Punjabi is the language of the Punjab. Spoken slightly differently in two parts of the Punjab after the state was politically split into two—East Punjab and West Punjab (or Pakistan Punjab)—on 15 August 1947. However, the Punjabi-speaking population is not confined to the political boundaries of the two Punjabs.
In India, Punjabi is also spoken in vast areas of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and the Ganganagar district of Rajasthan. In Pakistan, too, there are Punjabi-speaking areas beyond Western Punjab; these include regions in the North-West Frontier Province, Sindh, and some territories of Jammu and Poonch under Pakistan’s occupation at present.
Dr. George A. Grierson, the author of the monumental Linguistic Survey of India, recognizes Western Punjabi (the language of Western Punjab) as an independent language. However, all speakers of Eastern and Western Punjabi have always treated Western Punjabi as a dialect of Punjabi. Even on the basis of linguistic analysis, it cannot be established as a language distinct from Punjabi. The label “Lahnda,” given by Grierson, is also incorrect; it is “Lahndi,” or more properly, “Laihndi.” Punjabi has three dialects, each with a number of subdialects.
Eastern Punjabi, the language of Indian Punjab, has four subdialects: Majhi, Malvai, Doabi, and Puadhi.
Western Punjabi (or Lahndi) contains Multani, Shahpuri-Jhangi, Pothohari, and Hindko as subdialects.
The third dialect, Pahari (or Dogri), also has four subdialects: Kangri, Bhattiali, Jammuali (the language of the Jammu region), and Poonchi.
The Dogri-speaking people are striving to get government recognition, claiming that their language is different from Punjabi. However, each region asserts a separate identity for its own language: Jammu labels its language Dogri, while Himachal Pradesh refers to its language as Himachali or Pahari-Majhi.
The language of the Majha region—comprising the Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts of Indian Punjab and the Lahore district of Pakistani Punjab—is recognized as the standard form of Punjabi in both India and Pakistan.
Punjabi is one of the New Indo-Aryan languages. Indo-Aryan is a branch of the Indo-European family. It has passed through several phases of development, which, for the sake of convenience, are divided into three main stages: Old Indo-Aryan (OIA), Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA), and New Indo-Aryan (NIA).
The period of OIA is accepted to be from 1500 BC to 500 BC. The earliest form of OIA is called Vedic, which is the language in which the Vedas were composed. Its next phase is Sanskrit, which ceased to be the spoken language of the masses by the sixth century BC, though extensive literature was produced in Sanskrit up to the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
MIA has three phases of development. Pali represents the first phase. It is believed to have been the spoken language in the northwestern parts of India from about 500 BC to the beginning of the Christian era. The various languages of the second phase of the MIA are commonly labeled Prakrit, and their period extends from the beginning of the Christian era to around AD 500. In the third phase, all languages are grouped under the common label Apabhransha. Punjabi and other New Indo-Aryan languages developed from these Apabhranshas around the eleventh century AD.
Before analyzing the linguistic characteristics of Punjabi, it is essential to discuss the process of its development. The earliest form of the Indo-Aryan language, OIA, was structurally very different from NIA or Punjabi. Vedic had 52 phonemes, including 13 vowels and 39 consonants. In Sanskrit, some of these phonemes disappeared or were articulated in a changed form.
On the grammatical side, OIA was a highly synthetic language. It employed suffixes and prefixes to perform functions for which independent words are used in NIA. Suffixes, called vibhaktis, were employed where Punjabi, Hindi, etc., use postpositions. Again, the verbal forms of OIA were also synthetic in nature. Auxiliary verbs did not exist; their function was performed by affixes. There were three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter); three numbers (singular, dual, and plural); and eight cases. Nouns and adjectives in OIA changed their form according to number, gender, and case, and, as such, the grammatical forms of a noun or adjective could number in the hundreds. Additionally, OIA extensively employed sandhi and samasa (compounding). As a result, the morphological forms were highly complex, but the syntactic structure was simpler than in NIA. Since the grammatical status of a noun (whether it was subject, object, etc.) was determined from its form, its position in a sentence was not significant.
Pali is considerably different from OIA at the phonological level. Against the 52 phonemes of Vedic, Pali had only 46—10 vowels and 36 consonants. Out of the 13 vowels of Vedic, 4 were diphthongs, while in Pali, all vowels are simple, with none having a diphthongal character. Of the three fricatives (/S/, /Sh/, and /S/ in OIA), Pali retains only /Sh/.
The grammatical structure of Pali is not much different from OIA. The language is still synthetic. Three genders are present, but there are only two numbers (the dual has disappeared). There are six vibhaktis (case endings) instead of the eight that existed in OIA.
