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 million native speakers as per the
2017 census, and the 11th most widely-spoken in India, with 31.1 million native speakers, as per the
2011 census. The language is spoken among a
significant overseas diaspora, particularly in Canada, the United States, and the
United Kingdom.
In Pakistan, Punjabi is written using the
Shahmukhi alphabet
Shahmukhi (, ) is a Perso-Arabic alphabet script used historically by Punjabi Muslims (primarily in present-day Pakistani Punjab) to write the Punjabi language. It is generally written in the Nastaʿlīq calligraphic hand, which is also used for ...
, based on the
Perso-Arabic script; in India, it is written using the
Gurmukhi alphabet
Gurmukhī ( pa, ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ, , Shahmukhi alphabet, Shahmukhi: ) is an abugida developed from the Laṇḍā scripts, standardized and used by the second Sikh gurus, Sikh guru, Guru Angad (1504–1552). It is used by Punjabi Sikhs to ...
, based on the
Indic scripts
The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India ...
. Punjabi is unusual among the Indo-Aryan languages and the broader
Indo-European language family in its usage of
lexical tone
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey empha ...
.
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 Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...
. The name of the region was introduced by the
Turko-Persian conquerors of
South Asia and was a translation of the
Sanskrit name for the
region, ''Panchanada'', which means 'Land of the Five Rivers'.
''Panj'' is
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
with
Sanskrit ' (),
Greek ''pénte'' (), and
Lithuanian
Lithuanian may refer to:
* Lithuanians
* Lithuanian language
* The country of Lithuania
* Grand Duchy of Lithuania
* Culture of Lithuania
* Lithuanian cuisine
* Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...
''Penki'', all of which meaning 'five'; ''āb'' is cognate with Sanskrit ''áp'' () and with the of . The historical
Punjab region, now divided between India and Pakistan, is defined
physiographically by the
Indus River
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...
and these five
tributaries. One of the five, the
Beas River, is a tributary of another, the
Sutlej
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 Ind ...
.
Origin
Punjabi developed from
Prakrit languages and later (, 'deviated' or 'non-grammatical speech') 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: ) collectively.
Paishachi
Paishachi or Paisaci () is a largely unattested literary language of the middle kingdoms of India mentioned in Prakrit and Sanskrit grammars of antiquity. It is generally grouped with the Prakrits, with which it shares some linguistic similariti ...
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 Aparbhsha, a descendant of Prakrit. 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
Nath Yogi era from 9th to 14th century.
The language of these compositions is morphologically closer to
Shauraseni Apbhramsa, though vocabulary and rhythm is surcharged with extreme colloquialism and folklore.
Arabic and Persian influences
The Arabic and modern Persian influence in the historical Punjab region began with the late first millennium
Muslim conquests on the Indian subcontinent.
Many
Persian and
Arabic words were incorporated in Punjabi.
So Punjabi relies heavily on Persian and Arabic words which are used with a liberal approach to language. Many important words like , , , 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.
In fact, the sounds of , and have been borrowed from Persian. Later, it was
lexically influenced by
Portuguese (words like ),
Greek (words like ),
Chagatai (words like ),
Japanese (words like ), Chinese (words like ) and
English (words like ), though these influences have been minor in comparison to Persian and Arabic.
Note: In more formal contexts, hypercorrect
In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is non-standard use of language that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a mis ...
Sanskritized
Sanskritisation (or Sanskritization) is a term in sociology which refers to the process by which castes or tribes placed lower in the caste hierarchy seek 'upward' mobility by emulating the rituals and practices of the dominant castes or upper ...
versions of these words (ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ ''pradhān'' for ਪਰਧਾਨ ''pardhān'' and ਪਰਿਵਾਰ ''parivār'' for ਪਰਵਾਰ ''parvār'') may be used.
Modern times
Punjabi is spoken in many dialects in an area from
Delhi to
Islamabad. The
Majhi dialect has been adopted as standard Punjabi in
India and Pakistan for education, media etc. The Majhi dialect originated in the
Majha region of the Punjab. The Majha region consists of several eastern districts of
Pakistani Punjab
Punjab (; , ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest province by population. It shares land borders with the ...
and in India around
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 Majha r ...
,
Gurdaspur,
Pathankot and
Tarn Taran districts. The two most important cities in this area are Lahore and Amritsar.
