PUNJABI LANGUAGE

also spelled Panjabi, central Indo-Aryan language spoken in Punjab (around Lahore and Amritsar), 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. 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 (ruled 153952) 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.