Next in the sequence of development are the Prakrits. Scholars vary in their opinions on the number of Prakrits. Specimens available to modern scholars show there were at least four major Prakrits: Shaurseni, Maharashtri, Magadhi, and Ardhamagadhi. Paishachi is sometimes counted as a fifth Prakrit.
Phonologically, Prakrits are not much different from Pali. The fricatives /S/ and /Sh/ are absent in Prakrits. The semivowel /y/ changed to /j/ in some Prakrits, particularly in Shaurseni, spoken in northwestern India, which, like Pali, is an ancestor of Punjabi. Consonant clusters, abundant in OIA, decreased progressively in MIA.
Prakrits are less synthetic than Vedic, Sanskrit, and even Pali. Words with functions akin to those of postpositions are used in certain constructions. Now, only four case endings are mostly in use. Most nouns and adjectives in masculine singular form end in “o,” earning Prakrits the label o-ending languages.
The number of Apabhranshas remains undecided. Sources count between three and thirty Apabhranshas. There is no definitive evidence to ascertain which Apabhransha is the direct source of Punjabi. None of the Apabhranshas with extant specimens can be directly associated with Punjabi.
The Apabhranshas are more analytical than even the Prakrits. Some postpositions are now in use, and the auxiliary verb has appeared in a few verbal forms. Only three case endings are commonly used. The compounded form of verbs is quite prevalent, although the language remains more synthetic than the New Indo-Aryan (NIA) languages.
In Apabhranshas, most masculine singular nouns end in -u. Because of this characteristic, the Apabhranshas are sometimes referred to as “u-ending languages.” There are variations in the phonological pattern as well. For instance:
The phoneme /n/ has a very high frequency.
The number of voiced, aspirated consonants has considerably increased, and aspirated forms of /n, ṇ, m, l, r/ are found in most Apabhranshas.
This provides a brief survey of the history of the development of Indo-Aryan languages from their earliest form to the New Indo-Aryan phase. Punjabi is one of the NIA languages, the others being Sindhi, Western Hindi, Eastern Hindi, Rajasthani, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, Bihari, Bengali, Assamese, and Pahari.
Punjabi, along with other NIA languages, is believed to have originated in the eleventh century. However, it is neither logically nor linguistically correct to assume that all NIA languages originated simultaneously or developed at the same pace. Languages do not change their form in a few years or decades; it takes centuries for a language to adopt a significantly different structure. When we say that Punjabi originated in the eleventh century, it simply means that by this time the language had acquired most characteristics of modern Punjabi, though it was not yet identical to the present-day language.
Punjabi has passed through different stages of development over nine centuries. For convenience, its evolution can be divided into four phases:
- First Phase: Up to AD 1400
- Second Phase: 1400 to 1700
- Third Phase: 1700 to 1850
- Fourth Phase: 1850 onwards
First Phase (Up to AD 1400)
The only specimens of this phase are poetic compositions by Sufi saint Shaikh Farid (1175–1265), preserved in Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib. The linguistic structure of Shaikh Farid’s verses does not differ from the language of Guru Nanak and his successors, whose works are also included in the same scripture. Therefore, the language of Shaikh Farid linguistically belongs to the second phase, as true specimens of the first phase are unavailable.
Second Phase (1400 to 1700)
This period is referred to as the “Guru Period”. The poetry of Guru Nanak (1469–1539) and the succeeding Sikh Gurus—Guru Angad (1504–1552), Guru Amar Das (1479–1574), Guru Ram Das (1534–1581), and Guru Arjan (1563–1606)—belongs to this phase. Their works are included in the Guru Granth Sahib.
Notable contributions include the poetry of Bhai Gurdas, Sufi saint Shah Husain, and Damodar, who versified the love story of Hir and Ranjha. Some prose was also written during this period, but much of it has not survived in its original form. Therefore, for linguistic analysis, only the Punjabi poetry of the first five Sikh Gurus is considered.
Punjabi during this period became more analytical compared to Sanskrit or Pali, while retaining some synthetic features:
Case endings, particularly for instrumental, locative, and ablative cases, were still used.
Auxiliary verbs were almost nonexistent, and verbal forms were synthetic.
Modern Punjabi postpositions, except ne, were in use but differed slightly in form.
Phonologically, the Punjabi of this period exhibited the following:
Fricatives /s/ (/sh/) and /z/ did not exist.
The vowel /au/ had low frequency, while /ai/ had a higher frequency.
Nasalization was less common than today.
Masculine nouns often ended in -a in singular form, and feminine singular nouns ended in -i. Apabhransha u-ending masculine nouns were still common.
Short vowels in word-final positions were a distinctive feature of early Punjabi, unlike modern Punjabi.