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, 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 languages, 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 census, speakers of
Saraiki and
Hindko
Hindko (, romanized: , ) 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 provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pun ...
were no longer included in the total numbers for Punjabi, which explains the apparent decrease.
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
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 Majha r ...
,
Ludhiana,
Chandigarh,
Jalandhar,
Ambala,
Patiala,
Bathinda,
Hoshiarpur,
Firozpur and
Delhi.
In the 2011 census of India, 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 million.
Punjabi diaspora
Punjabi is also spoken as a
minority language in several other countries where
Punjabi people
The Punjabis ( Punjabi: ; ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ; romanised as Panjābīs), are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group associated with the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. The ...
have emigrated in large numbers, such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
There were 0.67 million native Punjabi speakers in Canada in 2021, 0.3 million
in the United Kingdom in 2011, 0.28 million in the United States and smaller numbers in other countries.
Major dialects
Standard Punjabi
''Standard Punjabi'' sometimes referred to as Majhi in India or simply 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 developed based on Standard Punjabi by the Sikh Gurus.
Standard Punjabi is spoken by the majority of the people in
Faisalabad,
Lahore,
Gujranwala
Gujranwala ( ur, , label=none; ) is a city and capital of Gujranwala Division located in Pakistan. It is also known as "City of Wrestlers" and is quite famous for its food. It is the 5th most populous city proper after Karachi, Lahore, Faisala ...
,
Sheikhupura
Sheikhupura ( pa, ; ur, ) also known as Qila Sheikhupura, is a city in the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. Founded by the Mughal Empire, Mughal Emperor Jahangir, Jehangir in 1607, Sheikhupura is the List of most populous citie ...
,
Kasur,
Sialkot,
Narowal,
Gujrat,
Okara,
Pakpattan,
Sahiwal,
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 Majha r ...
,
Tarn Taran Sahib,
Pathankot and
Gurdaspur Districts of the State of Punjab.
In
Pakistan, 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.
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 and peripheral vowels in terms of phonetic significance.
The peripheral vowels have
nasal analogues.
Note: for the tonal stops, refer to the next section about Tone.
The three retroflex consonants do not occur initially, and the nasals occur only as allophones of in clusters with velars and palatals. The well-established phoneme may be realised allophonically as the
voiceless retroflex fricative in learned clusters with retroflexes. The phonemic status of the fricatives varies with familiarity with
Hindustani
Hindustani may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Hindustan (another name of India)
* Hindustani language, an Indo-Aryan language, whose two official norms are Hindi and Urdu
* Fiji Hindi, a variety of Eastern Hindi spoken in Fiji, and ...
norms, more so with the Gurmukhi script, with the pairs , , , and systematically distinguished in educated speech. The
retroflex lateral
The voiced retroflex lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is l`.
The retroflex late ...
is most commonly analysed as an
approximant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a ...
as opposed to a
flap.
Tone
Unusually for an Indo-Aryan language, Punjabi distinguishes
lexical tones. In many words there is a choice of up to three tones, high-falling, low-rising, and level (neutral):
[Bailey, T.Grahame (1919), ''English-Punjabi Dictionary'', introduction.][Bowden, A.L. (2012)]
"Punjabi Tonemics and the Gurmukhi Script: A Preliminary Study"
Level tone is found in about 75% of words and is described by some as absence of tone.
There are also some words which are said to have rising tone in the first syllable and falling in the second. (Some writers describe this as a fourth tone.)
However, a recent acoustic study of six Punjabi speakers in the United States found no evidence of a separate falling tone following a medial consonant.
* / , ''móḍà'' (rising-falling), "shoulder"
It is considered that these tones arose when voiced aspirated consonants () lost their aspiration. At the beginning of a word, they became voiceless unaspirated consonants () followed by a high-falling tone; medially or finally they became voiced unaspirated consonants (), preceded by a low-rising tone. (The development of a high-falling tone apparently did not take place in every word, but only in those which historically had a long vowel.)
The presence of an
(although the
is now silent or very weakly pronounced except word-initially) word-finally (and sometimes medially) also often causes a rising tone before it, for example ' "tea".
The
Gurmukhi script which was developed in the 16th century has separate letters for voiced aspirated sounds, so it is thought that the change in pronunciation of the consonants and development of tones may have taken place since that time.
Some other languages in Pakistan have also been found to have tonal distinctions, including
Burushaski,
Gujari,
Hindko
Hindko (, romanized: , ) 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 provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pun ...
