Punjabi dialects and languages

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Punjabi dialects and languages: a simple guide

Overview
- Punjabi has many dialects that differ by region, culture, and history. It is sometimes seen as a pluricentric language with more than one standard form.
- It is spoken mainly in the Punjab region (divided between India and Pakistan) and by Punjabi communities around the world.

Varieties and classification
- The Greater Punjabi group shares features like preserving some old double consonants in stressed syllables. But scholars disagree on whether all these varieties form one language. Some place them in the Northwestern zone of Indo-Aryan; others split eastern varieties into a Central zone with Hindi.
- Major literary standards include:
- Standard Punjabi (eastern/central Punjab)
- Saraiki (southwest)
- Pahari-Pothwari (northwest)
- A common split is Punjabi (east) vs Lahnda (west). Lahnda usually includes Saraiki and Hindko, with Jhangvi and Shahpuri in between. Pothwari has traits of both Lahnda and Punjabi.
- In censuses, Punjabi, Hindko, and Saraiki are often listed separately.

What languages and dialects are there?
- Saraiki, Hindko, and Punjabi are all part of the broader western Indo-Aryan group, but they’re counted as distinct languages in many surveys.
- Pothwari is a mixed variety that people sometimes call Punjabi or Lahnda.

In Pakistan
- The 2017 Census counted about 80.5 million Punjabi speakers, 25.3 million Saraiki, and 5.1 million Hindko.
- Saraiki was added to the census in 1981 and Hindko in 2017.
- In areas like Gujar Khan and Rawalpindi, many Pothwari speakers are counted as Punjabi in surveys.
- In Azad Kashmir, most people speak Pahari-Pothwari, but Punjabi is common in some districts like Bhimber. Some Pothwari speakers call their language Punjabi, so counting can vary.

In India
- Punjabi is a constitutional language. The 2011 census lists about 33.1 million Punjabi speakers, including related varieties such as Bagri (in parts of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan), Bilaspuri, and Bhateali (in Himachal Pradesh).
- Bagri’s classification is split between Punjabi and Rajasthani in census data.
- Bilaspuri and Bhateali are sometimes counted under Punjabi and sometimes under other nearby languages.
- Lahnda languages are listed separately in India’s census, with about 109,000 speakers, including Bahawalpuri, Multani (often called Hindi-Multani), and other unclassified varieties.
- Jammu has Punchi, listed under Lahnda.
- Dogri was once considered a Punjabi dialect in older censuses but is now treated as an independent language; it had about 2.6 million speakers in 2011.
- Kangri, spoken in Himachal Pradesh, was also seen as Punjabi in the past but has been classified as Hindi since 1971. It had about 1.1 million speakers in 2011.
- Some scholars still place Dogri and Kangri within Punjabi or within Western Pahari, while others see them as related to Eastern Punjabi. A 2020 study suggested Dogri and Kangri are related to Eastern Punjabi as part of a larger Indo-Aryan group.

Western Punjabi (Lahnda)
- Western Punjabi, or Lahnda, includes Saraiki, Hindko, and related dialects.