Origin of Punjabi

Origin of Punjabi

Gurnam Singh Mukatsar in his article on page 39 of Sikh Virsa of September 2002 explained the evolution of Pali from Prakrit Brahmi (pRwikRq bRhmI), the language of the original inhabitants (mUl invwsI) of India. It is not correct due to the following reason. For example, he says, “Punjabi is the first born daughter of Pali, the original language (mUl bolI) of India. However, many words of modern Punjabi are found in modern German with the same meaning (Abstracts of Sikh Studies, Jan.-March, 1997, pp. 8-28). It is reasonable that Punjabi words are also present in other European languages, especially, Slavic languages. So if Pali evolved only from the languages of the original inhabitants (mUl invwsI) of India, from where did German words enter into Punjabi or vice versa? A more logical explanation of the evolution of Pali is that it was a product of the interaction between original inhabitants of India and the Caucasian people, who migrated to India from central Asia. The infusion of the languages of the two groups led to the development of Pali.