- Courtesty of
Due to vast area of land where Punjabi is spoken, different local
variations or dialects have developed.
Majhi: Spoken in the heart of Punjab i.e., Lahore , Sialkot,
Gujaranwala, Gurdaspur, Amritsar. Most of the population of Punjab
lives in this area and linguists also say that Majhi dialect is
the "Tixali boli" i.e., it has been influenced by all other dialects.
Malwi: Spoken in the east Punjab area of Ludhiana, Ambala, Bathinda,
Ganganagar, Maleerkotla Fazilka, Ferozepur. This area (Malwa) is the
southern and central part of present day Indian Punjab. Also includes
the Punjabi speaking areas of Haryana, viz. Ambala, Hissar, Sirsa,
Kurukhetra etc. (northern parts of Haryana mainly).
Doabi: Land between the rivers of Beas and Satluj is called Doaba. Do
Aaba lierally means "the land between two waters" in Persian. It
includes Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, and large number of Punjabis from
this area have gone out to U.K., USA, Canada or elsewhere.
Pothohari: The area where Pothohari is spoken extends in the north
from Kashmir to as far south as Jehlum and Gujar Khan and includes
the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad. The whole area (i.e. the north-
west of Punjab) is beautiful scenic area. It's here that the
beautiful hilly resorts of Murree, Ayubia, Nathia-Gali lies. This
dialect is similar to some extent to the Hindko dialect of Punjabi
which is spoken in Peshawar, Nowshehra, Mansehra all these areas lie
in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan where majority
language is Pashto, but Hindko speakers area also found in sizable
Jhangvi: The region where Jhangvi is spoken stretches from Khanewal
to Jhang and includes the cities of Faisalabad, Chiniot. Jhangvi
dialect is also called the "Jangli" dialect of Punjabi. This is the
land of Heer/Ranjha. Their tomb is located in Jhang city. Sultan Bahu
is an important saint of this area.
Multani: The dialect spoken in Multan, Bahawalpur, Khairpur, Daira
Ghazi Khan, Muzafar Garh i.e., southern deserts of Punjab is called
Multani (also Lehndi by some) and perhaps differs from Punjabi more
than any other dialect. This is the land of Muslim Sufis,
perhaps "Shah Shams Sabazwari" who came to Multan in 1165 AD was the
first in a long series of Sufis to base themselves in Multan.
Which dialect do you speak? Can someone give me a sentence which
shows the difference in speach from one are to another. For example,
someone from Ambala, Jalandhar, Lahore, and Multan.
Oh, and I posted some dictionaries in links. Check them out and tell
me what you think of them.