Punjabi (sometimes spelled Panjabi) is an Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken by the Punjabi people native to the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. With over 156 million speakers across all its varieties, it is the seventh most spoken native language and the twelfth most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world.
Punjabi is the third most spoken native language in South Asia (after Hindi and Bengali). It is the most widely-spoken native language in Pakistan, with 123.2 million speakers across all its language varieties, according to the 2023 census, and the 11th most widely-spoken in India, with 31.1 million native speakers, according to the 2011 census. It is also spoken among a significant overseas diaspora, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, the Gulf states, and Southeast Asia.Hussain, Qandeel, Michael Proctor, Mark Harvey, and Katherine Demuth. 2020. “Punjabi (Lyallpuri Variety).” Journal of the International Phonetic Association 50(2): 282–97. doi: 10.1017/S0025100319000021. Retrieved on 4 September 2026 from: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-international-phonetic-association/article/punjabi-lyallpuri-variety/060E3FF5B0BF9E3226545BBA7C59D7EC
Being classified under the Northwestern branch of the Indo-Aryan languages, Punjabi is most closely related to Sindhi. It is the only Indo-Aryan language thought to have descended from more than one Prakrit, which gradually developed into Old Punjabi. The language's earliest writings can be traced to the Nath jogis of the Pothohar Plateau from the 9th century. It further developed during the Islamic period in South Asia, undergoing lexical expansion from Arabic and Persian influence; and raising poets like Baba Farid. Middle Punjabi produced the great literary works of Punjabi folklore, alongside strengthening the Islamic mystic literary tradition, and playing a vital role in the development of Sant Bhasha, the language of the Guru Granth Sahib – the holiest book in Sikhism. Modern Punjabi arose in the colonial era out of Early Modern Punjabi, which helped establish a literary standard spread widely by poets including Bulleh Shah and Waris Shah among many.
Being a diagraphic language, it is written using two standard scripts: Shahmukhi, based on the Perso-Arabic script, in Pakistan; and Gurmukhi, based on the Indic scripts, in India. Punjabi is an inflected language, with six cases for noun, three for personal pronoun, five for third-person pronoun; two genders (masculine, feminine); and two numbers (singular, plural). It is also a tonal language – specifically employing lexical tone – which makes it unusual among the Indo-Aryan languages and its broader Indo-European language family where tonalisation is not common. The base of its vocabulary is derived from Sanskrit in the form of Prakrit, while a significant portion of its high-register speech is derived from Persian and Arabic, along with a number of recent loanwords borrowed from English and Portuguese among other European languages. It has also had minor influence from and on neighbouring languages such as Sindhi, Hindi–Urdu, Pashto, Dogri, and Kashmiri.
Punjabi has many dialects spread throughout the Punjab region and its surroundings, which are grouped into two main categories – Eastern Punjabi and Western Punjabi; with the Majhi dialect (Central Punjabi) being intermediate between both and forming the basis of Standard Punjabi in both Pakistan and India. It is the official language in the Indian state of Punjab, and carries nominal provincial status in the Pakistani province of Punjab.
Etymology The word Punjabi (sometimes spelled Panjabi) has been derived from the word Panj-āb, Persian for 'Five Waters', referring to the five major eastern tributaries of the Indus River. The name of the region was introduced by the Turko-Persian conquerors of South Asia and was a translation of the Sanskrit name, Panchanada, which means 'Land of the Five Rivers'.
Panj is cognate with other Indo-European languages' words for five, like Sanskrit (), Greek pénte () and Lithuanian penki, but also English five; āb is cognate with Sanskrit áp () and with the of . The historical Punjab region, now divided between India and Pakistan, is defined physiographically by the Indus River and these five tributaries. One of the five, the Beas River, is a tributary of another, the Sutlej.
History
Overview Nearly all scholars agree that Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language, however the precise Prakrit or Apabrahmsha that Punjabi derived from is disputed. Punjabi belongs to the Indic branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, deriving from Old Indic. Old Indic lasted until 500 BCE, being succeeded by regional Prākrits, with the Earlier Middle Indic period lasting from 500 BCE – 500 CE. This initial period was succeeded by the Later Middle Indic period, lasting from 500 CE – 1000 CE, consisting of later Prakrits (Apabhraṁśa), such as Śaurasenī and Paiśachī. Modern Indic languages derived from these Apabhraṁśas from roughly 1000 CE onwards, with there being no clear delineation between the Later Middle Indic and Early New Indic stages.
Punjabi itself is divided into four stages of development by Padam (1954) and Bhardwaj (2016):
First phase (1000–1400 CE, also called Old Punjabi) - with surviving works authored by Addahmāṇ (Abdul Rahman) and other works attributed to Fariduddin Ganjshakar (however the attribution is disputed and Ganjshakar's claimed works in the Sikh scripture may date to a later period by a different author named Farid Sani/Ibrahim Farid) Second phase (1400–1700 CE, also called Medieval Punjabi) - with surviving works authored by Farid Sani/Ibrahim Farid and the Sikh gurus Third phase (1700–1850 CE, also called Middle Punjabi) Fourth phase (1850 CE to present, also called Modern Punjabi) Alternatively, the stages are trifucated as follows by Bhatia (1993):
The precursor stage of Punjabi between the 10th and 16th centuries is termed 'Old Punjabi'. The stage between the 16th and 19th centuries is termed as 'Medieval Punjabi'. Modern Punjabi emerged in the 19th century from the Medieval Punjabi stage.
