Punjabi dialects and languages

Punjabi dialects include Majhi, Doabi, Malwai and Puadhi. The 2011 Census also lists Punjabi Bagri, Bilaspuri/Kahluri and Bhateali as Punjabi.

Majhi is Punjabi dialect spoken by the majority of the people in Lahore, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Sialkot, Narowal, Gujrat, Okara, Pakpattan, Sahiwal, Hafizabad, Nankana Sahib and Mandi Bahauddin districts of Pakistan's Punjab Province. It also has a large presence in every district in the rest of Pakistani Punjab, and in all large cities in Pakistan's other provinces.

In India it is spoken in Amritsar, Tarn Taran Sahib, Pathankot and Gurdaspur Districts of the State of Punjab and sizable population also in major cities of the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Mumbai India.

In Pakistan Standard Punjabi dialect is not called Majhi which is Indian terminology, in Pakistan it is simply called Standard Punjabi. This dialect is used for both Punjabi Films, TV and Theater industry to make Punjabi language content in Lahore.

Malwai is spoken in the southern part of Indian Punjab South of river Sutlej and also in Bahawalnagar and Vehari districts of Pakistan. This dialect is spoken in Ludhiana, Moga, Firozpur, Fazilka, Muktsar, Faridkot, Bathinda, Barnala, Sangrur and, Mansa districts of Punjab, India and also in Ganganagar and Hanumangarh districts of Rajasthan and, the Sirsa and, Fatehabad districts of Haryana. Not to be confused with the Malvi language, which shares its name.

Doabi is spoken in both the Indian Punjab as well as parts of Pakistan Punjab owing to post-1947 migration of Muslim populace from East Punjab. The word "Do Aabi" means "the land between two rivers" and this dialect is spoken between the rivers of the Beas and the Sutlej in the region called Doaba. Regions it is presently spoken includes the Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr districts in Indian Punjab, Una District of Himachal Pradesh as well as the Toba Tek Singh , Faisalabad , Mandi Bahauddin and Layyah districts in Pakistan Punjab where it is spoken by the erstwhile migrants from Eastern Punjab and their descendants.

This Dialect is also used as a standard for Indian Punjabi Films and TV shows.

Puadhi, Powadh, Pwadh is a region of Punjab and parts of Haryana between the Satluj and Ghaggar rivers. The part lying south, south-east and east of Rupnagar adjacent to Ambala District (Haryana) is Powadhi. The Powadh extends from that part of the Rupnagar District which lies near Satluj, beyond the Ghaggar river in the east up to Kala Amb, which is at the border of the states of Himachal pradesh and Haryana. Entire capital city of Chandigarh and parts of Fatehgarh Sahib district, and parts of Patiala districts like Rajpura are also part of Powadh. The language is spoken over a large area in present Punjab as well as Haryana. In Punjab, Kharar, Kurali, Ropar, Nurpurbedi, Morinda, Pail, Rajpura and Samrala are the areas where the Puadhi is spoken and the dialect area also includes Pinjore, Kalka, Ismailabad, Pehowa to Bangar area in Fatehabad district.

Other dialects include Bagri, Bilaspuri/Kahluri and Bhateali.[6] According to the 2011 Census, the speakers of these dialects are as follows: Punjabi Bagri-1,656,588; Bhateali-23,970; Bilaspuri/Kahluri-295,805.[7]

Bagri

The Bagri language forms something of a dialect bridge between Haryanvi, Rajasthani, and Punjabi and takes its name from the Bagar tract region of Northwestern India.[8] The speakers are mostly in India, with pockets in the Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar districts of the Punjab in Pakistan.

Bagri is a typical Indo-Aryan language akin to Haryanvi, with SOV word order. The most striking phonological feature of Bagri is the presence of three lexical tones: high, mid and low, akin to Punjabi.[9]The language has a very high (65%) lexical similarity with Haryanvi.

Bilaspuri/Kahluri

Bilaspuri, or Kahluri is a language spoken in northern India, predominantly in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh and in the Rupnagar district of the Punjab state. It is associated with the people of the former princely state of Bilaspur in the Punjab Hills.

Bilaspuri is classified as one of the varieties of the Western Pahari language group. However, Bilaspuri is listed as Punjabi in the census.[6] According to the 2011 Census, the speakers of Punjabi Bilaspuri/Kahluri are 295,805.[7]

Bhateali

Bhateali is spoken in Chamba district , Himachal Pradesh and is related to Kangri and Dogri.[10] The dialect is associated with Bhattiyat tehsil of Chamba district.[11]

Locally it is called Magharbi Punjabi or just Punjabi. Jangli, Lahanda, Lahnda, Lahndi, Panjabi, Panjabi Proper, Punjabi, Punjapi, Shahmukhi are the alternate names given in ethnolgue.[12]

Awankari (Avāṅkārī, Awankari pronunciation: [ɑʋɑŋkɑri]) is an Indo-Aryan dialect of Pakistan. Classified as a dialect of Hindko, and hence of Lahnda (Western Punjabi), it is spoken mostly in parts of Chakwal District in the north-west of the province of Punjab.

The name Awankari, though common in the earlier literature,[13] appears not to be in use any more: in the 1990s it was observed that people called their speech Punjabi even though they recognised it is more similar to Hindko than to the standard Punjabi of the city of Lahore.[14]

Chenavari West of Chenaab river in Jhang district of Pakistani Punjab the dialect of Jhangochi merges with Thalochi and resultant dialect is Chenavari. Name is derived from Chenaab river.

