The Punjabi language, also spelled Panjabi, boasts a rich literary history that is still celebrated by the Punjabi-language community today.
Traditional oral poetry and Punjabi folklore has been passed down and transcribed for generations and remains a popular part of Punjabi folk culture. This rich cultural history, combined with the Punjab territory’s past of British colonialism, makes the development of the language an intriguing point of study.
Classification and Early History of the Punjabi Language
Punjabi is classified as a member of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European family of languages. All languages within the Indo-Aryan family developed in three major stages: Old Indo-Aryan or Sanskrit; Middle Indo-Aryan, consisting of Prakrit and Apabhramsha stages; and New Indo-Aryan, which dates from circa the 10th century CE.
The Punjabi language is a descendent of the Sauraseni Prakrit, a language of medieval northern India. It believed to have developed as a distinct language from the Shauraseni Apabhramsha language around the 11th century. Other early influences on Punjabi include Indo-Aryan and pre-Indo-Aryan languages.
Characteristics of the Punjabi Language
Modern Punjabi is a very tonal language, making use of various tones to differentiate words that would otherwise be identical. Three primary tones can be identified: high-rising-falling, mid-rising-falling, and low rising.
By using these tones properly, Punjabi language speakers are able to differentiate between words that otherwise appear to be the exact same as one another. Needless to say, for those who attempt to learn Punjabi as a second language, grasping the importance of and mastering the different tones can be extremely challenging.
Written Punjabi Language
The Punjabi language is written in a variety of scripts. The two most common are the Perso-Arabic script and a script based on the Gurmukhi alphabet. Developed by a Sikh, Guru Angad, the Gurmukhi alphabet was initially developed for use in writing scriptures during the 16th century.
Less commonly, Punjabi is also written using the Devanagari script.
History of the Punjab Territory
Today the Punjabi language is found primarily in the Punjab State of India and Punjab Province of Pakistan. These two areas were formerly united as part of the Punjab Territory under British colonial rule in India. “British India” was much larger than the country we know as India today and included present-day India as well as areas of modern Pakistan.
With the partition of British India in 1947, the nation of Pakistan was formed distinct from India, and the formerly united British Punjab Territory was divided between the two countries. Today, more than 100 million Punjab speakers can be found in the area that once formed Punjab territory. Interestingly, the name Punjab literally translates into “five waters” in the Persian language and is thought to refer to the five major rivers found in the formerly-united Punjab territory.