Western Punjabi ( Z.-Punj. پنجابی , Eng. Western Panjabi ) is a term for the variant of Punjabi that is spoken in Pakistan. Over 62 million carriers. Writing based on the Arabic alphabet ( Shahmukhi ).
| Western punjabi | |
|---|---|
| Self name | پنجابی |
| Country |  Pakistan |
| Regions | Punjab |
| Official status | Punjab |
| Total number of speakers | over 60.6 million in Pakistan (SIL, 2000); total number 62,648,000 |
| Classification | |
| Category | Languages of Eurasia |
Indo-European family
| |
| Writing | shahmukhi (based on the Arabic alphabet ) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | - |
| ISO 639-2 | - |
| ISO 639-3 | pnb |
| Ethnologue | |
| Ietf | |
| Glottolog | |
Western Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language . In the classification, SIL is included in the macro language of Lahnd , although some modern researchers (C. Shackle) have refused to use this classification.
Dialects
The literary language (both Western and Eastern Punjabi) is based on the Maji dialect - the dialect of the historical region of Maj , the dialect of Amritsar and Lahore . There is a high degree of mutual understanding between the carriers of majjis on both sides of the Indo-Pakistani border.
Status
Western Punjabi does not have an official status in Pakistan despite the fact that it is the largest number of native speakers in the country (44.15% of the population).
Links
Western Punjabi at Ethnologue. Languages of the World .