Punjabi Language - The revival of an ancient tradition

One who lost his mother tongue, lost it all, if not all atleast his culture heritage. But one without a culture heritage or one who rejects it is indeed an extremely poor person or community. Those who forget their mother tongue and cultural heritage usually disappear in few centuries. Is there any bigger loss than losing language of your fore fathers. Language is the very spirit of a people. A language as sweet as Punjabi, a culture as dynamic as Punjabi, can not be driven out, wiped out or killed. It may have eclipsed for a short while but Punjabi will come back as a major language with great literature and it will be used in all forms of arts. Punjabi language revival is only possible if you encourage the usage of this incredible subtle and profound language. The language of Gurus, Sages, Fakirs and some of the greatest scholars of India like Sikh and Hindu spiritual masters, Muslim Peers, ancient Indian grammarian from Gandhara Sage Panini, Founder of Hindu philosophy sage Kapila and great Sufi Saints, poets and elevated spirits, Punjabi continues to shine and live in the hearts of its people.

Punjabi has an ancient root to Prakrit and today what is known as Punjabi is a normal wear and tear on a language that gets corrupted and changes with times. Punjabi like a river carried flavors of different eras and times. It was influenced by the incoming migrating people from various lands. But it kept a character that is quite unique and still very native. Unfortunately after formation of Pakistan, its usage was discouraged and frowned upon by so called English and Urdu speakers who consider it a rural language without any future. Pakistani planners were afraid to encourage anything that drifted the Pakistani population to know about other Non Islamic cultures and faiths of their fore fathers and for some strange reason they promoted Urdu whom they consider more "Islamic". To keep a language and culture buried for some short time has only prompted it to come back with a bigger force, a rather dynamic force that brings back memories of a past that was richer and valuable. The value of something lost is only known when we attempt to question about our past, our rich heritage. A grand and rich culture dating back to thousands of centuries that has forever lived despite being buried in many layers now desert and infertile land. But like with weather shifts the old desert land can become fertile again, shifs of times bring back the old languages and cultures for they are needed to continue life.

No laws, rulers or faiths can kill a living language as it is the very core of life of its people. Intents to kill and assassinate Punjabi have failed miserably as most native Punjabi speakers continue to speak their mother tongue that their fore fathers have spoken for thousands of years.
In India some Punjabis who migrated to states beyond Punjab learned Hindi and used other regional languages but most still speak Punjabi at home. However there was a very small minority like in Pakistan who preferred to use Hindi or Urdu for they considered that factor as being very progressive. I think anyone who has lost his mother tongue has lost everything. There is no poverty like losing one's own language.

 Punjabi  Language also spelled PANJABI, central Indo-Aryan language spoken in Punjab, an area now divided between India and Pakistan; to the west, modern Punjabi merges into the Lahnda language (q.v.). Punjabi is one of the 14 major regional languages recognized in the Indian constitution.

In vocabulary it is very similar to Western Hindi. It does not have abundant literature like Marathi or Bengali and shows little borrowing from Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit derivatives.

Two alphabets are used: Lahnda, indigenous to the region and related to Devanagari; and Gurmukhi, devised by the Sikh Guru Angad (1539-52) in order to correct certain inadequacies in the Landa script so that sacred literature might be accurately recorded. The alphabet has 42 letters, 32 consonantal signs and 10 vowel signs. to be used for the scriptures of the Sikhs and now employed for general purposes as well. Earlier, Punjabi was transported to other regions in India and even to China.

Gurmukhi alphabet

Writing system developed by the Sufis and Sikhs in India for the sacred literature. It seems to have been modified from the Landa script, which is used to write the Punjabi, Lahnda, and Sindhi languages.
Landa, Gurmukhi, and two other scripts used in northwestern India, Sharada and Takri, make up a related group that is probably descended from a common ancestor.

Linguistic composition 

Punjabi Gurmukhi,is mainly used in India. In Pakistan, Punjabi is mainly spoken rather than written; it is also a predominantly rural rather than an urban language. Urdu, rather than Punjabi, is the first language taught in schools in Punjab, so that every educated Punjabi reads and writes Urdu. There was a movement for the promotion of the Punjabi language in the 1980s and '90s, and some Punjabi literature is being published using the Urdu script; among the works published are Punjabi classics that have hitherto been available in Gurmukhi script or preserved in oral tradition.

Languages of neighbouring areas:

Himachali or Pahari spoken in Himachal Pradesh, Saraiki spoken in Multan (Pakistan)
are very close to Punjabi.

Sindhi is derived from the Virachada dialect of Prakrit; it has fewer dialects than Punjabi. It is written in a special variant of the Arabic script. Most of the educated middle class in Sindh were Hindu, and their departure to India in 1947 had a traumatic effect on Sindhi culture.