Malwai | |
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ਮਲਵਈ • مَلۡوَئی | |
Pronunciation | Standard: [məlʋəi] Malwai: [məlˈʋi] |
Native to | India, Pakistan |
Region | Malwa (Punjab) |
Early form | |
Gurmukhī Shahmukhi | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | – |
Malwa Region of Punjab |
Part of a series on |
Punjabis |
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Punjab portal |
Malwai (Standard: [məlʋəi]; Malwai: [məlˈʋi]) is an eastern dialect of the Punjabi language, spoken in the Malwa region of Punjab.[7][8][9][10][11]
The age of Old Punjabi: up to 1600 A.D. […] It is said that evidence of Old Punjabi can be found in the Granth Sahib.
As an independent language Punjabi has gone through the following three stages of development: Old Punjabi (10th to 16th century). Medieval Punjabi (16th to 19th century), and Modern Punjabi (19th century to Present).
Surpassing them all in the frequent subtlety of his linguistic choices, including the use of dialect forms as well as of frequent loanwords from Sanskrit and Persian, Guru Nanak combined this poetic language of the Sants with his native Old Punjabi. It is this mixture of Old Punjabi and old Hindi which constitutes the core idiom of all the earlier Gurus.
Malwa region lies in the southern side of Satluj river. It includes the largest of all the three regions of the state. The dialects of Punjabi language define regional identities. Malwa is defined by Malwai, Majha by Majhai and ...
The people of the region speak the Malwa dialect, which is similar to Punjabi. Malwa is surrounded by the river Sutlej in the north, the river Ghaggar in the south, the Shivalik Hills in the east and Pakistan in the west.
The other important Punjabi dialects are Malwa, Doabi, Powadhi, Dogri, and Bhattiani.
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According to the renowned Sikh Scholar, the late Principal Teja Singh, Punjabi is the language that the people of the Punjab have spoken from time immemorial. A living language keeps on changing its complexion. During the course of history, this change in complexion may result in the language being transformed beyond recognition. Punjabi has undergone this metamorphosis time and again and yet it remains Punjabi, the language to which the people in this part of the country belong. Even today the language spoken by the people living in Pothoar is different in flavor from the one spoken in Malwa, as much as the language spoken in Malwa is different in taste from that of Majha. It is said that the dialects in India start changing about every 30 kilometers. Like all other Indian languages, Punjabi, too, has a number of dialects. They can be as diverse as Pahari, spoken in the north, and Lehndi, prevalent in the south.
A further factor is added by the setting of the novel in an isolated village in the Malwa region of Punjab. The poorly educated characters converse with each other in the local Malwai dialect of Punjabi. Their colloquial dialogue constitutes a crucial element of the fictional discourse, with the third person narrator portraying characters and situations through the character's speech rhythms and the cultural environment they evoke.