The Punjabi dialects and languages, also known as Greater Punjabi, or simply Punjabi, are a series of dialects and language varieties spoken around the Punjab region of Pakistan and India, with varying degrees of official recognition. They have sometimes been referred to as the Greater Punjabi macrolanguage. Punjabi may also be considered as a pluricentric language with more than one standard variety.
Punjabi is a language spoken primarily in the Punjab region, which is divided between India and Pakistan. It is also spoken by Punjabi diaspora communities around the world. Punjabi has several dialects that can vary based on geographical, cultural, and historical factors.
The varieties of Punjabi have a number of characteristics in common, for example the preservation of the Prakrit double consonants in stressed syllables. As of recently, linguists classify it as a language group, within the Northwestern zone of Indo-Aryan languages, with dialects and vareties that are mutually intelligble to one another.
Geographic distribution
The literary languages that have developed on the basis of dialects of this area are Standard Punjabi in eastern and central Punjab, Saraiki in the southwest, and Hindko and Pahari-Pothwari in the northwest. A distinction is usually made between Punjabi in the east and the diverse group of "Lahnda" in the west. "Lahnda" typically subsumes the Saraiki and Hindko varieties, with Jhangvi and Shahpuri intermediate between the two groups. Pothwari shares features with both Lahnda and Punjabi.
Commonly recognised Eastern Punjabi dialects include Majhi (the standard), Doabi, Malwai, and Puadhi. The "Lahnda" variety of Khetrani in the far west may be intermediate between Saraiki and Sindhi.
Pakistan
Punjabi, Hindko and Saraiki are listed separately in the census enumerations of Pakistan. According to the 2017 Census of Pakistan, there are 80,536,390 Punjabi speakers; 25,324,637 Saraiki speakers and 5,065,879 Hindko speakers. Saraiki was added to the census in 1981, and Hindko was added in 2017, prior to which both were represented by Lahnda language. In areas such as Gujar Khan and Rawalpindi where Pothwari is a spoken language, speakers significantly selected 'Punjabi" instead of "Other" in all previous census enumeration.
Azad Kashmir
In a statistical survey carried about by a proxy of the Government of Azad Kashmir, most speakers of Azad Kashmir spoke a variety of Pothwari, while Punjabi attained a plurality in the Bhimber district. Some Pothwari speakers in Azad Kashmir and the Pothohar refer to their mother tongue as Punjabi, hence those choosing 'Punjabi' may be referring to 'Pothwari'.
India
In India, Punjabi is listed as a constitutional language and is counted in the census returns. According to the 2011 Census of India, there are 33,124,726 Punjabi speakers which includes the varieties of Bagri (1,656,588 speakers) Bilaspuri (295,805 speakers) and Bhateali (23,970 speakers). Bagri is spoken in parts of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. Bilaspuri and Bhateali are spoken in Himachal Pradesh. The status of Bagri is split between Punjabi and Rajasthani in the census returns with options available under Punjabi and Rajasthani. Gusain (1991) places Bagri as a Rajasthani dialect. Similarly, the identities of Bilaspuri and Bhateali are also split, in their case, between Punjabi and Dogri.
Lahnda languages are only enumerated in the census returns in India with 108,791 speakers listed in the 2011 census. The varieties listed under Lahnda are Bahawalpuri (29,253 speakers); Multani which is described as Hindi Multani (61,722 speakers) and unclassified (17,816 speakers). Punchi is spoken in Jammu. The language variety is listed under Lahnda as it, together with Bahwalpuri and Multani satisfies the "criterion of 10,000 or more speakers at the all India level".