Spoken in parts of Rawalpindi Division (Pothohar) of Pakistani Punjab. Dhani name is derived from Dhan valley where its spoken. It is spoken in Chakwal,[15] Khewra, parts of Jehlam Districts and Attock Districts. The people of Pothohar speak Pothohari dialect. However, the people of Chakwal or the Dhanni area in particular do not speak Pothohari and are ethnologically not regarded as Potoharis. They speak a distinctive Chakwali or Dhanni dialect of Punjabi.[16]

Jatki or Jangli is a dialect of Native tribes of areas whose names are often suffixed with 'Bar' derived from jungle bar before irrigation system arrived in the start of the 20th century, for example, Sandal Bar, Kirana Bar, Neeli Bar, Ganji Bar. Native people called their dialect as Jatki instead of Jangli. Jatki dialect is mostly spoken by indigenous peoples of Faisalabad, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Chiniot, Nankana Sahib, Hafizabad, Mandi Bahauddin, Sargodha, Jauharbad, Sahiwal, Okara, Pakpattan, Bahawalnagar, Vehari and Khanewal districts of Pakistani Punjab. It is also spoken in few areas of Sheikhupura, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalpur districts and Fazilka district of Indian Punjab.

Jhangochi/Jhangvi Jhangochi (جھنگوچی) spoken in Jhang and Khanewal districts is actually subdialect of Jatki/Jangli.

These are a form of Derawali very influenced by baluchi and sindhi languages, spoken in District, Pakistan|Musakhel]] and Barkhan, districts of Pakistani Province respectiv

Shahpuri dialect (also known as Sargodha dialect) is mostly spoken in Pakistani Punjab. Its name is derived from former Shahpur District (now Shahpur Tehsil, being part of Sargodha District). It is spoken throughout a widespread area, spoken in Sargodha and Khushab Districts and also spoken in neighbouring Mianwali and Bhakkar Districts. It is mainly spoken on western end of Sindh River to Chennab river crossing Jehlam river.[16]

Dogri is spoken in India and chiefly in the Jammu region of union territory of Jammu and Kashmir where it is the official language. It is also spoken in the state of Himachal Pradesh, and in northern Punjab, other parts of Jammu and Kashmir, and elsewhere.[17] Dogri speakers are called Dogras, and the Dogri-speaking region is called Duggar.[18] Although formerly treated as a Punjabi dialect,[19] Dogri is now considered to be a member of the Western Pahari group of languages.[20] However, according to Grewal and Banga(1998), despite Dogri being awarded the status of a language by the Indian government, Dogri is a spoken form of Punjabi.[21] Similarly, Joshi (2014) lists Dogri, Kangri, Bhattiyali and Poonchi as four dialects of Punjabi Pahari.[22] Unusually for an Indo-European language, Dogri is tonal,[23] a trait it shares with other Western Pahari languages and Punjabi.

Dogri has several varieties, all with greater than 80% lexical similarity (within Jammu and Kashmir).[24]

Kangri is an Indo-Aryan language variety spoken in northern India, predominantly in the Kangra, Hamirpur and Una districts of Himachal Pradesh and in the Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur districts of Punjab.[25] It is associated with the people of the Kangra Valley. The total number of speakers has been estimated at 1.7 million (as of 1996),[25] while those who reported their first language as Kangri in the 2011 census were 1.17 million[26] (compared with 1.12 million in 2001).[27]

Its precise position within Indo-Aryan is subject to debate. Some scholars have classified as a dialect of the Dogri language spoken to the west (and hence a member of Greater Punjabi), while others have seen its affinity to be closer with the Pahari dialects spoken to the east: Mandeali, Chambeali and Kullui.[28]

Pothohari is spoken in north Pakistani Punjab and Azad Kashmir. The area where it is spoken extends in the north from Muzaffarabad to as far south as Jhelum(mainly in Dina and Sohawa tehsils), Gujar Khan, Rawat and Rawalpindi, Murree Hills north of Rawalpindi, and east to Bhimber. Chibhali and Dhundi-Kairali dialects may be related. It merges with Hindko dialects in the north at Attock. Though the city of Rawalpindi sits surrounded by potohari speaker, the language spoken within the Rawalpindi city limits is similar to Standard punjabi mixed with potohari.

Gojri is mostly spoken by Gujjars in northern Punjab and Kashmir region. However not all Gujjars speak Gojri as their mother tongue. Many scholors however consider it to be a separate language in its own right with some similarities to northern and eastern dialects of Punjabi.

The diverse dialects of the furthest northwest areas of "Greater Punjabi" are known as Hindko. The central Hindko dialects comprise Ghebi, Awankari, Chacchi and Kohati. Peshawari, the divergent dialect spoken to the northwest in Peshawar, has been used as a basis for a literary language. The dialect of the Hazara region to the northeast forms a dialect group of its own known as Northern Hindko or Kagani.

Ghebi is quite similar to the Potowari dialect, but differs slightly, for example in the past tense, in which it uses (ahay+prefix) for 'was'. For example, "Mea ahayaan" means "I was". It also uses "Vinjna" instead of "jaana" or "gchna" for "going". It is mostly spoken in Fateh Jang Tehsil and Pindi Gheb Tehsil in Pakistani Punjab.

The emergent language of the southern parts of Punjab is Saraiki. Its standard is based on the central dialect of Multani. Other dialects that are commonly associated with it are Riasti (also known as Bahawalpuri or Choolistani) to the south and Thali (or Thalochri) to the northwest. The varieties of Multani and Thali spoken in the west along the boundary with Balochistan and Pashtun dominated regions are also known as Derawali. More than 26,000,000.00 people are Saraiki. It is an educational and institutional language.[29]