| Punjabi languages | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Punjab,Jammu and Kashmir,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Delhi,Haryana,Rajasthan andHimachal Pradesh |
| Ethnicity | Punjabis |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
Early form | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | lahn1241 |
| Part ofa series on |
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ThePunjabi dialects and languages orGreater Panjabic are aseries of dialects andIndo-Aryan languages spoken around thePunjab region of Pakistan and India with varying degrees of official recognition.[7] They have sometimes been referred to as theGreater Punjabi macrolanguage.[8] Punjabi may also be considered as a pluricentric language with more than one standard variety.[9]
Punjabi is a language spoken primarily in the Punjab region, which is divided between India and Pakistan. It is also spoken by Punjabi diaspora communities around the world. Punjabi itself has several dialects that can vary based on geographical, cultural, and historical factors.
The varieties of "Greater Punjabi" have a number of characteristics in common, for example the preservation of thePrakrit double consonants in stressed syllables.[10] Nevertheless, there is disagreement on whether they form part of a singlelanguage group, with some proposed classifications placing them all within the Northwestern zone ofIndo-Aryan, while others reserving this only for the western varieties, and assigning the eastern ones to the Central zone alongsideHindi.[11]
The literary languages that have developed on the basis of dialects of this area are StandardPunjabi in eastern and central Punjab,Saraiki in the southwest, andPahari-Pothwari in the northwest.[12] A distinction is usually made betweenPunjabi in the east and the diverse group of "Lahnda" in the west. "Lahnda" typically subsumes the Saraiki and Hindko varieties, withJhangvi andShahpuri intermediate between the two groups. Pothwari shares features with both Lahnda and Punjabi.[13]
Punjabi, Hindko and Saraiki are listed separately in the census enumerations of Pakistan.[14] According to the2017 Census of Pakistan, there are 80,536,390 Punjabi speakers; 25,324,637 Saraiki speakers and 5,065,879 Hindko speakers.[15] Saraiki was added to the census in 1981, and Hindko was added in 2017, prior to which both were represented by Lahnda language. In areas such asGujar Khan andRawalpindi where Pothwari is a spoken language,[16] speakers significantly selected 'Punjabi" instead of "Other" in all previous census enumeration.[17]
In a statistical survey carried about by a proxy of theGovernment of Azad Kashmir, most speakers ofAzad Kashmir spoke a variety ofPahari-Pothwari, whilePunjabi attained a plurality in theBhimber district.[18] Some Pothwari speakers in Azad Kashmir and thePothohar refer to their mother tongue as Punjabi, hence those choosing 'Punjabi' may be referring to 'Pothwari/Pahari'.[19]
In India, Punjabi is listed as a constitutional language and is counted in the census returns. According to the2011 Census of India, there are 33,124,726 Punjabi speakers which includes the varieties ofBagri (1,656,588 speakers)Bilaspuri (295,805 speakers) andBhateali (23,970 speakers).[20] Bagri is spoken in parts of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. Bilaspuri and Bhateali are spoken in Himachal Pradesh. The status of Bagri is split between Punjabi and Rajasthani in the census returns with options available under Punjabi and Rajasthani.[21]Gusain (1991) places Bagri as a Rajasthani dialect.[22] Similarly, the identities of Bilaspuri and Bhateali are also split, in their case, between Punjabi andDogri.[23][24]
Lahnda languages are only enumerated in the census returns in India with 108,791 speakers listed in the 2011 census. The varieties listed under Lahnda are Bahawalpuri (29,253 speakers); Multani which is described as Hindi Multani (61,722 speakers) and unclassified (17,816 speakers).[25] Punchi is spoken in Jammu. The language variety is listed under Lahnda as it, together with Bahwalpuri and Multani satisfies the "criterion of 10,000 or more speakers at the all India level".[26]
Historically, Dogri was considered to be a dialect of Punjabi spoken primarily inJammu.[27] In the 1941 Census,Dogri was listed under Punjabi.[28] Since 2003, Dogri is listed as an independent language in the constitution of India.[29] According to the 2011 Census - India, there are 2,596,767 Dogri speakers. Similar to Dogri, theKangri language spoken inHimachal Pradesh was regarded as a Punjabi dialect but since 1971, it has been reclassified under Hindi.[30] There were 1,117,342 Kangri speakers listed in the 2011 Census- India. Despite the independent status of Dogri and reclassification of Kangri, both languages are claimed to fall within Punjabi by some writers.[31][32] Others place Dogri and Kangri within the Western Pahari group.[33] Eberle et al. (2020) believe Dogri and Kangri are related to Eastern Punjabi and place these languages in a group of related languages descended from an intermediate division ofIndo-Aryan languages.[34]
Spoken inRawalpindi and much ofAzad Jammu and Kashmir.
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.
As an independent language Punjabi has gone through the following three stages of development: Old Punjabi (10th to 16th century). Medieval Punjabi (16th to 19th century), and Modern Punjabi (19th century to Present).
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.