Is Punjabi a mere dialect of Hindi?

[Rafi]

Punjabi is a beautiful and unique language, please do not disrespect it.

 

[Shamain]

Punjabi is a beautiful and unique language, please do not disrespect it.

Hahahahahahhah.
Ohhh mannnn!!!!! This is called some response. Hahahahhaha

 

[Jackdaws]

A bit off topic - I had read that there is actually a Dravidian language named Brahui which is spoken only in Pakistan. I found this quite amazing - as obviously Pakistan is far away from the Vindhyas. Any member here speak it?

 

[Armstrong]

Thing which can be read, written & spoken...how can that be a mere dialect ? dumbo !!

Tenu Punjabi kaduun diii aa gaiii ?

 

[agamdilawari]

Tenu Punjabi kaduun diii aa gaiii ?

Jadon da main paida hoya si. Jamm deyan hi pehlan wardboy nu gal kaddi sigi

 

[Shamain]

A bit off topic - I had read that there is actually a Dravidian language named Brahui which is spoken only in Pakistan. I found this quite amazing - as obviously Pakistan is far away from the Vindhyas. Any member here speak it?

@farhan_9909 i think once u were talking abt this? Isnt it in whatever thread?

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Dont fix if aint broken. With so many problems at hand with reference to education system, you are proposing Pushto or Persian as Pakistan's national language. In my view all languages should be sacked for good and English be adapted as a single language for the purposes of education and office work. People can adhere to their mother tongues but these languages have no place in a society where English has become lingua franca.

Agreed. It 2015 not 1950 and it is too late. I was merely speculating ..

 

[Raja.Pakistani]

I bet Punjabi existed before Hindi so this question dont make sense

 

[tsinga]

Norweigian, Swedish are rather similar but nevertheless differant languages. Polish, Slovakian and even Russian are similar ( I once had a occasion to talk to a interpreter who was helping me to communicate with Slovak Gypsies and I found out she was Polish -rather surprised I asked how she also could speak Slovak. Her reply was Slovak/Polish are Slav languages that are so close that both can be understood although there are of course differances. On that scale Serbian, Russian, Ukranian are also similar although the divergence increases further east you go. Most languages will have similarties. At what point you decide to call then unique is purely subjective and mostly informed by politics so your not going to get a objective answer.

Where there is external political push to create uniformity then Punjabi can be press ganged into the "Hindi" umbrella. Using the European benchmark Punjabi is a separate language. As regards to whether it is taught officially in Pakistan I believe it is not despite being the language of 65% of the population. however non of the native languages of the provinces that make Pakistan, Pashto, Punjabi, Baloch or Sindhi are taught at schools.

I believe this was a terrible mistake as Urdu was alien to most of the population. However because in Pakistan's formative years the Urdu community was dominant group Urdu was foisted on everybody and local languages were ignored unlike in India where everybody got equal chance with each stare kkepings it's language. Pakistan made a mistake but that is another story.

Indeed, I cannot quite understand why Pakistanis are not promoting their own languages and instead taking languages of other areas.

For example the Pakistani national anthem is in Persian. What is the point? Then it might as well have been Arabic or French, because ultimately it should be one of the native languages of Pakistan.

And why do the states of Pakistan not have their own languages? Even if the Urdu community was dominant at the time of partition, what sense does it make to foist one language on the entire nation? Because it will without a doubt lead to the death of the regional languages of Pakistan which have thousands of years of history and heritage.

Instead if Pakistani states of Punjab, Sindh, etc were to formally be the official languages of the states while keeping Urdu as the Link Language, then all could prosper!

Its like Pakistanis are deliberately leaving behind their culture and history of their particular geography!

 

[syedali73]

@Atanz So how we differentiate between language and dialect? My take on this is, a language is always associated with a distinct culture whereas dialects lack this association.

 

[Levina]

Actually all the languages spoken in the world today are mere dialect of Sanskrit. The genus Homo have migrated out of Ganges planes and every human is originally Hindu.

Bow down!!!

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Indeed, I cannot quite understand why Pakistanis are not promoting their own languages and instead taking languages of other areas.

For example the Pakistani national anthem is in Persian. What is the point? Then it might as well have been Arabic or French, because ultimately it should be one of the native languages of Pakistan.