,
Kalami,
Shina
Shina may refer to:
* Shina language, an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
* Shina people, a Dardic ethnic group in Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan
People named Shina
* Shina Matsudo (born 1973), Japanese freestyle swimmer
* ...
, and
Torwali.
Grammar
Punjabi has a canonical word order of
SOV (subject–object–verb). It has
postpositions rather than prepositions.
Punjabi distinguishes two
genders
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
, two
numbers, and five
case
Case or CASE may refer to:
Containers
* Case (goods), a package of related merchandise
* Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component
* Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books
* Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to c ...
s of
direct
Direct may refer to:
Mathematics
* Directed set, in order theory
* Direct limit of (pre), sheaves
* Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces
Computing
* Direct access (disambiguation), a ...
,
oblique,
vocative,
ablative, and
locative
In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...
/
instrumental. The ablative occurs only in the singular, in free variation with oblique case plus ablative
postposition, and the locative/instrumental is usually confined to set
adverbial expressions.
Adjectives, when declinable, are marked for the gender, number, and case of the nouns they qualify.
There is also a
T-V distinction.
Upon the
inflectional
case
Case or CASE may refer to:
Containers
* Case (goods), a package of related merchandise
* Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component
* Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books
* Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to c ...
is built a system of
particles known as
postpositions, which parallel
English's
preposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s. It is their use with a noun or verb that is what necessitates the noun or verb taking the
oblique case, and it is with them that the locus of grammatical function or "case-marking" then lies.
The Punjabi
verbal system is largely structured around a combination of
aspect and
tense/
mood. Like the nominal system, the Punjabi verb takes a single inflectional suffix, and is often followed by successive layers of elements like auxiliary verbs and postpositions to the right of the
lexical base.
Vocabulary
Being an
Indo-Aryan language, the core vocabulary of Punjabi consists of
tadbhav words inherited from
Sanskrit.
It contains many loanwords from
Persian and
Arabic.
Writing systems
The Punjabi language is written in multiple scripts (a phenomenon known as
synchronic digraphia
In sociolinguistics, digraphia refers to the use of more than one writing system for the same language. Synchronic digraphia is the coexistence of two or more writing systems for the same language, while diachronic digraphia (or sequential digra ...
). Each of the major scripts currently in use is typically associated with a particular religious group, although the association is not absolute or exclusive.
In India, Punjabi
Sikhs
Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism (Sikhi), a monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ...
use
Gurmukhi, a script of the
Brahmic family, which has official status in the state of Punjab. In Pakistan, Punjabi Muslims use
Shahmukhi, a variant of the
Perso-Arabic script and closely related to the
Urdu alphabet. The
Punjabi Hindus in India had a preference for
Devanagari, another Brahmic script also used for Hindi, and in the first decades since independence raised objections to the uniform adoption of Gurmukhi in the state of Punjab, but most have now switched to Gurmukhi and so the use of Devanagari is rare. Often in literature, Pakistani Punjabi (written in Shahmukhi) is referred as Western-Punjabi (or West-Punjabi) and Indian Punjabi (written in Gurmukhi) is referred as Eastern-Punjabi (or East-Punjabi), although the underlying language is the same with a very slight shift in vocabulary towards Islamic and Sikh words respectively.
Historically, various local Brahmic scripts including
Laṇḍā and its descendants were also in use.
The
Punjabi Braille is used by the visually impaired.
Sample text
This sample text was taken from the Punjabi Wikipedia article on
Lahore.
Gurmukhi
ਲਹੌਰ ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨੀ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਰਾਜਧਾਨੀ ਹੈ। ਲੋਕ ਗਿਣਤੀ ਦੇ ਨਾਲ ਕਰਾਚੀ ਤੋਂ ਬਾਅਦ ਲਹੌਰ ਦੂਜਾ ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਵੱਡਾ ਸ਼ਹਿਰ ਹੈ। ਲਹੌਰ ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨ ਦਾ ਸਿਆਸੀ, ਰਹਤਲੀ ਅਤੇ ਪੜ੍ਹਾਈ ਦਾ ਗੜ੍ਹ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਇਸੇ ਲਈ ਇਹਨੂੰ ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨ ਦਾ ਦਿਲ ਵੀ ਕਿਹਾ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ। ਲਹੌਰ ਰਾਵੀ ਦਰਿਆ ਦੇ ਕੰਢੇ 'ਤੇ ਵਸਦਾ ਹੈ। ਇਸਦੀ ਲੋਕ ਗਿਣਤੀ ਇੱਕ ਕਰੋੜ ਦੇ ਨੇੜੇ ਹੈ।
Shahmukhi
Transliteration
''Lahaur Pākistānī Panjāb dī rājtā̀ni/dā dārul hakūmat ài. Lok giṇtī de nāḷ Karācī tõ bāad Lahaur dūjā sáb tõ vaḍḍā šáir ài. Lahaur Pākistān dā siāsī, rátalī ate paṛā̀ī dā gáṛ ài te ise laī ínū̃ Pākistān dā dil vī kihā jāndā ài. Lahaur Rāvī dariā de káṇḍè te vasdā ài. Isdī lok giṇtī ikk karoṛ de neṛe ài''.
