Punjabi language facts for kids

Punjabi
	ਪੰਜਾਬੀ, پنجابی; Panjābī
	The word "Punjabi" in Gurmukhi, Shahmukhi
Native to	India, Pakistan
Region	Punjabi
Ethnicity	Punjabis
Native speakers	100 million (2010)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Central Punjabi; ; ; ;
Writing system	Gurmukhī; Shahmukhī
Official status
Official language in	India: (Punjab, Haryana, Delhi; Pakistan (Punjab and Azad Kashmir)
Regulated by	No official regulation
	Distribution of native Punjabi and Lahnda speakers in India and Pakistan
	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 a Indo-Aryan language. It is the native 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, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. It is natively 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. 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

Punjabi has many dialects. They form a continuous series that eventually becomes Hindi in India and Sindhi in Pakistan. 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, Pothohari, Hindko and Multani.

Majhi is Punjabi's most important 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, Dhani, Shah Puri, Jhangochi, Rachnavi, Chenavari, Chhachi, Jandali, Ghebi, Thalochi, Riasti. The Saraiki, spoken in northern 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 1.3 million Punjabi speakers in the UK in 2000, and 368,000 in Canada in 2006.

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.

Images for kids

"Jallianwala Bagh" written in Hindi, Punjabi, and English in Amritsar, India.
Areas of the Indian subcontinent where Punjabi is spoken.
Southall Station (United Kingdom) sign in Punjabi, in the Gurmukhī script
Punjabi on Indian currency, see in language box on eleventh place
Dialects of Punjabi language
Great Punjabi poet Waris Shah
Sufi poets have enriched Punjabi literature
Varan Gyan Ratnavali by 16th century historian Bhai Gurdas

Choorian, released in 1998, became the highest-grossing domestic film of all-time, until 2007. It uses Punjabi as one of popular public languages of Pakistan