And why do the states of Pakistan not have their own languages? Even if the Urdu community was dominant at the time of partition, what sense does it make to foist one language on the entire nation? Because it will without a doubt lead to the death of the regional languages of Pakistan which have thousands of years of history and heritage.

Instead if Pakistani states of Punjab, Sindh, etc were to formally be the official languages of the states while keeping Urdu as the Link Language, then all could prosper!

Its like Pakistanis are deliberately leaving behind their culture and history of their particular geography!

Yeh, it took a Indian to see the common sense in that. Trust me in Pakistan it is almost treason to ask for our own languages being given respect. In fact it is treason to talk about our history. In our narrative Porus is ignored and Tipu is hero. Go figure. Because Urdu was foisted on us it give one community unfair advantage which continues to this day. Check out Dawn, Ary, Geo and you will see what I mean. To mention this is mortal sin in Pakistan.

And this also leads to this digusting infatuation with India. I don't want to know what is happening in Allahabad, in Lucknow or Hyderabad. Every second article in Dawn is about India .......

Dawn might as well shift their offices to Lucknow ...

@Atanz So how we differentiate between language and dialect? My take on this is, a language is always associated with a distinct culture whereas dialects lack this association.

This is entirely subjective. The grading and apportionment used is a art form and not science. Thus politics and subjectivity will creap in. This is a given.

Your definition merely confirms my statement because what is "distinct culture" is subjective. Where do you draw the lines of a intangible amorphous concept such as "culture"? How you measure and quantify distinctive. That is like asking what is cold or warm, or tall and short, or how long is piece of string?

 

[syedali73]

Yeh, it took a Indian to see the common sense in that. Trust me in Pakistan it is almost treason to ask for our own languages being given respect. In fact it is treason to talk about our history. In our narrative Porus is ignored and Tipu is hero. Go figure. Because Urdu was foisted on us it give one community unfair advantage which continues to this day. Check out Dawn, Ary, Geo and you will see what I mean. To mention this is mortal sin in Pakistan.

Please do not make a mountain out of a molehill. You have extreme views on this issue and you are misinforming others. You are implying as if people are prosecuted for speaking in their native languages, and as if the native languages are all but dead and only because of Urdu. What undue favor are you talking about? Until now, after 70+ years, Urdu is not adopted as an official language. What advantage a person would get by speaking Urdu? Nobody stopped the provinces from teaching their local languages in the Schools. In-fact in Sindh, Sindhi is already compulsory in Schools and Urdu speaking community, which you hate to the core of your heart, accepted it. In my previous post I mentioned to you that more than one languages are spoken in each province and it would be a logistical nightmare to make everybody learn every language. Needless to say that it would consume lots of time of a student that could have been spent on studying other more relevant subjects. Quid-e-Azam and his companions were not idiots (or any less smarter than you) when they went for a single language (that was supported by all ethnicities except Bengalis) that had the capacity to unite a nation.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Please do not make a mountain out of a molehill. You have extreme views on this issue and you are misinforming others. You are implying as if people are prosecuted for speaking in their native languages, and as if the native languages are all but dead and only because of Urdu. What undue favor are you talking about? Until now, after 70+ years, Urdu is not adopted as an official language. What advantage a person would get by speaking Urdu? Nobody stopped the provinces from teaching their local languages in the Schools. In-fact in Sindh, Sindhi is already compulsory in Schools and Urdu speaking community, which you hate to the core of your heart, accepted it. In my previous post I mentioned to you that more than one languages are spoken in each province and it would be a logistical nightmare to make everybody learn every language. Needless to say that it would consume lots of time of a student that could have been spent on studying other more relevant subjects. Quid-e-Azam and his companions were not idiots (or any less smarter than you) when they went for a single language (that was supported by all ethnicities except Bengalis) that had the capacity to unite a nation.

Well let us disagree on this. India with it's 100s of languages has managed to give each state their own mandated language. If they could do that I know for sure it would have been logistically easier in Pakistan but I accept it is too late now. It should have been done in 1950s.

I never said Qaid or his companions were idiots. On the other hand I don't regard them as superhuman either. Churchill who led them in WW2 was promptly chucked out post war. No leader is holy and above making mistakes. Human beings are not binary concepts. I have nothing else to add. I don't want this matter going somewhere else.

 

[Jungibaaz]

Incredibly ignorant comment, if you're saying this, then you probably don't know Punjabi, at least Punjabi beyond the common speech of city folk.