IPA
Translation
Lahore is the capital city of Pakistani Punjab. After
Karachi, Lahore is the second largest city. Lahore is Pakistan's political, cultural, and educational hub, and so it is also said to be the heart of
Pakistan. Lahore lies on the bank of the
Ravi River. Its population is close to ten million people.
Literature development
Medieval period
*
Fariduddin Ganjshakar
Farīd al-Dīn Masʿūd Ganj-i-Shakar ( ; – 7 May 1266) was a 13th-century Punjabi Sunni Muslim preacher and mystic, who was one of the most revered and distinguished Muslim mystics of the medieval period. He is known reverentially as B ...
(1179–1266) is generally recognised as the first major poet of the Punjabi language.
[Shiv Kumar Batalvi](_blank)
sikh-heritage.co.uk. Roughly from the 12th century to the 19th century, many great Sufi saints and poets preached in the Punjabi language, the most prominent being
Bulleh Shah. Punjabi Sufi poetry also developed under
Shah Hussain (1538–1599),
Sultan Bahu (1630–1691),
Shah Sharaf
Shah Sharaf (1640–1724) is a famous Punjabi Sufi Poet who wrote his work in Kafi style. He also wrote Dohras, and Shuturnama. Among the people whom his poetry influenced Bulleh Shah is the most popular.
See also
* Baba Bulleh Shah
*Punjabi lan ...
(1640–1724), Ali Haider (1690–1785),
Waris Shah (1722–1798),
Saleh Muhammad Safoori
Saleh Muhammad Safoori Miana ( pa, ميانا صالح محمد الصفوري) was a Sufi poet from southern Punjab. Saleh was the only son of Safoora Qadiriyya, a local saint.
He compiled the poetic collection ''Kulliyat-e-Saleh Muhammad Saf ...
(1747–1826),
Mian Muhammad Baksh (1830–1907) and
Khwaja Ghulam Farid (1845–1901).
*The
Sikh
Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...
religion originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region and Punjabi is the predominant language spoken by Sikhs. 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.
The ''
Janamsakhis'', stories on the life and legend of
Guru Nanak (1469–1539), are early examples of Punjabi prose literature.
*The Punjabi language is famous for its rich literature of
''qisse'', most of which are about love, passion, betrayal, sacrifice, social values and a common man's revolt against a larger system. 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 (c. 1735–c. 1843), and ''Qissa Puran Bhagat'' by
Qadaryar (1802–1892).
*Heroic ballads known as ''
Vaar'' enjoy a rich oral tradition in Punjabi. Famous ''Vaars'' are ''Chandi di Var'' (1666–1708), ''Nadir Shah Di Vaar'' by Najabat and the ''Jangnama'' of
Shah Mohammad (1780–1862).
Modern period
The Victorian novel, Elizabethan drama, free verse and
Modernism entered Punjabi literature through the introduction of British education during the Raj.
Nanak Singh
Nanak Singh, (b. 4 July 1897 as Hans Raj – 28 December 1971), was an Indian poet, songwriter, and novelist of the Punjabi language. His literary works in support of India's independence movement led the British to arrest him. He published nov ...
(1897–1971), Vir Singh, Ishwar Nanda,
Amrita Pritam (1919–2005),
Puran Singh (1881–1931),
Dhani Ram Chatrik (1876–1957),
Diwan Singh
Diwan Singh Kalepani (1894–1944) was a Punjabi poet. He participated in the Indian freedom movement and the Non-cooperation movement in the 1920s.Singh, Atamjit. "Twentieth Century Punjabi Literature" (249-288) in Handbook of Twentieth Century L ...
