Punjabi or Panjabi is an Indo-aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region (north western India and in Pakistan). For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies would take place and Punjabi is the most spoken language in Pakistan.
According to the Ethnologue 2005 estimate, there are 88 million native speakers of the Punjabi language, which makes it approximately the 12th most widely spoken language in the world. According to the 2008 Census of Pakistan, there are 76,335,300 native Punjabi speakers in Pakistan and according to the 2001 Census of India, there are 29,102,477 Punjabi speakers in India.
Punjabi language has many different dialects, spoken in the different sub-regions of greater Punjab. The Majhi dialect is Punjabi's prestige dialect. This dialect is considered as textbook Punjabi and is spoken in the historical region of Majha, centralizing in Lahore and Amritsar.
Along with Lahnda and Western Pahari languages, Punjabi is unusual among modern Indo-European languages because it is a tonal language.
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language like many other modern languages of South Asia. It is a descendant of Sauraseni Prakrit, which was the chief language of medieval northern India.
Punjabi is spoken as a native
language by over 2.85% of Indians. Punjabi is the official language of the
Indian state of Punjab and the shared state capital Chandigarh. It is one of the official
languages of the state of Delhi and the second language of Haryana.
