Punjabi (also Panjabi; in Gurmukhi, in Shahmukhi , Pañjabi in transliteration) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Punjabi people in India, Pakistan and other parts of the world.

It is an Indo-European language within the smaller 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 and words are usually ordered Subject Object Verb.

Dialects and geographic distribution

It is the 11th most spoken language in the world 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. 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) and Canada (where it is the fifth most commonly used language). Punjabi is the preferred language of most Sikhs, (most of their religious literature being written in it) and Punjabi Hindus. 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.

Punjabi University, Patiala, lists the following as dialects of Punjabi:

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:

* Eastern (Central Zone): Bhattiani (a mixture of Punjabi and Rajasthani), Powadhi, Doabi, Malwai, Majhi, Bathi
* Western (Northwestern Zone, Lahndi): Multani, Hindko, Pahari, Pothohari
* Northern Zone: Dogri

Western and Eastern Punjabi

Many sources[attribution needed] subdivide the Punjabi language into Western Punjabi or Lahndi , 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 Punjabi — on both the Indian and Pakistani side — is Majhi. Grierson defined Western Punjabi (which he called "Lahnda") as being west of a line running north-south from Sahiwal and Gujranwala districts. This is well within present day Pakistan. Masica remarks that "whatever validity Frierson's line may once have had has no doubt been disturbed by the great movements of population associated with partition". Contrary to this, Ethnologue has come to classify Lahndi as the dialect of Punjabi spoken in all of Pakistan.

Vocabulary

Modern Punjabi vocabulary has been derived from Urdu, Persian and Sanskrit.

Much like English, Punjabi has moved around the world and developed local forms by integrating local vocabulary. While most loanwords come from Urdu, Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit, Punjabi emigrants around the world have integrated terms from such languages as English, 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.

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 use the Gurmukhi (from the mouth of the Gurus) script. Hindus, and those living in neighbouring states such as Haryana and Himachal Pradesh sometimes use the Devanagari script. Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi scripts are the most commonly used for writing Punjabi and are considered the official scripts of the language.