(1897–1944) and
Ustad Daman (1911–1984),
Mohan Singh
Mohan Singh (4 March 1945 – 22 September 2013) was an Indian politician from the Samajwadi Party. He was elected three times to the Lok Sabha from Deoria in Uttar Pradesh. He was the General Secretary of the Samajwadi Party. He died on 22 ...
(1905–78) and
Shareef Kunjahi
Sharif Kunjahi ( pa, (Shahmukhi)) (1914 – 2007) was a leading writer and poet of Punjabi. He was among the first faculty members of the Department of Punjabi Language at University of Punjab in the 1970s and contributed to Punjabi literatu ...
are some legendary Punjabi writers of this period.
After independence of Pakistan and India Najm Hossein Syed, Fakhar Zaman and Afzal Ahsan Randhawa,
Shafqat Tanvir Mirza
Shafqat Tanvir Mirza – known by many as STM (6 February 1932 – 20 November 2012) was a Pakistani writer and a journalist. He was also a journalist union leader and was sent to jail twice because of his activities on behalf of newspapers ...
,
Ahmad Salim, and
Najm Hosain Syed
Najm Hosain Syed (born 1935) is a Pakistani writer of Punjabi language. He has written poetry and plays in the Punjabi language as well as literary criticism on Punjabi literature in his ''Recurrent Patterns in Punjabi Poetry'' (1968).
Early li ...
,
Munir Niazi,
Ali Arshad Mir, Pir Hadi Abdul Mannan enriched Punjabi literature in Pakistan, whereas
Jaswant Singh Kanwal
Jaswant Singh Kanwal (27 June 1919 – 1 February 2020) was an Indian novelist, short story writer and essayist of the Punjabi language. He was born in the village of Dhudike, Moga District, Punjab, India. As a young teenager he left school and ...
(1919–2020),
Amrita Pritam (1919–2005),
Jaswant Singh Rahi
Jaswant Singh Rahi ( pa, ਜਸਵੰਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਰਾਹੀ; 16 March 1913 – 11 April 1996) was a Punjabi poet, writer, communist and freedom fighter. He was born in and lived his whole life in Dera Baba Nanak town of Gurdaspur ...
(1930–1996),
Shiv Kumar Batalvi (1936–1973),
Surjit Patar
Surjit Patar is a Punjabi language writer and poet of Punjab, India. His poems enjoy immense popularity with the general public and have won high acclaim from critics.
Biography
Patar hails from village Pattar ( pa, ਪੱਤੜ) Kalan in Jala ...
(1944–) and
Pash
Pash (9 September 1950 – 23 March 1988) was the pen name of Avtar Singh Sandhu, one of the major poets in the Punjabi literature of the 1970s. He was killed by extremists on 23 March 1988. His strongly left-wing views were reflected in his ...
(1950–1988) are some of the more prominent poets and writers from India.
Status
Despite Punjabi's rich literary history, it was not until 1947 that it would be recognised as an official language. Previous governments in the area of the Punjab had favoured Persian, Hindustani, or even earlier standardised versions of local registers as the language of the court or government. After the annexation of the
Sikh Empire by the
British East India Company following the
Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849, the British policy of establishing a uniform language for administration was expanded into the Punjab. The British Empire employed Urdu in its administration of North-Central and Northwestern India, while in the North-East of India,
Bengali language was used as the language of administration. Despite its lack of official sanction, the Punjabi language continued to flourish as an instrument of cultural production, with rich literary traditions continuing until modern times. The Sikh religion, with its
Gurmukhi script, played a special role in standardising and providing education in the language via
Gurdwaras, while writers of all religions continued to produce poetry, prose, and literature in the language.
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 also has second language official status in
Delhi along with
Urdu, and in
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. 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 languages in Pakistan are
Urdu and
English.
