DefinePK

Abstract

This study provides the first systematic assessment of the digital vitality of Punjabi (Shahmukhi) by applying the Digital Language Vitality (DLV) scale as proposed by (Soria & Quochi, 2017). By drawing on web searches, official statistics and an ad-hoc survey of 300 Punjabi speakers, we evaluated fifteen micro-indicators across three dimensions of Digital Capacity, Digital Presence and Use, and Digital Performance. Punjabi scored 42 out of 71 that places it in the Emergent vitality bracket. Strengths include full Unicode character encoding, near-universal internet connectivity in Pakistan, and two-way machine-translation support from major providers. Weaknesses are pronounced: digital literacy among speakers is low; the largest Shahmukhi corpus contains only 2.8 million words; social-media and e-communication use is minimal; and virtually no web services, software suites or government portals offer a Punjabi interface. The findings reveal that infrastructure alone does not secure digital survival: without targeted corpus building, software localization and literacy initiatives, Punjabi risks sliding toward digital marginalization despite its tens of millions of speakers. The article concludes with policy and development recommendations aimed at encouraging Digital Language Equality for Punjabi and, by extension, other under-resourced Pakistani languages.