Punjabi language

High school (ages 12+)
People & Society

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Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/punjabi-language

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the primary geographic distribution?Indian state of Punjab and Pakistani province of Punjab
2. What is the major orthographies?Gurmukhi script (primarily in India) and Shahmukhi script (primarily in Pakistan)
3. What is Punjabi?Punjabi is a language spoken by more than 100 million people in Punjab and around the world. It has its own special alphabet and a long history.
4. Why are there two different scripts for Punjabi?In India, Punjabi is written in the Gurmukhi script, while in Pakistan it is written in the Shahmukhi script. The two scripts show the cultural and political differences in the region.

Proto-Indo-European: A reconstructed prehistoric language from which many modern European and Indian languages are descended.
Abugida: A writing system where consonant-vowel units are written as a block, with diacritics modifying the vowel.
Perso-Arabic Script: A writing system derived from Arabic, used for languages like Persian, Urdu, and adapted for Shahmukhi.
Diaspora: The dispersion of any people from their original homeland.