In Pakistan
When
Pakistan was created in 1947, despite Punjabi being the majority language in
West Pakistan and
Bengali the majority in
East Pakistan and
Pakistan as whole,
English and
Urdu were chosen as the national languages. The selection of Urdu was due to its association with
South Asian Muslim nationalism and because the leaders of the new nation wanted a unifying national language instead of promoting one ethnic group's language over another. Broadcasting in Punjabi language by
Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation
Radio Pakistan serves as the national public broadcaster for radio in Pakistan. Although some local stations predate Radio Pakistan's founding, it is the oldest existing broadcasting network in Pakistan. The network was established on 14 August ...
decreased on TV and radio after 1947. Article 251 of the
Constitution of Pakistan
The Constitution of Pakistan ( ur, ), also known as the 1973 Constitution, is the supreme law of Pakistan. Drafted by the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, with additional assistance from the country's Pakistani political parties, opposition ...
declares that these two languages would be the only official languages at the national level, while provincial governments would be allowed to make provisions for the use of other languages. However, in the 1950s the constitution was amended to include the
Bengali language. Eventually, Punjabi was granted status as a provincial language in Punjab Province, while the
Sindhi language was given official status in 1972 after
1972 Language violence in Sindh
1972 Language violence in Sindh occurred starting on 7 July 1972 when the Sindh Assembly passed The Sindhi Teaching, Promotion and Use of Sindhi Language Bill, 1972 which established Sindhi language as the sole official language of the province re ...
.
Despite gaining official recognition at the provincial level, Punjabi is not a language of instruction for primary or secondary school students in Punjab Province (unlike Sindhi and Pashto in other provinces).
Pupils in secondary schools can choose the language as an elective, while Punjabi instruction or study remains rare in higher education. One notable example is the teaching of Punjabi language and literature by the
University of the Punjab in Lahore which began in 1970 with the establishment of its Punjabi Department.
In the cultural sphere, there are many books, plays, and songs being written or produced in the Punjabi-language in Pakistan. Until the 1970s, there were a large number of Punjabi-language films being produced by the Lollywood film industry, however since then Urdu has become a much more dominant language in film production. Additionally, television channels in Punjab Province (centred on the Lahore area) are broadcast in Urdu. The preeminence of Urdu in both broadcasting and the
Lollywood film industry is seen by critics as being detrimental to the health of the language.
The use of Urdu and English as the near exclusive languages of broadcasting, the public sector, and formal education have led some to fear that Punjabi in Pakistan is being relegated to a low-status language and that it is being denied an environment where it can flourish. Several prominent educational leaders, researchers, and social commentators have echoed the opinion that the intentional promotion of Urdu and the continued denial of any official sanction or recognition of the Punjabi language amounts to a process of "Urdu-isation" that is detrimental to the health of the Punjabi language
In August 2015, the Pakistan Academy of Letters, International Writer's Council (IWC) and World Punjabi Congress (WPC) organised the ''Khawaja Farid Conference'' and demanded that a Punjabi-language university should be established in
Lahore and that Punjabi language should be declared as the medium of instruction at the primary level.
In September 2015, a case was filed in
Supreme Court of Pakistan against
Government of Punjab, Pakistan as it did not take any step to implement the Punjabi language in the province.
Additionally, several thousand Punjabis gather in
Lahore every year on
International Mother Language Day. Thinktanks, political organisations, cultural projects, and individuals also demand authorities at the national and provincial level to promote the use of the language in the public and official spheres.
In India
At the federal level, Punjabi has official status via the
Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution,
earned after the
Punjabi Suba movement of the 1950s. At the state level, Punjabi is the sole official language of the state of Punjab, while it has secondary official status in the states of Haryana and Delhi. In 2012, it was also made additional official language of
West Bengal in areas where the population exceeds 10% of a particular block, sub-division or district.
Both union and state laws specify the use of Punjabi in the field of education. The state of Punjab uses the Three Language Formula, and Punjabi is required to be either the medium of instruction, or one of the three languages learnt in all schools in Punjab. Punjabi is also a compulsory language in Haryana, and other states with a significant Punjabi speaking minority are required to offer Punjabi medium education.
There are vibrant Punjabi language movie and news industries in India, however Punjabi serials have had a much smaller presence within the last few decades in television due to market forces.
Despite Punjabi having far greater official recognition in India, where the Punjabi language is officially admitted in all necessary social functions, while in Pakistan it is used only in a few radio and TV programs, attitudes of the English-educated elite towards the language are ambivalent as they are in neighbouring Pakistan.
There are also claims of state apathy towards the language in non-Punjabi majority areas like Haryana and Delhi.
Advocacy
*
Punjabi University was established on 30 April 1962, and is only the second university in the world to be named after a language, after
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
. The Research Centre for Punjabi Language Technology, Punjabi University, Patiala
is working for development of core technologies for Punjabi, Digitisation of basic materials, online Punjabi teaching, developing software for office use in Punjabi, providing common platform to Punjabi cyber community.
