Can all pakistanis Speak Punjabi?

[Subramanian]

This quetion is same like.......................can all indians speak hindi (Consider from south india, Kerala, Tamil and other states).............also can all punjabi's in India can speak Hindi

I know the situation in india and it is not the same in pakistan.I was interested in this because i have heard many cricketers talk in talk shows and i found all of them to be speaking in punjabi a lot.And i know everyone speaks urdu but sometimes one language could get so popular that everyone speaks it.

In india Haryana,Himachal,Kashmir and even parts of upper rajasthan people can understand punjabi.

 

[Subramanian]

I can assure everyone, that despite Punjabi being a huge language in Pakistan, almost everyone from all parts of Pakistan speaks Urdu. I don't think Hindi/Hindustani is spoken as much over India, given my prolonged experience with Gujaratis (outside of Ahmedabad & Baroda), South Indians & other Indians. In fact, I had to learn Gujarati living with my Gujju friends to communicate effectively with them. Only in Madhya Pradesh & a few central Indian states is pure Hindi spoken, most other people speak Hindustani.

Anyways, some cities in Pakistan, such as Lahore & others played a very important in the development of Urdu language over centuries. Even if it might not be everyone's first language, it is spoken & understood by almost all Pakistanis. Urdu is spoken because people in Pakistan are proud of their national language, & speak with each other in it, even when they speak in other languages at home & are proud of their regional language. I've met Gujarati people here, & almost all of them are extremely poor in Hindi, & cannot live anywhere with people other than Gujjus, or get out of their Gujju circle. Outside of Pakistan, Pakistanis call themselves Pakistanis, not their ethnicity. Most Pakistanis don't even care or bother to find out what ethnicity the other person is, being Pakistani is just fine for them. Outside of India, Gujaratis call themselves Gujaratis first, Punjabis call themselves Punjabis first, Tamils call themselves Tamils first etc. In Pakistan, national identity is more important than ethnic identity, even though ethnic identity is important to all, & cherished by all. Most regional languages are written in Urdu script as well.

Haan Bilal,

But these days people are chilled out in general and hindi/english is very normal anywhere in india.

 

[Subramanian]

One of the best things about Lahore, we dont give a fcuk which ethnicity one belongs !! whoever one is, got to join the league, that is be Pakistani...

we take people for what they are saying, not what their face is telling about their background...

that is why despite the migration burden was most on Punjab, we still maintain no ethnic hatred at all...

even we dont have any problem with Afghanis, they didnt bring anything bad to our lands... they are just trying to earn their living... and thats all...so welcome all, is typical culture of Lahore.

When i think of Lahore

I want some kebabs,some whiskey,nusrat saab's voice in the background perhaps sitting in a quiet restaurant.

 

[Lyallpur Jatt]

I must say though, I have never heard Punjabi spoken better in any place (India or Pakistani Punjab) than Faisalabad. The Punjabi spoken in Faisalabad is in a class of its own, whether its comes to crude comments, or literary Punjabi works

I'm surprised you say that you've never heard a 'better' spoken Punjabi among Indian Punjabis for Faisalabadi Punjabi is, of course, Punjabi of the Doaba dialect. Doaba, referring to the area between the rivers Beas and Sutlej....especially in the Jullunder district of Indian Punjab. With the rural doaba jatts making up the vast majority of Sikhs that have emigrated to England, Canada, America, Australia and New Zealand (despite being a small minority of Sikhs in India), it is the dialect / accent of Punjabi that is most often heard among Sikhs in the west (though not in Indian Punjab itself). The reason the doaba Punjabi became the accent / dialect of rural Faisalabad (Lyallpur) is because that was the area that all the muslim jatt clans from rural Jullunder were housed at partition. So.....the average jullunder district Sikh can go 20 miles to the north and find he speaks a totally different dialect of Punjabi to the people there.......He can continue north and cross the border into Punjabi and still find that his Punjabi is totally different to the majha Punjabi being spoken in Amritsar / Lahore. He can then continue travelling north again for hundreds of miles, untill he reaches rural faisalabad and then find he is among doaba speakers again.....in villages where that house people with the same jatt clan surnames as himself. 1947 threw up a whole manner of peculiarities in this regard. Take the potowari dialect of Rawalpindi for example. Pre-1947 some of the main speakers of potwari were the urban khatri sikhs and hindus that lived in the Rawalpindi area. After partition, they, being loathe to live amongst the rougher and tougher jatt sikhs of Punjab, chose en-masse to move to the city of Delhi instead......to the extent that the city of Delhi became a Punjabi dominated city, and the dialect of Punjabi spoken in Delhi among the elite is more often than not the potwari dialect of Rawalpindi.

 

[aks18]

According to the Ethnologue 2005 estimate,[1] there are 88 million native speakers of the Punjabi language, which makes it approximately the 12th most widely spoken language in the world. According to the 2008 Census of Pakistan,[4] there are 76,335,300 native Punjabi speakers in Pakistan and according to the 2001 Census of India, there are 29,102,477 Punjabi speakers in India.


