Hindi and Punjabi are two of the many languages spoken in India. In addition, Punjabi is spoken in parts of Pakistan.
Both Hindi and Punjabi are major languages. Nearly everyone has heard of Bollywood (the Hindi language film industry), but there is also a Punjabi-language film industry in India. It’s called Pollywood.
Now, let’s look at the differences and similarities between Punjabi and Hindi.
A greeting like “hello” translates to नमस्ते (namaste) in Hindi and could be translated as ਸਤਿ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਅਕਾਲ (sat srī akāl) in Punjabi. Not only are these two greetings very different, but as you might notice, Hindi and Punjabi use different writing systems.
Admittedly, those two written systems do look alike. That’s because the Devanagari script (used for Hindi) and the Gurmukhi script (used for Punjabi) originate from the ancient Brahmi script.
In Pakistan, Punjabi is written with yet a different script called Shahmukhi.
Based on this example, one might think that Hindi and Punjabi are very different languages, but actually, they are related because both are Indo-European languages.
Despite its name, the Indo-European language family doesn’t include all languages in India (Tamil and Telugu, for example, are Dravidian languages), nor does it include all European languages (Finnish and Hungarian, for example, are Uralic languages).
So, the fact that Hindi and Punjabi are both Indo-European languages is significant.
Punjabi is primarily spoken in a historical region known as Punjab, which stretches across parts of northwestern India and eastern Pakistan.
Interestingly, there is an Indian state called Punjab and a Pakistani province with the same name, both of which have Punjabi as one of their main languages.
Hindi is mainly spoken in a region referred to as the “Hindi belt,” which encompasses several northern and central states of India.
Hindi and Punjabi share a lot of common vocabulary words, many of which come from Sanskrit. Sanskrit is an ancient language that has influenced numerous Indian languages, much like Latin has influenced many European languages.
| Hindi | Punjabi | English |
|---|---|---|
| प्यार (pyār) | ਪਿਆਰ (piāra) | love |
| शांति (shaanti) | ਸ਼ਾਂਤੀ (shaantī) | peace |
| जीवन (jīvan) | ਜੀਵਨ (jīvan) | life |
| आज़ादी (āzādī) | ਅਜ਼ਾਦੀ (azādī) | freedom |
| दोस्त (dost) | ਦੋਸਤ (dosat) | friend |
| भाषा (bhāṣā) | ਭਾਸ਼ਾ (bhāśā) | language |
| आग (āg) | ਅੱਗ (aga) | fire |
| रात (rāt) | ਰਾਤ (rāt) | night |
| पानी (pānī) | ਪਾਣੀ (pāṇī) | water |
| मछली (machlī) | ਮੱਛੀ (macchī) | fish |
| काम (kaam) | ਕੰਮ (kamm) | work |
| फूल (phūl) | ਫੁੱਲ (phula) | flower |
| कुत्ता (kuttā) | ਕੁੱਤਾ (kuttā) | dog |
| बिल्ली (billī) | ਬਿੱਲੀ (billī) | cat |
| नदी (nadī) | ਨਦੀ (nadī) | river |
| चांद (cānd) | ਚੰਦ (cand) | moon |
| गीत (gīt) | ਗੀਤ (gīt) | song |
The similarity between Hindi and Punjabi is related to them belonging to the same language family. Both Hindi and Punjabi are Indo-European languages.
In contrast, some of the other languages spoken in India are not Indo-European languages. In the south of India, there are languages such as Tamil and Telugu which belong to the Dravidian family of languages.
A large part of the vocabulary in both Hindi and Punjabi are words which come from Sanskrit. Here are some examples of these:
| Hindi Word | Punjabi Word | Sanskrit Word / Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| दिन (din) | ਦਿਨ (dina) | दिन (dina) - day |
| भोजन (bhojan) | ਭੋਜਨ (bhojana) | भोजन (bhojana) - food |
| पिता (pitā) | ਪਿਤਾ (pitā) | पितृ (pitṛ) - father |
| अध्यापक (adhyāpak) | ਅਧਿਆਪਕ (adhiāpak) | अध्यापक (adhyāpaka) - teacher |
| समुद्र (samudra) | ਸਮੁੰਦਰ (samundar) | समुद्र (samudra) - ocean |
The presence of Persian loanwords in Hindi and Punjabi is a legacy of the Mughal Empire. The Mughals came from Central Asia and ruled over the Indian subcontinent from the 16th to the 19th century, bringing with them the Persian language.
This left a lasting impact on the region, including the introduction of Persian words into local languages like Hindi and Punjabi. Along with the linguistic influence, the Mughals also left behind an architectural legacy visible in stunning buildings such as the Taj Mahal and Red Fort, known for their intricate designs and grandeur.
| Hindi Word | Punjabi Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| शहर (śahar) | ਸ਼ਹਿਰ (śahir) | city (borrowed from Persian word « شهر » (šahr)) |
| क़ानून (qānūn) | ਕਾਨੂੰਨ (kanū̃na) | law (derived from Persian word « قانون » (qânun)) |
| काग़ज़ (kāġaz) | ਕਾਗ਼ਜ਼ (kāġaz) | paper (borrowed from Persian word « کاغذ » (kâğaz)) |
| ख़ुश (xuś) | ਖੁਸ਼ (khuś) | happy (borrowed from Persian word « خوش » (xoš)) |
In both Hindi and Punjabi, verbs are often placed at the end of sentences, which makes them SOV (subject-object-verb) languages, according to linguists. This is different from English, which is an SVO (subject-verb-object) language, and as a result, has a different sentence structure compared to Hindi and Punjabi.
For example, the English phrase “linguistics is interesting” translates to:
Both these example sentences have the same word order. The word “linguistics” in Hindi is formed by combining the word « भाषा » (bhāṣā) meaning “language” with the word « विज्ञान » (vigyān) meaning “knowledge”. In Punjabi, the word for “linguistics” is formed in the same way.
The Hindi adjective « दिलचस्प » (dilcasp) and the Punjabi adjective « ਦਿਲਚਸਪ » (dilacasapa) both mean “interesting” and they look similar because they both come from the Persian word « دلچسب » (delčasp).
Both these example sentences end with the verb which is « है » (hai) in Hindi and « ਹੈ » (hai) in Punjabi. These are the conjugated forms for the verbs “to be”.
Hindi and Punjabi are easily distinguishable in their written form because they use different writing systems.
Hindi is written using the Devanagari script, which is also used for Sanskrit. Linguists classify Devanagari as an abugida or an alphasyllabary because in this type of writing system, the main symbols are consonants, and vowels are indicated through modifications of those consonant symbols.
Punjabi has two distinct writing systems: Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi.
Punjabi speakers in India commonly use the Gurmukhi script, which has its roots in the Brahmi script that is also the precursor of Devanagari.
In contrast, Shahmukhi derives from the Arabic and Persian scripts and is frequently used by Punjabi speakers in Pakistan. The use of these different scripts highlights the rich historical and cultural diversity of the Punjabi-speaking region.
Going furtherTo learn more about the languages which are spoken in India, see these comparisons of Hindi and Sanskrit, as well as Bengali and Hindi.