The literary standards that have developed on the basis of dialects are:
Majhi-based
Standard Punjabi in eastern and central Punjab,
Saraiki in the southwest, and
Pahari-Pothwari and
Hindko in the northwest. A distinction is usually made between
Eastern Punjabi in the east and
Lahnda (Western Punjabi) in the west. Lahnda typically subsumes the Saraiki and Hindko varieties, with
Jhangvi,
Shahpuri, and
Dhanni being intermediate between other Lahnda varieties and Eastern Punjabi. Pahari-Pothwari shares features with both Lahnda and Central/Eastern Punjabi.
Pakistan Punjabi, Hindko and Saraiki are listed separately in the census enumerations of Pakistan. According to the
2017 Census of Pakistan, there are 80,536,390 Punjabi speakers; 25,324,637 Saraiki speakers and 5,065,879 Hindko speakers. Saraiki was added to the census in 1981, and Hindko was added in 2017, prior to which both were represented by "Punjabi" in general. In areas such as
Gujar Khan and
Rawalpindi where Pothwari is the spoken variety, speakers significantly selected "Punjabi" instead of "Other" in all previous census enumeration.
Azad Kashmir In a statistical survey carried about by a proxy of the
Government of Azad Kashmir, most speakers of
Azad Kashmir spoke a variety of
Pahari-Pothwari, while
Majhi (represented simply as "Punjabi") attained a plurality in the
Bhimber district. Some Pahari-Pothwari speakers in Azad Kashmir, like the ones in
Pothohar, simply refer to their mother tongue as "Punjabi".
India In India, Punjabi is listed as a constitutional language and is counted in the census returns. According to the
2011 Census of India, there are 33,124,726 Punjabi speakers which includes the varieties of
Bagri (1,656,588 speakers)
Bilaspuri (295,805 speakers) and
Bhateali (23,970 speakers). Bagri is spoken in parts of
Punjab,
Haryana and
Rajasthan. Bilaspuri and Bhateali are spoken in
Himachal Pradesh. The status of Bagri is split between Punjabi and
Rajasthani in the census returns with options available under Punjabi and Rajasthani. Gusain (1991) places Bagri as a Rajasthani dialect. Similarly, the identities of Bilaspuri and Bhateali are also split, in their case, between Punjabi and
Dogri. Lahnda (Western Punjabi) varieties are enumerated separately in the census returns in India with 108,791 speakers listed in the 2011 census. The varieties listed under Lahnda are 'Bahawalpuri' (29,253 speakers); 'Multani' which is described as 'Hindi Multani' (61,722 speakers) and unclassified (17,816 speakers). 'Poonchi' is spoken in
Jammu; and is listed under Lahnda as it, together with 'Bahwalpuri' and 'Multani' satisfies the "criterion of 10,000 or more speakers at the all India level". Historically, Dogri was considered to be a dialect of Punjabi spoken primarily in
Jammu. In the 1941 Census,
Dogri was listed under Punjabi. Since 2003, Dogri is listed as an independent language in the constitution of India. According to the 2011 Census - India, there are 2,596,767 Dogri speakers. Similar to Dogri, the
Kangri language spoken in
Himachal Pradesh was regarded as a Punjabi dialect but since 1971, it has been reclassified under Hindi. There were 1,117,342 Kangri speakers listed in the 2011 Census- India. Despite the independent status of Dogri and reclassification of Kangri, both languages are claimed to fall within Punjabi by some writers. Others place Dogri and Kangri within the Western Pahari group. Eberle et al. (2020) believe Dogri and Kangri are related to Eastern Punjabi and place these languages in a group of related languages descended from an intermediate division of
Indo-Aryan languages. == See also ==