PANJABI LANGUAGE (alternatively PuNJABI), the lan guage of the Central Punjab (properly Panjab). It is spoken by over 17,000,000 people between (approximately) the 77th and 74th degrees of east longitude. The vernacular of this tract was originally an old form of the modern Lahncla, a member of the outer group of Indo-Aryan languages (q.v.), but it now belongs to the intermediate group, possessing most of the characteristics of the Midland language, with occasional traces of the old outer basis which become more and more prominent as we go west wards. At 74° E. it merges into the modern Lahnda.
The vocabulary of Panjabi is very similar to that of western Hindi. Panjabi has no literature to speak of and is free from the burden of words borrowed from Persian or Sanskrit, only the commonest and simplest of such being found in it. Its vocabu lary is thus almost entirely tadbhava, and, while capable of ex pressing all ideas, it has a charming rustic flavour, like the Low land Scots of Burns, indicative of the national character of the sturdy peasantry that employs it. The indigenous alphabet of
the Punjab is called Landa or "clipped." It is related to Nagari, but is hardly legible to any one except the original writer, and sometimes not even to him. To remedy this defect an improved form of the alphabet was devised in the 16th century by Angad, the fifth Sikh Guru, for the purpose of recording the Sikh scrip tures. It was named Gurmukhi, "proceeding from the mouth of the Guru," and is now generally used for writing the language.
See Linguistic Survey of India, vol. ix. pt. 1, p. 607, seq. for a full account with specimens of the language and bibliography.