Punjabipedia
Punjabipedia is a Punjabi language encyclopedia on created by Punjabi University
Punjabi University is a collegiate state public university located in Patiala, Punjab, India. It was established on 30 April 1962 and is only the second univer ...
, an online encyclopaedia was also launched by Patiala university in 2014.
*
The Dhahan Prize The Dhahan Prize is an annual prize awarded by Canada-India education society for excellence in Punjabi fiction. The prize is given to three books of fiction, written in either Gurmukhi or Shahmukhi script of Punjabi. The prize is named after Canad ...
was created to award literary works produced in Punjabi around the world. The Prize encourages new writing by awarding $25,000 CDN annually to one "best book of fiction" published in either of the two Punjabi scripts, Gurmukhi or Shahmukhi. Two second prizes of $5,000 CDN are also awarded, with the provision that both scripts are represented among the three winners. The Dhahan Prize is awarded by Canada India Education Society (CIES).
Governmental academies and institutes
The Punjabi Sahit academy,
Ludhiana, established in 1954 is supported by the
Punjab state government and works exclusively for promotion of the Punjabi language, as does the Punjabi academy in
Delhi. The Jammu and Kashmir academy of art, culture and literature in
Jammu and Kashmir UT, India works for Punjabi and other regional languages like Urdu, Dogri, Gojri etc. Institutions in neighbouring states as well as in
Lahore, Pakistan
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 city. ...
also advocate for the language.
File:Punjabi academy ludhiana.jpeg, Punjabi Sahit Academy, Ludhiana, 1954
File:Punjabi academy delhi.jpg, Punjabi Academy, Delhi, 1981–1982
File:Jammu and Kashmir academy of art culture and literature.jpg, Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Literature
File:Punjab institute of language art and culture.jpeg, Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture, Lahore, 2004
Software
*Software is available for the Punjabi language on almost all platforms. This software is mainly in the
Gurmukhi script. Nowadays, nearly all Punjabi newspapers, magazines, journals, and periodicals are composed on computers via various Punjabi software programmes, the most widespread of which is
InPage Desktop Publishing package.
Microsoft has included Punjabi language support in all the new versions of Windows and both
Windows Vista,
Microsoft Office 2007, 2010 and 2013, are available in Punjabi through the
Language Interface Pack support. Most
Linux Desktop distributions allow the easy installation of Punjabi support and translations as well.
Apple implemented the Punjabi language keyboard across
Mobile devices.
Google also provides many applications in Punjabi, like
Google Search,
Google Translate and Google Punjabi Input Tools.
Gallery
File:Guru Granth Sahib By Bhai Pratap Singh Giani.jpg, Guru Granth Sahib in Gurmukhi
File:Punjabi Alphabet.jpg, Punjabi Gurmukhi script
File:Shahmukhi1.JPG, Punjabi Shahmukhi script
File:Bhulay Shah.jpg, Bulleh Shah poetry in Punjabi (Shahmukhi script)
File:Munir niazi.gif, Munir Niazi poetry in Punjabi (Shahmukhi script)
File:Das Buch der Schrift (Faulmann) 138.jpg, Gurmukhi alphabet
File:Punjabi language sign board at hanumangarh rajasthan india.jpeg, A sign board in Punjabi language along with Hindi at Hanumangarh, Rajasthan, India
See also
*
Punjabi Language Movement
*
Languages of Pakistan
*
Languages of India
*
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. ...
*
List of Punjabi-language newspapers
*
Punjabi cinema
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
* .
* .
*
* .
*.
*.
*.
Further reading
* Bhatia, Tej. 1993 and 2010. ''Punjabi : a cognitive-descriptive grammar''. London: Routledge. Series: Descriptive grammars.
* Gill H.S.
arjit Singhand Gleason, H.A. 1969. A reference grammar of Punjabi. Revised edition. Patiala, Punjab, India: Languages Department, Punjab University.
* Chopra, R. M., Perso-Arabic Words in Punjabi, 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
*
English to Punjabi Dictionary
{{Authority control
Punjab
Fusional languages
Official languages of India
Languages of Pakistan
Languages officially written in Indic scripts
Punjabi culture
Subject–object–verb languages
Tonal languages in non-tonal families
Languages with own distinct writing systems
Indo-Aryan languages
Sahitya Akademi recognised languages