian administered Jammu and Kas ...
,
Narowal,
Gujrat,
Okara,
Pakpattan,
Sahiwal
Sahiwal (Punjabi and ur, ), formerly known as Montgomery, is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 21st largest city of Pakistan by population and the administrative capital of both Sahiwal District and Sahiwal Division. Sahiwal is approx ...
,
Hafizabad
Hafizabad ( Urdu and pa, ) is a city and capital of Hafizabad District located in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 31st largest city of Pakistan. It is also a Tehsil.
Ancient history
Hafizabad is an old city in Punjab, Pakistan. In 327 BC, d ...
,
Nankana Sahib and
Mandi Bahauddin districts of Pakistan's Punjab Province. It also has a large presence in every district in the rest of Pakistani Punjab, and in all large cities in Pakistan's other provinces.
In India it is spoken in
Amritsar
Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Maj ...
,
Tarn Taran,
Pathankot
Pathankot is a city and the district headquarters of the Pathankot district in Punjab, India. Pathankot is the 6th most populous city of Punjab, after Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Bathinda. Its local government is a municipa ...
, and the
Gurdaspur districts of the State of Punjab.
In
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, the Standard Punjabi dialect is not referred to as the '
Majhi dialect', which may be considered as 'Indian terminology', rather simply as '
Standard Punjabi
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 m ...
'. This dialect is widely used in the TV and entertainment industry, which is mainly produced in
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest ...
.
Eastern Punjabi
Eastern Punjab, known as ''Chardha or Chardhi'', is home to a variety of Punjabic vernaculars and lects. The main ones are listed below.
Malwai
Spoken in the
Malwa region of Punjab.
Doabi
Spoken in the Bist Doaba region of Punjab and lowland
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peak ...
.
Powadhi
Spoken in the
Powadh
Puadh (IAST: uādha sometimes anglicized as Poadh or Powadh) is a historic region in north India that comprises parts of present-day Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and the U.T. of Chandigarh, India. It has the Sutlej river ...
region of Punjab and Haryana.
Bagri
Spoken in the
Bagar tract region of southwestern
Punjab (India)
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, an ...
, northern
Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...
, and neighbouring areas of
Punjab (Pakistan). This is a transitional dialect between the
Rajasthani-languages further south,
Haryanvi to the east, and Punjabic proper to the north.
Western Punjabi
Western Punjabi, also known as ''
Lahnda
Lahnda () () also known as Lahndi or Western Punjabi, is a group of north-western Indo-Aryan language varieties spoken in parts of Pakistan and India. Its validity as a genetic grouping is not certain. Terms like ''Lahnda'' or ''Western Punja ...
'', has a great deal of diverse and divergent Punjabic vernaculars and dialects. Many scholars claim they may constitute a separate genetic grouping from Punjabi proper, but this has yet to be established and its validity has been questioned by some but all have been given separate Language status in the
2023 Census of Pakistan
The 2023 Census of Pakistan will be a detailed enumeration of the Pakistani population that will be the seventh national census in the country. It is currently scheduled to be held from 1 Feb 2023 to 4 Mar 2023 and will be conducted by the Paki ...
.
The three include
Hindko,
Pahari-Pothwari and
Saraiki.
References
Sources
*
*Burling, Robbins. 1970. ''Man's many voices''. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
*Ethnologue
Indo-AryanClassification of 219 languages that have been assigned to the Indo-Aryan grouping of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages.
*Ethnologue
Languages of India*Ethnologue
Languages of PakistanOnline database *
*
*Rahman, Tariq. 2006. The role of English in Pakistan with special reference to tolerance and militancy. In Amy Tsui et al., ''Language, policy, culture and identity in Asian contexts''. Routledge. 219-240.
*
*Shackle, C. 1970. Punjabi in Lahore. ''Modern Asian Studies'', 4(3):239–267
Available onlineat
JSTOR
JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...
.
*
*
* (requires registration)
External links
Map of Punjabi dialectsfrom
Grierson's early 20th-century
Linguistic Survey of India
{{Language varieties
Languages of Punjab, Pakistan
Languages of India
Punjabi language