A member of the Indo-Aryan language family, Punjabi (sometimes written Panjabi) is the language of the Punjabi people, who are indigenous to the Punjab area that spans both Pakistan and India. It is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan, while in India it is the eleventh most widely spoken language.
In Pakistan, 80,500,000 people speak Punjabi as their primary language (as of 2017). In Pakistan, it is by far the most common language used.
As of 2011, 31.1 million people in the Indian state of Punjab spoke Punjabi as their primary language, and the language had an official status there. It is the eleventh most common language spoken in the country of India.
There is a sizeable population that speaks the language among expatriates living in other countries, mainly in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
The native speaker population of the Punjabi language is roughly 113 million.
In Pakistan, the Punjabi language is written using the Shahmukhi alphabet, which is derived from the Perso-Arabic script. On the other hand, in India, the Punjabi language is written with the Gurmukhi alphabet, which is derived from the Indic scripts. The use of lexical tone is something that is unique to Punjabi when compared to other Indo-Aryan languages as well as the Indo-European language family as a whole.