Origin
Punjabi developed from Prakrit languages and later (, 'deviated' or 'non-grammatical speech') From 600 BC, Sanskrit developed as the standard literary and administrative language and Prakrit languages evolved into many regional languages in different parts of India. All these languages are called Prakrit languages (Sanskrit: ) collectively. Paishachi Prakrit was one of these Prakrit languages, which was spoken in north and north-western India and Punjabi developed from this Prakrit. Later in northern India Paishachi Prakrit gave rise to Paishachi Apabhraṃśa, a descendant of Prakrit. Punjabi emerged as an Apabhramsha, a form of Prakrit, in the 7th century AD and became stable by the 10th century. Padam (1954) believed that eastern Punjabi emerged from Shauraseni while Lahnda emerged from Paishachi. According to Mangat Bhardwaj, it is possible that now Western and Eastern Punjabi speaking zones may have originally spoken different Apabhraṁśas, with the Lahnda zone being primarily Paiśāchī Apabhraṁśa while the Eastern Punjabi area consisted of a transitional zone of Śaurasenī merging into Paiśāchī, with Śaurasenī being spoken in the neighbouring Western Hindi zone.
The earliest writings in Punjabi belong to the Nath Yogi-era from 9th to 14th century. The language of these compositions is morphologically closer to Shauraseni Apbhramsa, though vocabulary and rhythm is surcharged with extreme colloquialism and folklore. Writing in 1317–1318, Amir Khusrau referred to the language spoken by locals around the area of Lahore as Lahauri. There was a long period of literary interaction between Western (Lahnda) and Eastern Punjabi in the subsequent period, showcased in the works of Muslim Sufis and Sikhs.
Medieval period
The Arabic and Modern Persian influence in the historical Punjab region began with the late first millennium Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent. Sanskrit was replaced by Persian for the purpose of an unlocalised language used for administrative, secular, and religious-intellectual writings (although Sanskrit retained some usage in the last category). Usage of local Indo-Aryan languages for literature increased during the Mughal period, usually for spiritual poetry. Since then, many Persian words have been incorporated into Punjabi (such as zamīn, śahir etc.) and are used with a liberal approach. Through Persian, Punjabi also absorbed many Arabic-derived words like dukān, ġazal and more, as well as Turkic words like qēncī, sōġāt, etc. After the fall of the Sikh empire, Urdu was made the official language of Punjab under the British (in Pakistani Punjab, it is still the primary official language) and influenced the language as well, replacing Persian. Sikhs in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries primarily composed literature in Persian and Braj rather than Punjabi. Thus, during the mediaeval period, the development of written Punjabi was primarily done by Muslim Sufis, written in Persian script. Religious practices remained mostly conducted in Punjabi, especially with the Sufis.
In pre-colonial Punjab, there was no standardised form of the Punjabi language (with it being primarily oral and lacking a formal grammar and lexicon) but rather several dialects and variants were utilised and built upon a linguistically heterogenous literary and oral tradition. The scenario is described as a diglossia, where peoples' language varied depending on setting, such as if at home or in the bazaar, and medium, whether written or spoken. There was a difference between classical and vernacular registers. The inhabitants likely had degrees of intelligibility with neighbouring languages due to shared linguistic features and roots. The region was historically influenced by a variety of Punjabi dialects and other languages, such as Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, Kashmiri, Balochi, Pashto, Khariboli, and Braj. A Sanskritic background became influence by Perso-Islamicate culture. A variety of scripts were in use for a variety of purposes, such as Perso-Arabic, Gurmukhi, and Landa, with spellings varying for words based upon individual preference or region.
Influence of and on other languages
Due to the influence of Islam, some Arabic words sourced from the Quran along with aiyas (verses) found its way into the Punjabi lexicon. Sufi traditions exhibited Persinate influences on Punjabi. Meanwhile, Sanskrit had influence due to Puranic and Itihasic literature. In the second millennium, Punjabi was lexically influenced by Portuguese (words like almārī), Greek (words like dām), Japanese (words like rikśā), Chinese (words like cāh, līcī, lukāṭh) and English (words like jajj, apīl, māsṭar), though these influences have been minor in comparison to Persian and Arabic. In fact, the sounds // (ਜ਼ / ), // (ਗ਼ / ), // (ਕ਼ / ), // (ਸ਼ / ), // (ਖ਼ / ) and // (ਫ਼ / ) are all borrowed from Persian, but in some instances the latter three arise natively. Later, the letters ਜ਼ / , ਸ਼ / and ਫ਼ / began being used in English borrowings, with ਸ਼ / also used in Sanskrit borrowings.
Punjabi has also had minor influence from and on neighbouring languages such as Sindhi, Haryanvi, Pashto and Hindustani.
Colonial period