Punjabi (India and Pakistan) – Language Snapshot
- Qandeel Hussain
Abstract
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Punjab states of India and Pakistan. There are two major divisions of Punjabi dialects: Eastern and Western. The Eastern dialects are mainly spoken in the Indian state of Punjab while Western dialects are spoken in the Punjab state of Pakistan. Punjabi is written in Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi scripts; the former is derived from the Lahnda script and is used to write the Eastern dialects in India, the latter is based on the Perso-Arabic script and is mainly used in Western Punjab in Pakistan. All the Punjabi dialects have extensively borrowed words from Arabic, English, Persian, and Urdu. Punjabi speakers grow up in a multilingual environment. In addition to Punjabi, children are exposed to Hindi-Urdu and English. There is an ongoing language shift among Punjabi speakers, particularly those residing in Pakistan and abroad. The author is involved in the phonetic and phonological documentation of Punjabi dialects spoken in India and Pakistan.
Keywords: Punjabi, India, Pakistan, Eastern dialects, Western dialects, Gurmukhi script, Shahmukhi script
How to Cite:
Hussain, Q., (2020) “Punjabi (India and Pakistan) – Language Snapshot”, Language Documentation and Description 19, 144-153. doi: https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd71
Downloads:
Download PDF