Majhi dialect

Majhi, also known as Central Punjabi, is the most widely-spoken dialect of the Punjabi language, natively spoken in the Majha region and surrounding areas of Punjab in present-day Pakistan and India.
The native speakers of the dialect are known by the demonym 'Majhail'.

Subdialects and geographic distribution

Below is a list of several of the subdialects of Majhi. Due to limited documentation on specific regions, certain varieties and their respective districts have been omitted.

Central Majhi, spoken in the Gujranwala, Lahore and Sheikhupura districts.
Northeastern Majhi, spoken in the Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Narowal and Sialkot districts.
Northwestern Majhi, spoken in the Gujrat and Jhelum districts.

Majhi varieties are also spoken natively in the districts of Hafizabad, Kasur, Mandi Bahauddin, Nankana Sahib, Tarn Taran and Wazirabad.

General features

Personal pronouns

Majhi does not use the second-person oblique pronoun tē̃, and instead uses tū̃.
In urban Majhi, the plural oblique pronouns tusā̃ and asā̃, as well as the ablative pronouns, are sometimes lost.

Pronominal suffixes

One of Majhi's most noteworthy features is the usage of pronominal suffixes, which it shares with Western Punjabi.
Pronominal suffixes are auxiliary replacements of the copula which act like pronouns. They function as a particular thematic role and agree to it in person and number.
The thematic/syntactic roles a pronominal suffix can function as are:

Majhi uses pronominal suffixes for the second and third persons and for both present and past tense.
Examples in perfect transitive verbs :

Copula

Oftentimes, a pronominal suffix will entirely overtake the regular copula in Majhi.
This is most common with the third-person plural ne or nẽ, used instead of han. It has become so widespread that it is now regarded as a fundamental characteristic of Majhi, used to distinguish it from other dialects.

Phrase	Majhi	Standard Punjabi
They sleep	oh sōṉde ne ਓਹ ਸੌਂਦੇ ਨੇ	oh sōṉde han ਉਹ ਸੌਂਦੇ ਹਨ

- Alternate auxiliary verbs
First person singular ā̃ or jē is used. E.g. mẽ karnā ʷā̃ / 'jē
Third person singular ī or è is used. E.g. ṓ kardā ī'''''

Other Features

hē sī is used instead of sīgā.

Adverbial pronouns

Majhi uses the kiññ and kivẽ classes of adverbial pronouns of manner, which, at their base, are common with Western Punjabi dialects.

Adverbial pronoun	Majhi	Malwai	Doabi	Pahari-Pothwari	Hindko	Saraiki	Jatki
like this	ēṉj, ēvẽ ਐਂਞ, ਐਵੇਂ	ēvẽ ਐਵੇਂ	ēdā̃ ਐਦਾਂ	iṉj ਇੰਞ	iṉjū ਇੰਞੂ	hiṉj, īvẽ ਹਿੰਞ, ਈਵੇਂ	iṉj ਇੰਞ
like that	oṉj, ovẽ ਓਂਞ, ਓਵੇਂ	ovẽ ਐਵੇਂ	odā̃ ਐਵੇਂ	uṉj ਐਵੇਂ	uṉjū ਐਵੇਂ	huṉj / ūvẽ ਐਵੇਂ	uṉj ਐਵੇਂ
how?	kiṉj, kivẽ ਕਿੰਞ, ਕਿਵੇਂ	kivẽ ਕਿਵੇਂ	kiddā̃ ਕਿੱਦਾਂ	kiṉj ਕਿੰਞ	kiṉjū ਕਿੰਞੂ	kiṉj, kīvẽ ਕਿੰਞ, ਕੀਵੇਂ	kiṉj ਕਿੰਞ
how	jiṉj, jivẽ ਜਿੰਞ, ਜਿਵੇਂ	jivẽ ਜਿਵੇਂ	jiddā̃ ਜਿੱਦਾਂ	jiṉj ਜਿੰਞ	jiṉjū ਜਿੰਞੂ	jiṉj, jīvẽ ਜਿੰਞ, ਜੀਵੇਂ	jiṉj ਜਿੰਞ

