Punjabi Alphabet Chat

Punjabi (ਪੰਜਾਬੀ / پنجابی) … In India, Punjabi is written with the Gurmukhi (ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ)alphabet, while in Pakistan it is written with a version of the Urdu alphabet known as Shahmukhi (شاہ مکھی).

The Gurmukhi Varnamala of Gurbani is identical to the Punjabi alphabet with three vowel holders, two nasalization characters and 10 vowels. The vowel holders are grouped with the 35 akhar, or Gurmukhi alphabet consonants.

Punjabi is rather unique for an Indo-European language in that tones are a prominent feature of speech. As such, the IPA conversion is not accurate for Punjabi. Fortunately, there is a direct correlation between certain aspirated consonants and use of subscript /ha/ to represent different tones.

Punjabi Alphabet Chat

1. Vowels and Vowel diacritics (Laga Matra)

Gurmukhi follows similar concepts to other Brahmi scripts and as such, all consonants are followed by an inherent ‘a’ sound (unless at the end of a word when the ‘a’ is usually dropped). This inherent vowel sound can be changed by using dependent vowel signs which attach to a bearing consonant. In some cases, dependent vowel signs cannot be used – at the beginning of a word or syllable for instance – and so an independent vowel character is used instead.

Vowel			Transcription
Ind.	Dep.	with /k/	Name
ਅ	(none)	ਕ	Muktā
ਆ	ਾ	ਕਾ	Kannā
ਇ	ਿ	ਕਿ	Sihārī
ਈ	ੀ	ਕੀ	Bihārī
ਉ	ੁ	ਕੁ	Onkaṛ
ਊ	ੂ	ਕੂ	Dulenkaṛ
ਏ	ੇ	ਕੇ	Lāvā̃
ਐ	ੈ	ਕੈ	Dulāvā̃
ਓ	ੋ	ਕੋ	Hōṛā
ਔ	ੌ	ਕੌ	Kanoṛā

2. Paanti (Vianjans)

The Gurmukhī alphabet contains thirty-five letters (akkhar, plural akkharā̃). The first three are distinct because they form the basis for vowels and are not consonants, and except for the second letter ɛṛa are never used on their own. See the section on vowels for further details.

ੳ	ਅ	ੲ	ਸ	ਹ
ਕ	ਖ	ਗ	ਘ	ਙ
ਚ	ਛ	ਜ	ਝ	ਞ
ਟ	ਠ	ਡ	ਢ	ਣ
ਤ	ਥ	ਦ	ਧ	ਨ
ਪ	ਫ	ਬ	ਭ	ਮ
ਯ	ਰ	ਲ	ਵ	ੜ

ਙ |ŋɑŋːɑ̃ | and ਞ |ɲəɲːɑ̃ | are rarely used. They cannot begin a syllable or be placed between two consonants, and occur most often as an allophone of n before specific consonant phonemes.

Download Punjabi Alphabet Chat PDF

Punjabi Alphabet (Gurmukhi) Chat with Picture: Download full PDF including  Paanti (Vianjans) Alphabets and Vowel diacritics (Laga Matra) letters in Punjabi language.

• Paanti (Vianjans)
• Vowels and Vowel diacritics (Laga Matra)