Punjabi language

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Punjabi redirects here. For other uses, see Punjabi (disambiguation).
Punjabi
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی Pañjābī
Spoken in: Pakistan (80 million speakers)
India (30 million speakers)
UK, USA, Canada and other countries with Punjabi migrants 
Region: Punjab
Total speakers: Western: 61-62 million
Eastern: 28 million
Siraiki: 14 million
Total: 104 million 
Ranking: 10-14
Language family: Indo-European
 Indo-Iranian
  Indo-Aryan
   Punjabi 
Writing system: Gurmukhi, Shahmukhi 
Official status
Official language of: Punjab (India), Haryana, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Delhi
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: pa
ISO 639-2: pan
ISO 639-3: variously:
pan — Punjabi (Eastern)
pnb — Punjabi (Western)
pmu — Punjabi (Mirpuri)
lah — Lahndi
Indic script
 This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Punjabi (also Panjabi; ਪੰਜਾਬੀ in Gurmukhī, پنجابی in Shāhmukhī, Pañjābī in transliteration) is the language of the Punjabi people and the Punjab regions of India and Pakistan.

It is an Indo-European language within the Indic branch of the Indo-Iranian subfamily. Unusually for an Indo-European language, Punjabi is tonal; the tones arose as a reinterpretation of different consonant series in terms of pitch. In terms of morphological complexity, it is an agglutinative language[1] (also very unusual for an Indo-European language, most of which are inflecting) and words are usually ordered 'Subject Object Verb'.

The Punjabi people suffered a split between India and Pakistan during the Partition of 1947. Punjabi is also one of the several languages spoken in the Indian subcontinent.

Contents

[edit] Dialects and geographic distribution

Punjabi is the official language of the Indian state of Punjab and the shared state capital Chandigarh. It is one of the second official languages of Delhi and Haryana.[2] It is also spoken in neighbouring areas such as Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Punjabi is the predominantly spoken language in the Punjab province of Pakistan (and the most widely spoken language in Pakistan according to the CIA factbook), although it has no official status there, and both Urdu and English are preferred languages of the elite.

Punjabi is also spoken as a minority language in several other countries where Punjabis have emigrated in large numbers such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom (where it is the second most commonly used language[3]) and Canada (where it is the fifth most commonly used language[4]). Punjabi is the preferred language of the Sikhs because much of their religious literature is written in a similar language. It is the usual language of Bhangra music, which has recently gained wide popularity both in South Asia and abroad.

There are many dialects of Punjabi and they all form part of a dialect continuum, merging with Sindhi and related languages in Pakistan, and Hindustani in India. The main dialects of Punjabi are Majhi, Doabi, Malwai and Powadhi in India, and Pothohari, Lahndi and Multani in Pakistan. Majhi is the standard written form of Punjabi and is the dialect used in both Amritsar and Lahore.

The Punjabi University, Patiala, lists the following as dialects of Punjabi:[5]

  • Multani
  • Bhawalpuri
  • Thalochri
  • Thali
  • Bherochi
  • Amritsar-Lahore
  • Kachi
  • Awankari
  • Dhani
  • Ghebi
  • Hindko
  • Swaen
  • Chacchi
  • Pothohari
  • Punchi

jatt

Some of these dialects, such as Dogri, Siraiki and Hindko are sometimes considered separate languages, and are classified in different zones or divisions of Indo-Aryan:

As classified in SIL Ethnologue:

└Indo-Aryan
 └Northern zone
  └Western Pahari
   └Dogri [dgo]
 └Central zone
  └Eastern Punjabi [pan]
 └Northwestern zone
   └Lahnda [lah]
    ├Jakati [jat]
    ├Mirpur Punjabi [pmu]
    ├Northern Hindko [hno]
    ├Pahari-Potwari [phr]
    ├Siraiki [skr]
    ├Southern Hindko [hnd]
    └Western Punjabi [pnb]

[edit] Western and Eastern Punjabi

Many sources subdivide the Punjabi language into Western Punjabi or Lahndi (ਲਹਿੰਦੀ), and Eastern Punjabi. They tend to do so based on GA Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India. The decision to divide the language has been controversial. The exact division of the language and even the legitimacy of such a division is disputed.

The dialect spoken in central Punjab — on both the Indian and Pakistani side — is Majhi. Grierson defined Western Punjabi as being west of a line running north-south from Montgomery and Gujranwala districts. This is well within present day Pakistan.[6] Contrary to this, Ethnologue has come to classify Lahndi as the dialect of Punjabi spoken in all of Pakistan.

[edit] Vocabulary

Modern Punjabi vocabulary has been influenced by other languages, including Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit and English.

Much like English, Punjabi has moved around the world and developed local forms by integrating local vocabulary. While most loanwords come from Urdu, Hindi, Persian and English, Punjabi emigrants around the world have integrated terms from such languages as Spanish and Dutch. A distinctive "Diaspora Punjabi" is thus emerging. As there is no formal consensus over vocabulary and spelling in Punjabi, it is likely that Diaspora Punjabi will increasingly deviate from the forms found on the Indian Subcontinent in the future.[citation needed]

[edit] Writing system

There are several different scripts used for writing the Punjabi language, depending on the region and the dialect spoken, as well as the religion of the speaker. The script used for writing Punjabi in the Punjab province of Pakistan is known as Shahmukhi (from the mouth of the Kings) which is a modified version of Persian-Nasta'liq script. Sikhs and others in the Indian state of Punjab tend to use the Gurmukhī (from the mouth of the Gurus) script. Hindus, and those living in neighbouring states such as Haryana and Himachal Pradesh sometimes use the Devanāgarī script. Gurmukhī and Shahmukhi scripts are the most commonly used for writing Punjabi and are considered the official scripts of the language.

[edit] Examples

English Gurmukhi Shahmukhi Transliteration Notes
Hello ਸਤਿ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਅਕਾਲ

ਨਮਸਤੇ/ਨਮਸਕਾਰ

ਅੱਸਲਾਮ ਅਲੈਕਮ

 ست سری اکال

نمستے/نمسکار

السلام علیکم

 Sat Srī Akāl (Sikh)

Namastē/Namaskār (Hindu)

As'salām Alaikam (Muslim)

 The greeting used depends on the religion of the speaker
and the person being spoken to.
Note there is a short and long form of hello for Sikh.
Yes (Informal) ਹਾਂ ہاں Hān
Yes (Formal) ਹਾਂ ਜੀ ہاں جی Hān Jī
No (Informal) ਨਹੀਂ نہیں Nāhī
No (Formal) ਨਹੀਂ ਜੀ نہیں جی Nahī Jī
My name is ___. ਮੇਰਾ ਨਾਂ ___ ਹੈ । میرا نا ___ ہے۔ Mērā Nām ___ ah
My ਮੇਰਾ । میرا Mērā

[edit] Notable authors

See List of Punjabi authors.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bhatia, T. "Punjabi: A Cognitive-Descriptive Grammar", 1993. p 279. ISBN 0-415-00320-2
  2. ^ The Times of India - "Punjabi, Urdu made official languages in Delhi" 25 June 2003
  3. ^ "Punjabi Community". The United Kingdom Parliament.
  4. ^ Canadian Census Data (2001)
  5. ^ Advanced Centre for Technical Development of Punjabi Language, Literature and Culture
  6. ^ Masica, CP, "The Indo-Aryan Languages", ISBN 0-521-29944-6, p 20

Bhatia, Tej K. Punjabi. Facts about the world's languages: An encyclopedia of the world's major languages, past and present. Ed. Jane Garry, and Carl Rubino: New England Publishing Associates, 2001.

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