Punjabi newspaper founder The Punjab region, spanning across India and Pakistan, serves as the heartland of the Punjabi language. The old British spelling “Punjabi” remains in more common general usage than the academically precise “Panjabi. There are two main varieties of Punjabi: Eastern Punjabi and Western Punjabi, each of which has a number of dialects. In 1947, British India (including Punjab) was partitioned into Pakistan and India. It is one of the most widely spoken native languages in the world, with approximately 150 million native speakers. The majority of Punjabi Muslims are adherents of Sunni Islam, while a minority adhere to Shia Islam and other sects, including the Ahmadiyya community which originated in Punjab during the British Raj. Punjabi, [g] sometimes spelled Panjabi, [h] is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. . Nov 17, 2025 · Punjabi refers to an ethnicity as well as a language. [16][i] Punjabi is the most widely-spoken first language in Pakistan, with 88.