From : RIMTIAN
Added: Dec 7, 2008
Introduction Punjabi (also known as Panjabi) is a member of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. Punjab mapEastern Punjabi is spoken as a first language primarily in the state of Punjab by 27 million people (Ethnologue). Western Punjabi (also known as Lahnda) is spoken by 60 million people in the Punjab province of PunjabPakistan (Ethnologue). There are also speakers of these dialects in a number of other countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, United Kingdom, the U.S., and Canada. In Canada, Punjabi is spoken by over 250,000 speakers, making it the country's sixth largest language. Ancestors of the Punjabis are thought to have inhabited the Indus Valley at least as far back as 2,500 BC. The area suffered numerous invasions by Indo-Aryan, Persian, Greek, Arab, Afghan, and British invaders. Indo-Aryan invasions impacted the language of the ancient Punjabis with the result that, like other Indo-Aryan Punjab manlanguages, Punjabi evolved from Sanskrit through Prakrit, a large group of ancient Indic languages spoken some time between the 6th and the 13th centuries AD. Punjab mapEastern Punjabi is one of the 22 official languages and 14 regional languages of India. It is the medium of everyday communication in the Indian state of Punjab and is also used in education, government, business and the media. * Western Punjabi has no official status in Pakistan. Punjabi speakers in Pakistan tend to use Urdu and English in government, media, and education, as well as in most writing. * Punjabi is the religious language of the Sikhs. It is also the language of the popular Bhangra folk dance and singing. There are up to thirty varieties of Punjabi. They form a continuum between Western and Eastern Punjabi. For the most part, the dialects are mutually intelligible, even though there are differences in pronunciation and vocabulary among them. The main dialects of Punjabi are as follows: * India Majhi (standard written form of Punjabi used in both Amritsar and Lahore Doabi Malwai Powadhi * Pakistan Pothohari Lahndi Multani Punjabi expatriates around the world speak a creolized form of the language that is increasingly deviating from the norms of Punjabi spoken in India and Pakistan. Tones Punjabi is a tonal language. It has three tones: High, Mid, and Low. The tone of a word is a pitch pattern permanently associated with it. A change of tone changes the meaning of a word. Stress Stress in Punjabi can fall on any syllable of a word, and therefore can differentiate words that are otherwise identical. In general, however, stress falls on the penultimate (one before last) syllable unless the syllable ends in a short vowel. If so, then the stress fall on the antepenultimate (second from the end) syllable.
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