I dont think so its a regional language :S and the one who called it useless should know it its the one of the largest speaking language so spread the word of peace by this beautiful n sweet language

 

[aks18]

Countries by number of Punjabi speakers

---------- Post added at 08:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:40 PM ----------

1 Pakistan 76,335,300[21]
2 India 29,109,672[22]
3 United Kingdom 500,000
4 Canada 300,000
5 United Arab Emirates 200,000
6 United States 200,000
7 Saudi Arabia 100,000
8 Hong Kong 100,000
9 Malaysia 185,000[citation needed]
10 South Africa 30,000
11 Burma 120,000
12 France 90,000
13 Greece 80,000
14 Thailand 75,000
15 Japan 75,000
16 Mauritius 70,000
17 Singapore 70,000
18 Oman 68,000
19 Libya 65,000
20 Bahrain 60,000
21 Kenya 55,000
22 Australia 50,000
23 Tanzania 45,000
24 Kuwait 40,000
25 Germany 35,000

 

[A1Kaid]

I can understand Punjabi, since I've been exposed to it throughout my life. Though I prefer to speak Urdu. I can understand and/or speak Urdu, English, Hindi, Punjabi, some Spanish, and wish I could speak fluent Turkce.

 

[A1Kaid]

I speak English and Urdu only.

I expected you would also be able to speak Norwegian...

 

[Lyallpur Jatt]

Countries by number of Punjabi speakers

AKS18, your number of Punjabi speakers in different countries is way off. Lets take the UK for example ; Including the illegals there's over 500,000 Sikhs alone. Add the even more numerous Pakistanis into the equation and you can easily double that figure....and we haven't even began counting the Hindu Punjabis also. Then you've got Canada and America. Both these countries now easily outnumber the UK when it comes to Sikhs. And countries such as Italy don't even make it on to your list. Has anyone been to the rural Parma region of Italy lately ? Village after village resembles Punjab. Seeing as there are something like 70 Gurdwaras just in those rural areas alone I would estimate Italy's Punjabi speaking population to be in excess of 200,000.

Just a little note about myself : I am a London born Jatt Sikh. Both my parents are also London born....my grandparents having emigrated in the 1940's. I, my parents and my children speak Punjabi like we were born and bred on a Faisalabadi farm. None of us speak a word of Hindi. Why would be able to ? Punjabi is 900 years older than Hindi and we see it as a foreign language from central India that we Sikhs have never let penetrate Punjab....because it does not belong on that soil. Same with the even newer language Urdu. During the Sikh Kingdom of Maharaja Ranjit Singh a notable feature about the Sikhs, and all the other Punjabis, is that they never looked south to central India for anything. We Punjabis saw it as a very very foreign land. In contrast, the Sikhs always looked north towards central Asia, making farsi the official language of Punjab (farsi was the language of the court.....punjabi the language of the street....and French the official language of war). If you told how grandparents that one day the newer languages of the skinny dark little central Indians (hindi and urdu) were going to be heard on the soil of Punjab they would have laughed at you.
But...Punjabi pride lives on and goes from strength to strength. Second most spoken language in the greatest city on earth ; London....and part of the school curricilum in Vancouver (where year after year Chinese students have been scoring the highest marks in exams). The secret...as per my family for the last 70 years in London is to have one golden rule in the family home : Only Punjabi can be spoken at home.

 

[Thorough Pro]

Nothing more,is it the case?

Troll!!! Pakistani members need to be weary of such innocent looking hate sowing posts.

 

[Pakistanisage]

Nothing more,is it the case?

No , we just speak English ( our National language ).......

 

[Raja.Pakistani]

Punjabi is 900 years older than Hindi and we see it as a foreign language from central India that we Sikhs have never let penetrate Punjab....because it does not belong on that soil. Same with the even newer language Urdu.

Where did you get this from?

Punjabi emerged as an independent language in the 11th century. The first traces of punjabi language can be found in works of nath yogis(jogis) gorkahnath & charpat nath in 9th & 10th century. The Punjabi literary tradition is popularly seen to commence with Fariduddin Ganjshakar (Baba Farid) (1173–1266), many ancient Sufi mystics and later Guru Nanak Dev ji, the first Guru of Sikhism

source: wikipedia

 

[AUz]

One thing I noticed

Why Indian Sikhs mix "Punjabi (Identity not language)" with religion? I mean Sikhs don't call themselves Sikhs mostly.If you ask "Who are you"? They would reply, "I'm a Punjabi" ..By this, they mean that they are from Sikh religion.Like once I told my friend that I'm a punjabi too and he replied "Aren't you Muslim"?

Lyallpur jatt would you agree? If yes then why Sikhs do that? I mean any particular reason?

Note: I'm in NO WAY trying to troll or something.I just want Sikhs' perspective on this.....

 

[Baby Leone]

what a stupid Q..:s expected from indians only..:p

wese punjabi is easy language compare to other pakistani languages.......so most ppl understand it...
i can understand a bit of punjabi (just songs of abrar and others ) but cannt speak....

 

[Uchiha]

Actually what i have observed, take the example of Pashtuns, Balochis, Sindhis, they will speak in Pashtu, Balochi, Sindhi with their kids while at home, irrespective how much they are literate. But there is a 'Beemari' with punjabis, They will always try to Speak Urdu with their kids, therefore most the punjabi kids speak 'gulabi urdu'.

Btw that reminds me an sms which I got some time back,,,,

Ghar main punjabi bolo,
School main Urdu Bolo,
Papers english main do,
aur jab mar jao to hisaab Arby main do,

hum kaun kaun si zabane sikhain.....

Not really, all of the sindhis in my school speak urdu at home, and only know the curses of sindhi. Although pathans speak pushto at home - but normally they do mix some urdu words and count in urdu numbers