| Group |
Indic (with Vedic
and Sanskrit), New Indic (with Hindi,
Marathi etc.) |
| Geography |
The official tongue of the Indian state of Punjab and the province
of Pakistan with the same name. The majority of its speakers live in Pakistan
(about 50 million people), the remaining 20 million are residents of India. |
| History |
Literature works in Punjabi are witnessed from the 12th century, but
it became really spread when Sikh religion appeared in the 16th century
in India and Pakistan. |
| Phonetics |
The most important feature of Punjabi which makes its phonetics very
much unlike that of its neighbours: it developed a system of tones which
change the meaning of the word. This was accompanied by the loss of voiced
aspirated consonants. |
| Morphology |
In morphology, Punjabi does not differ much from its relatives Hindi
(Urdu) and Sindhi. |
| Writing |
Gurmukhi script (India),
Urdu script (Pakistan) |
| Close Contacts |
Punjabi actually consists of several dialectal subgroups which are
now in process of becoming independent languages (Majhi, Siraiki, Hindko,
Dogri); the closest relative which fell apart from Punjabi not long ago
is Lahnda. |
| Sample |
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| Picture |
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| More info |
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