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Basic Facts about the Punjabi Language
Basic Facts about the Punjabi Language
While it is not even surprising in Western society, most people among us have not heard about the Punjabi language or know very little about it. Considering that it takes the tenth place of the most widely spoken languages around the world, it is worth knowing a little bit about it. Before we learn more about unusual facts about Punjabi, it is enough to say that there are more than 122 million native Punjabi speakers, which is more than German or French speakers, as an example. Here are some basic facts that inspire to find out more:
Punjabi is the most popular language in Pakistan without any official recognition. It is not surprising if one considers that Punjabi belongs to one of the 22 languages spoken in India. It brings up certain legal obligations to keep it under the protection and impose certain grammar and spelling rules . It is also the main official language spoken in Delhi, as well as the linguistic standard for all legal and healthcare documents. Even though Pakistan uses mostly English or Urdu for official studies, Punjabi is what you will hear in the streets.
Punjabi has significant influence abroad. The United Kingdom and Canada have a very strong community of Punjabi speakers, which makes it the third most-spoken language among the British people, and is also considered as the third language in Canada, which has even surpassed Chinese. It is one of the reasons why there are so many engineers and programmers coming from Pakistan or India who need to translate documents related to their inventions as they reach English-speaking countries. The safest method is approaching a reliable patent translation agency because such type of translation requires certified specialists with a background in technical writing. The same rules apply to localization services where Punjabi is involved since there are many cultural peculiarities.
Punjabi is a tonal language. What it means in practice is that there are tone and a voice pitch, which can tell about what a particular word means. It is the same way in Chinese where the tone reflects the meaning of a word, which has a different significance. Even if two words sound absolutely the same when spoken by a foreigner, a native speaker can speak in a different pitch, which will stand for a different meaning. It belongs to the languages where a novice speaker must learn how to listen.
The use of special scripting. It is one of the reasons why the translation of Punjabi documents always takes more time. Since it does not use Roman scripting , there are different space requirements, which will affect the layout and formatting of the original document. Since there is more than one script that is used daily, namely, Shahmukhi and Gurmukhi, there will be a cultural element to it. Speaking of the Shahmukhi scripting, it is mostly used in Pakistan. Now people in India will turn to Gurumukhi, which is common in education, newspapers, and the media.
