Western Punjabi

Western Punjabi (لہندا پنجابی /pʌndʒˈɑːbi/), Lahnda (/ˈlɑːndə/) or Lahndi, is a "macrolanguage" consisting of a series of dialects spoken in Pakistani Punjab, and parts of Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. These terms are exonyms and are not used by the speakers themselves. The emerging languages of this dialect area are Saraiki, Hindko and Pothohari. The validity of Lahnda as a genetic grouping is not established.

Lahnda means "western" in Punjabi. It was coined by William St. Clair Tisdall (in the form Lahindā) probably around 1890 and later adopted by a number of linguists — notably George Abraham Grierson — for a dialect group that had no general local name. This term has currency only among linguists. The southern varieties are locally called Saraiki, and northwestern varieties Hindko or Panjistani. The main identifier of Lahnda is use of 'saan, soon, si etc.' in the future tense instead of the Standard Punjabi "ga,gi,ge etc."