Punjabi Language (Gurmukhi)

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Punjabi Language also spelled PANJABI, central Indo-Aryan language spoken in Punjab, an area now divided between India and Pakistan; to the west, modern Punjabi merges into the Lahnda language (q.v.). Punjabi is one of the 14 regional languages recognized in the Indian constitution. Writing system developed by the Sufis and Sikhs in India for the sacred literature. It seems to have been modified from the Landa script, which is used to write the Punjabi, Lahnda, and Sindhi languages. Landa, Gurmukhi, and two other scripts used in northwestern India, Sharada and Takri, make up a related group that is probably descended from a common ancestor In vocabulary it is very similar to Western Hindi. It has little literature and shows little borrowing from Persian, Arabic, or Sanskrit. Two alphabets are used: Lahnda, indigenous to the region and related to Devanagari; and Gurmukhi, devised by the Sikh Guru Angad (1539-52) in order to correct certain inadequacies in the Landa script so that sacred literature might be accurately recorded. The alphabet has 42 letters, 32 consonantal signs and 10 vowel signs. to be used for the scriptures of the Sikhs and now employed for general purposes as well. Earlier, Punjabi was transported to other regions in India and even to China. Punjabi Gurmukhi,is mainly used in India. In Pakistan, Punjabi is mainly spoken rather than written; it is also a predominantly rural rather than an urban language. Urdu, rather than Punjabi, is the first language taught in schools in Punjab, so that every educated Punjabi reads and writes Urdu. There was a movement for the promotion of the Punjabi language in the 1980s and -90s, and some Punjabi literature is being published using the Urdu script; among the works published are Punjabi classics that have hitherto been available in Gurmukhi script or preserved in oral tradition.

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