- Use of -na verb ending instead of -da ending for first-person and second-person point of view

Phrase	Majhi	Standard Written Punjabi
I do	mẽ karnā ʷā̃̀ ਮੈਂ ਕਰਨਾ ਆਂ	mẽ kardā hā̃ ਮੈਂ ਕਰਦਾ ਹਾਂ
Let's go home	asī kàr jāne ā̃̀ ਅਸੀ ਘਰ ਜਾਨੇ ਆਂ	asī̃ kàr jānde hā̃ ਅਸੀਂ ਘਰ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹਾਂ
We do	asī̃ karniyā̃ ʷā̃̀ ਅਸੀ ਕਰਨੀਆਂ ਆਂ	asī̃ kardiyā̃ hā̃ ਅਸੀਂ ਕਰਦੀਆਂ ਹਾਂ
You do	tū̃ karnā aĩ̀ ਤੂੰ ਕਰਨਾ ਐਂ	tū̃ kardā haĩ ਤੂੰ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈਂ
You do	tusī karniyā̃ ò/je ਤੁਸੀ ਕਰਨੀਆਂ ਓ/ਜੇ	tusī̃ kardiyā̃ ho ਤੁਸੀਂ ਕਰਦੀਆਂ ਹੋ

Subdialectal differences

Northeastern Majhi

Northeastern Majhi refers to the subdialect spoken in a belt from the Sialkot District to the Ravi river.
It has considerable Doabi influence.
Northeastern Majhi uses the past-tense inflection of the verb ḍahṇā to form continuous tenses, rather than pēṇā which is used by other Majhi subdialects and Punjabi dialects.

Phrase	Eastern Majhi	General Majhi	Standard Punjabi
He was doing	eh karaṇ ḍahyā sī ਏਹ ਕਰਣ ਡਹਿਆ ਸੀ	eh kardā pyā sī ਏਹ ਕਰਦਾ ਪਿਆ ਸੀ	eh kar rahyā sī ਇਹ ਕਰ ਰਿਹਾ ਸੀ
She is doing	oh karaṇ ḍahī hē ਓਹ ਕਰਣ ਡਹੀ ਹੈ	oh kardī paī hē ਓਹ ਕਰਦੀ ਪਈ ਹੈ	oh kar rahī hē ਉਹ ਕਰ ਰਹੀ ਹੈ

In Northeastern Majhi, on top of the copula-replacement by ne, it is also common for the second-person plural pronominal suffix je to overtake ho.

Phrase	Northeastern Majhi	General Majhi
You will go home	tusī̃ ghar jāṉde je ਤੁਸੀਂ ਘਰ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਜੇ	tusī̃ ghar jāṉde ho ਤੁਸੀਂ ਘਰ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹੋ

This variety of Majhi also tends to debuccalize all its non-initial non-geminated voiceless alveolar fricatives into glottal fricatives ; i.e. the s sound is heard as a h. This h is distinguished from the regular phonetic h by its lack of tonality.

Word	Punjabi spelling	General pronunciation	Northeastern pronunciation	Translation
tusī̃	ਤੁਸੀਂ			you
asāḍā	ਅਸਾਡਾ			our / my/mine
paise	ਪੈਸੇ			money

Northwestern Majhi

Northwestern Majhi refers to the subdialect spoken in the northwestern side of the Majha region in Pakistan, primarily in the districts of Gujrat, Jhelum, and Bhimber.
In these areas, word-initial 'h' is fainter and more tonal, eventually disappearing in upper Punjabi dialects like Pahari-Pothwari and Hazarewal Hindko, as well as Dogri. I.e., words like hatth "hand" are said more as àtth.
Another notable difference is the use of the suffix dā instead of gā for indicative future tense:
Northwestern Majhi also has its own past-tense copula, which declines on gender and number, unlike other Majhi subdialects, whose copula declines on person and number.