Punjabi language

Punjabi
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)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northwestern Punjabi; ; ; ;
Early forms	Prakrit (debated) Apabhraṃśa (debated) Old Punjabi Middle Punjabi Early Modern Punjabi ; ; ; ;
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; Haryana (additional); Delhi (additional); West Bengal (additional); ;
Regulated by	Pakistan: Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture; India: Department of Languages;
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.
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Punjabi (/pʌnˈdʒɑːbi/ pun-JAH-bee;^[14] Shahmukhi: پنجابی; Gurmukhi: ਪੰਜਾਬੀ, Punjabi: [pəɲˈdʒab̆.bi] ^ⓘ^[15]), sometimes spelled Panjabi,^[d] 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 and 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,^[e] 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.

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.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

^ Singh, Sikander (April 2019). "The Origin Theories of Punjabi Language: A Context of Historiography of Punjabi Language". International Journal of Sikh Studies.
^ Haldar, Gopal (2000). Languages of India. New Delhi: National Book Trust, India. p. 149. ISBN 9788123729367. The age of Old Punjabi: up to 1600 A.D. […] It is said that evidence of Old Punjabi can be found in the Granth Sahib.
^ Cite error: The named reference Bhatia-2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Christopher Shackle; Arvind Mandair (2013). "0.2.1 – Form". Teachings of the Sikh Gurus : selections from the Scriptures (First ed.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 9781136451089. Surpassing them all in the frequent subtlety of his linguistic choices, including the use of dialect forms as well as of frequent loanwords from Sanskrit and Persian, Guru Nanak combined this poetic language of the Sants with his native Old Punjabi. It is this mixture of Old Punjabi and Old Hindi which constitutes the core idiom of all the earlier Gurus.
^ Frawley, William (2003). International encyclopedia of linguistics (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 423. ISBN 9780195139778.
^ Austin, Peter (2008). One thousand languages : living, endangered, and lost. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 115. ISBN 9780520255609.
^ Braj B. Kachru; Yamuna Kachru; S. N. Sridhar (2008). Language in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 411. ISBN 9781139465502.
^ "NCLM 52nd Report" (PDF). NCLM. 15 November 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 November 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
^ "Punjab mandates all signage in Punjabi, in Gurmukhi script". The Hindu. 21 February 2020. Archived from the original on 22 February 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
^ "All milestones, signboards in Haryana to bear info in English, Hindi and Punjabi: Education Minister". The Indian Express. 3 March 2020. Archived from the original on 14 March 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
^ "Punjabi, Urdu made official languages in Delhi". The Times of India. 25 June 2003. Archived from the original on 14 March 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
^ "Multi-lingual Bengal". The Telegraph. 11 December 2012. Archived from the original on 25 March 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
^ India, Tribune (19 August 2020). "Punjabi matric exam on Aug 26". The Tribune. Archived from the original on 19 August 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
^ Mangat Rai Bhardwaj (2016). Panjabi: A Comprehensive Grammar. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-138-79385-9. LCCN 2015042069. OCLC 948602857. OL 35828315M. Wikidata Q23831241.
^ "The World Factbook - WORLD". CIA.

[Singh-2019-2] Singh, Sikander (April 2019). "The Origin Theories of Punjabi Language: A Context of Historiography of Punjabi Language". International Journal of Sikh Studies.

[Languages_of_India-4] Haldar, Gopal (2000). Languages of India. New Delhi: National Book Trust, India. p. 149. ISBN 9788123729367. The age of Old Punjabi: up to 1600 A.D. […] It is said that evidence of Old Punjabi can be found in the Granth Sahib.

[Bhatia-2013-5] Cite error: The named reference Bhatia-2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Routledge-6] Christopher Shackle; Arvind Mandair (2013). "0.2.1 – Form". Teachings of the Sikh Gurus : selections from the Scriptures (First ed.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 9781136451089. Surpassing them all in the frequent subtlety of his linguistic choices, including the use of dialect forms as well as of frequent loanwords from Sanskrit and Persian, Guru Nanak combined this poetic language of the Sants with his native Old Punjabi. It is this mixture of Old Punjabi and Old Hindi which constitutes the core idiom of all the earlier Gurus.

[Oxford_University_Press-7] Frawley, William (2003). International encyclopedia of linguistics (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 423. ISBN 9780195139778.

[Austin-2008-8] Austin, Peter (2008). One thousand languages : living, endangered, and lost. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 115. ISBN 9780520255609.

[Language_in_South_Asia-9] Braj B. Kachru; Yamuna Kachru; S. N. Sridhar (2008). Language in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 411. ISBN 9781139465502.

[10] "NCLM 52nd Report" (PDF). NCLM. 15 November 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 November 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2020.

[11] "Punjab mandates all signage in Punjabi, in Gurmukhi script". The Hindu. 21 February 2020. Archived from the original on 22 February 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2020.

[12] "All milestones, signboards in Haryana to bear info in English, Hindi and Punjabi: Education Minister". The Indian Express. 3 March 2020. Archived from the original on 14 March 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2020.

[13] "Punjabi, Urdu made official languages in Delhi". The Times of India. 25 June 2003. Archived from the original on 14 March 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2020.

[The_Telegraph-2012-14] "Multi-lingual Bengal". The Telegraph. 11 December 2012. Archived from the original on 25 March 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2018.

[16] India, Tribune (19 August 2020). "Punjabi matric exam on Aug 26". The Tribune. Archived from the original on 19 August 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2020.

[17] Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh

[18] Mangat Rai Bhardwaj (2016). Panjabi: A Comprehensive Grammar. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-138-79385-9. LCCN 2015042069. OCLC 948602857. OL 35828315M. Wikidata Q23831241.

[20] "The World Factbook - WORLD". CIA.

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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.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.