Third Phase (1700 to 1850)
Punjabi during this phase became almost as analytical as the modern language. Key developments included:
Use of modern postpositions, including nai (modern ne).
Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives mostly assumed modern forms.
Short vowels in word-final positions began to disappear.
Nasalization increased, and plural forms of nouns and adjectives typically ended in nasalized vowels.
Phonological changes included:
Increased frequency of vowel /au/.
Emergence of tone, significantly altering the phonological structure of the language. While tone may have existed in earlier periods, its characteristics differed from modern Punjabi.
The writing of prose was limited, and the poetic language lacked the sophistication of earlier periods.
Fourth Phase (1850 Onwards)
This phase began with British rule in Punjab, bringing about significant changes:
Establishment of schools and the introduction of printing presses raised language awareness.
The teaching of English fostered linguistic innovation.
A large number of Persian-Arabic loanwords were assimilated during Muslim rule, but the phonological structure of Punjabi remained unaffected. During British rule, foreign sounds were also adopted.
Written Punjabi saw substantial changes:
Introduction of punctuation marks beyond the full stop.
Separate word units replaced the earlier line-unit style of writing.
Paragraph formation and the framing of complex sentences were adopted from English.
In addition to borrowing vocables from other languages, new words were coined and new shades of meanings were given to existing words. The vocabulary was carefully chosen, and linguistic craftsmanship was exercised in sentence construction. For the first time in the history of Punjabi, planned development of the language was undertaken; in earlier phases, its development was purely natural.
Spoken Punjabi was significantly impacted. Educated Punjabis attempted to pronounce loan words in their original form, resulting in the adoption of foreign sounds:
/sh/ and /z/ were the first sounds to be incorporated.
Perso-Arabic sounds such as /f/, /kh/, and /gh/ were also pronounced by some Punjabis.
On the phonological level, tone emerged as a significant feature, distinguishing Punjabi from other NIA languages. No major Indian language, except Punjabi, has tone as a distinct sound. The tone has:
Replaced voiced aspirates (/gh, jh, dh, bh, h/) in specific contexts, leaving these aspirates limited in occurrence today.
Affected the entire phonological structure of Punjabi and continues to increase in articulation frequency.
Similarly, nasalization has increased:
Vowels are nasalized even where grammar does not require it. For instance, /dian/ (these women came) is pronounced as /anirian/, despite grammatical rules indicating nasalization only on the final /an/.
Fricatives /sh/ and /z/ are now pronounced by nearly all speakers.
The frequency of /f/ continues to grow, whereas Arabic /kh/ and /gh/ are disappearing among the younger generation.
Grammar and Syntax
Punjabi is primarily an analytical language, though it retains some synthetic characteristics:
Case suffixes (e.g., instrumental, ablative, and locative) are used with certain nouns.
Vocative forms of human nouns are formed with suffixes that differ based on gender and number.
Punjabi grammar includes:
Two genders (masculine and feminine)
Two numbers (singular and plural)
Nouns are assigned one of the two genders, and verbs agree with subjects based on gender and number. However, if a transitive verb contains a past participle, the verb agrees with the object instead. The tense is determined by the auxiliary verb, which follows the main verb.
Punjabi verbs often display compounding:
The form baithd hoid si (was sitting) contains past participles of baith (sit) and ho (be), along with the auxiliary si (was).
Some verbal forms compound three verbs into a single form.
Punjabi uses postpositions instead of English prepositions and relies heavily on suffixes for word formation:
Prefixes are rare and only serve adjectival functions.
Words may include three or even four suffixes, but only one prefix can appear in a word.
Reduplication
Punjabi employs extensive reduplication in varied forms:
Repetition of the same word: hauHhauli (slowly).
Combining synonyms: kdldsidh (jet-black).
Creating compounds with antonyms: nikkdmotd (ordinary nature).
Forming rhyming pairs: neretere (around).
Degrees of Proximity
Punjabi stands out with five degrees of proximity, compared to two in English, Hindi, and Urdu.
For “this,” Punjabi has:
ah (nearer to the first person, away from the second person).
hah (closer to the second person, away from the first).
eh (close to both).
For “that,” Punjabi offers:
auh (away from both, but within sight).
oh (farthest in time and space, not within sight).
Sentence Structure
Punjabi is mainly analytical, and word order is crucial:
General order: subject-object-verb (e.g., transitive sentences).
Adjective precedes the noun it qualifies.
Adverbs occur before the verbs they modify.
Interrogative words normally follow the subject: oh kadon aid si (When did he come?).
Changes in sentence structure affect connotation:
Kartar kitdb parh rihd hai (Kartar is reading a book) is a general statement.
