Punjabi language facts for kids

Punjabi
	ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی
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Pronunciation	/pʌnˈdʒɑːbi/
Native to	Punjab region
Ethnicity	Punjabis
Native speakers	Eastern Punjabi: 34 million (2011); Western Punjabi: 93 million (2015) (date missing)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northwestern Punjabi; ; ; ;
Standard forms	Majhi
Dialects	See Punjabi dialects
Writing system	Gurmukhi; Perso-Arabic (Shahmukhi); Punjabi Braille; Laṇḍā (historical)
Official status
Official language in	Pakistan (Punjab); India (Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh)
Linguasphere	59-AAF-e
	Areas of the Indian Subcontinent where Punjabi is natively spoken
	This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
	This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language. It is the first language of about 130 million people, and is the 10th most spoken language in the world. Most of the people who speak this language live in the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It is also widely spoken in Haryana, India Himachal Pradesh, India and Delhi, India. It is spoken by the majority of the population of Pakistan.

Punjabi developed from the ancient language of Sanskrit just like many other modern Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Urdu and Marathi. Punjabi is unusual among this group for being a tonal language.

Punjabi is written in two different scripts, called Gurmukhī and Shahmukhī. Punjabi is the main language spoken by the Sikhs. Most parts of the Guru Granth Sahib use the Punjabi language written in Gurmukhī, 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 literature.

Dialects

Dialects of Punjabi

Punjabi has many dialects. The dialects are similar enough to each other that speakers can understand most of the dialects that are related to theirs. In India, the main dialects of Punjabi are: Majhi, Doabi, Malwi and Pwadhi. In Pakistan, the main dialects are Majhi, "Shahpuri", "Jhangvi", "Dhanni", Pothohari and Hindko.

Majhi is Punjabi's standard dialect because it forms the standard for writing in Punjabi. It is spoken in the centre of Punjab, including the districts of Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Okara, Nankana Sahib, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Narowal, Gujrat, Pakpattan, Hafizabad and Mandi Bahauddin. In India it is spoken in Amritsar, Tarn Taran Sahib and Gurdaspur districts.

Other dialects of Punjabi include Pahari, Rachnavi, Chenavari, Chhachi, Jandali, Ghebi. The Saraiki, spoken in southern Punjab, and Dogri, spoken in Kashmir, are closely related to Punjabi. The relation of several dialects to languages other than Punjabi creates problems in assigning them to one or another "language".

Distribution

Over 93% of people who speak Punjabi as their first language live in Pakistan and India. It is the most widely spoken native language in Pakistan. It is spoken as a first language by over 44% of Pakistanis. There were 76 million Punjabi speakers in Pakistan in 2008. In India, Punjabi is spoken as a native language by 3% of the population. This was about 33 million in 2011. It is the official language of the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.

**Census history of Punjabi speakers in Pakistan**
Year	Population of Pakistan	Percentage	Punjabi speakers
1951	33,740,167	57.08%	22,632,905
1961	42,880,378	56.39%	28,468,282
1972	65,309,340	56.11%	43,176,004
1981	84,253,644	48.17%	40,584,980
1998	132,352,279	44.15%	58,433,431

**Census history of Punjabi speakers in India**
Year	Population of India	Punjabi speakers in India	Percentage
1971	548,159,652	14,108,443	2.57%
1981	665,287,849	19,611,199	2.95%
1991	838,583,988	23,378,744	2.79%
2001	1,028,610,328	29,102,477	2.83%
2011	1,210,193,422	33,038,280	2.73%

Punjabi is also spoken as a minority language in several other countries where large numbers of Punjabis have emigrated.In the United Kingdom, it is the second-most-commonly used language. In Canada, it is the fourth-most-spoken language. There were 2.2 million Punjabi speakers in the US in 2017. and 1.3 million in the UK in 2000.

Phonology

**Vowels**
	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	iː ਈ				uː ਊ
Close-mid	eː ਏ	ɪ ਇ		ʊ ਉ	oː ਓ
Mid			ə ਅ
Open-mid	ɛː ਐ				ɔː ਔ
Open			aː ਆ

**Consonants**
		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental/ Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m ਮ		n ਨ	ɳ ਣ	ɲ ਞ	ŋ ਙ
Plosive and Affricate	voiceless	p ਪ		t̪ ਤ	ʈ ਟ	t͡ʃ ਚ	k ਕ
	voiceless aspirated	pʰ ਫ		t̪ʰ ਥ	ʈʰ ਠ	t͡ʃʰ ਛ	kʰ ਖ
	voiced	b ਬ		d̪ ਦ	ɖ ਡ	d͡ʒ ਜ	ɡ ਗ
Fricative			(f) ਫ਼	s ਸ (z) ਜ਼		(ʃ) ਸ਼		ɦ ਹ
Flap				ɾ ਰ	ɽ ੜ
Approximant			ʋ ਵ	l ਲ	ɭ ਲ਼	j ਯ

Writing system

Gurmukhi alphabetic, excluding vowels.

There are three ways to write Punjabi: Gurmukhī, Shahmukhī, and Devanāgarī. In the Punjab province of Pakistan, the script that is most used is Shahmukhī. The Majhi dialect is the written standard for Punjabi in both parts of Punjab.

Bhatia, Tej (1993 and 2010) Punjabi: a cognitive-descriptive grammar. London: Routledge. Series: Descriptive grammars.
Singh, Maya (1895) The Panjabi dictionary. Lahore: Munshi Gulab Singh & Sons.
Ethnologue: Languages of India and Pakistan

Images for kids

Tilla Jogian, district Jehlum, Punjab, Pakistan a hilltop associated with many Nath jogis (considered among compilers of earlier Punjabi works)
"Jallianwala Bagh" written in Hindi, Punjabi, and English in Amritsar, India.
Signs in Punjabi (along with English and Chinese) of New Democratic Party of British Columbia, Canada during 2009 elections
Gurmukhi writing system on a sample logo
Varan Gyan Ratnavali by 16th-century historian Bhai Gurdas.
Ghadar di Gunj 1913, newspaper in Punjabi of Ghadar Party, US-based Indian revolutionary party.
Punjabi Sahit academy, Ludhiana,1954
Punjabi academy, Delhi,1981-1982
Jammu and Kashmir academy of art, culture and literature
Pilac(Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture, Lahore,2004
Guru Granth Sahib in Gurmukhi
Punjabi Shahmukhi script
Bhulay Shah poetry in Punjabi (Shahmukhi script)
Munir Niazi poetry in Punjabi (Shahmukhi script)
Gurmukhi alphabet
A sign board in Punjabi language along with Hindi at Hanumangarh, Rajasthan, India