The official language of the state is Punjabi that belongs to the Gurmukhi script. There are lots of migrants belonging to Punjab in most of the parts of world. Therefore Punjabi language, ranks tenth and fourth in the most spoken language list in the world and Asia respectively.

About Punjabi Language

The language Punjabi is considered to be the crowning glory for the already spending state of Punjab. It has a nice ring to it and is widely popular among all other states as well. Written in Gurmukhi script, this language has a striking resemblance to Hindi. The Punjabi language was founded as early as the 11th century and it has been brought forward to various generations from the legacy of Sauraseni Prakrit. The origin is of Indo-European category and has a vast history behind it. The population of western Punjab are more familiar with the Hindi language than the Punjabi language, whereas in the areas of eastern Punjab, the Punjabi language dominates all other languages.

The Gurmukhi script originates from Devanagri. It belongs to the fusion and tonal category. It falls under the fusion category because it is made up of minute linguistic units with semantic meaning, also known as morphemes. Various morphemes form together to bring a structure to the language. It falls under the tonal category because the tone of the language determines the meaning of the words used. In recent times, one can see the influences of Hindi, Urdu, English and Persian languages in the Punjabi language. People from Punjab have migrated and settled down in various countries and therefore, the language has undergone various changes to suit the vernacular vocabulary.

There are various dialects in Punjabi language. Different areas determine these dialects. Some of the dialects that are used are Bhattianj, Malwai, Pahari, Doabi, Kangri, Hindko, Pothowari, Shahpuri, Rachnavi, Majhi, Thali, Thalochri, Chakwali and Ghebi. Tourists who are not aware of the Punjabi language do not find any difficulty to survive in Punjab, because people here are well aware of Hindi and English as well. Therefore even foreign tourists find no difficulty in Punjab. The people of Punjab are very helpful by nature.

Majhi

Amritsar, Sialkot, Lahore, Gujranwala and Gurdaspur are the areas where this dialect is common. Since most of the people are concentrated in these areas, this dialect is said to have had a big influence on all the other dialects. This is also known as “Tixali Boli”.

Malwi

Ludhiana, Ambala, Ganganagar, Bathinda, Malerkotla and Ferozepur are the areas where this dialect is common. Basically, almost all the southern areas of Punjab like Hissar, Sirsa, Haryana and Kurukshetra too use this dialect.

Doabi

Doabi means the land between the two rivers. Therefore all areas between the rivers Sutlej and Beas follow this dialect. Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur are other areas where this dialect is spoken commonly.

Pothohari

This is spoken in a wide area. Areas from Kashmir, Jhelum, Gujar Khan, parts of Pakistan and Islamabad are where this dialect is common. It bears some resemblance to another dialect called Hindko which is spoken in Peshawar, Nowshehra, Mansehra and all other areas in the North western Frontier province of Pakistan.

Jhangvi

The areas between Khanewal to Jhang and cities like Faisalabad, Chiniot etc. are areas where this dialect is common. This is also known as the Jangli dialect in Punjab to reflect that this dialect was common among tribals as well.

Multani

This dialect originated in the areas of Multan and then spread to Bahawalpur, Khairpur, Daira Ghazi Khan, Muzafar Garhi etc. In earlier days, the southern regions of Punjab too were known as Multani.  People who are well aware of this dialect address this as “Mithi Boli”, meaning sweet dialect. This is believed to have been started off by the Sufi Saints of the Islam religion who came to the Multan region in 1165AD. As one move towards the south of Punjab, the Multani dialect sees lots of influences from the Sindhi language that is spoken locally. In these areas where there is a mix of Multani and Sindhi, the dialect is known as Siraiki.