To emphasize Kartar as the subject: Kartar parh rihd hai kitdb.
To emphasize the book being read: Kitdb parh rihd hai Kartar.
Rich Vocabulary
Punjabi is renowned for its rich vocabulary, especially concerning kinship and culture:
Extensive kinship terms exist for various relations, such as:
Separate names for paternal and maternal relatives.
Terms for in-laws and their extended family.
The Lahndi dialect of Punjabi adds another layer, with distinct names for cousins based on gender and relation:
Patreru (son of father’s brother).
Pitreri (daughter of father’s brother).
Punjabi also features:
Detailed terms for natural objects and their parts.
Divisions of time and space with unique names.
Its pronoun system is distinctive yet gender-neutral:
eh (he/she/it close by).
auh (he/she/it within sight but farther away).
oh (he/she/it far away).
Punjabi has an extensive vocabulary concerning agriculture, including the names of agricultural implements and their parts, crops and their stems, leaves, fruits, and processes related to farming. In Lahndi, for example, there are five distinct words for a drain: paggun, khalsa, noli, kassi, and wahd. Additionally, Punjabi boasts a rich treasure of vocabulary related to theology, mysticism, and ethics.
However, due to political reasons, Punjabi could not naturally develop vocabulary for scientific and technological subjects of modern civilization. When Punjabi was later called upon to serve as the medium of instruction up to university level, and to act as the language of administration and polity, it found itself inadequately equipped for these responsibilities. As a remedy:
Extensive borrowings were made from other languages.
New terms were coined.
Existing words were given new connotations.
Old words acquired new forms through acceptable—and sometimes unacceptable—grammatical processes.
The outcome of these efforts forced Punjabi to incorporate words, grammatical forms, idioms, and even phonemes that did not fit seamlessly into its linguistic structure. This process of experimentation continues today.
Literary Heritage
The oldest specimens of Punjabi literature are preserved in the Guru Granth Sahib, alongside poetic compositions of saints, vãrs (war ballads), and qissãs (narrative poetry). These genres were the main vehicles of literary expression during the seventeenth century. However, after the compilation of the Sikh scripture, little Punjabi poetry was composed by Sikhs.
During this century, most Punjabi poetry was written by Muslim poets.
While some poetical works were composed by Sikh scholars—mainly dealing with Sikh history—literary pursuits declined as Sikhs faced persecution and oppression after the death of Guru Gobind Singh.
From 1849 (after the fall of the Sikh Empire) onward, Sikh literature was mostly produced by the Nirmalas and Udasis, two sects linked to Hindu traditions. These itinerant recluses preached the Sikh Gurus’ message across northern India, adopting Sadhu Bhasha—a language understood in all parts of northern India—for their writings. However, they used the Gurmukhi script, developed by the Second Guru, Guru Angad, which remained closely associated with Sikhs and Sikhism. Meanwhile, Muslim Punjabi poets wrote in the Persian script.
Revival and Development
Punjabi remained neglected by Sikh scholars until the Singh Sabha movement, founded in 1873, declared Punjabi their language and Gurmukhi its script. After the partition of Punjab in 1947:
Eastern Punjab remained in India, while Western Punjab became part of Pakistan.
Sikhs who migrated en masse to Indian Punjab campaigned for Punjabi to be declared the official language of the state.
This demand was initially rejected, despite India’s division into unilingual states.
After a prolonged struggle, Punjabi now flourishes. Scholars and writers from diverse backgrounds, including non-Sikhs and Hindus, are among its leading contributors.
Punjabi in Pakistan
After Independence, Urdu was declared Pakistan’s official language. Punjabi was largely discarded. Over time, however, Pakistanis began advocating for the recognition of Punjabi as a state language. Today:
Punjabi is taught up to M.A. level at Panjab University in Lahore.
The Department of Punjabi at the university publishes a literary magazine.
Private initiatives have led to the emergence of more magazines, fostering poetry and prose. Despite this, government support remains limited, and Punjabi has not attained the prestige it deserves as a major language of Pakistan.
References:
- Grierson, G.A., Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. IX [Reprint]. Patiala, 1970.
- Gill, H.S., and H.A. Gleason, A Reference Grammar of Punjabi. Patiala, 1969.
- Bailey, Grahame T., Punjabi Manual and Grammar. 1912.
- Bailey, Grahame T., Punjabi Bhasha da Itihas. Ludhiana, 1956.
- Harkirat Singh and Ujjal Singh Bahri, Bhasha Vigyan te Punjabi. Delhi, 1973.
- Harkirat Singh, Punjabi Vidkaran. Chandigarh, 1988.
- Prem Prakash Singh, Punjabi Boli da Nikas te Vikas. Ludhiana, 1971.
