Gurmukhi alphabet
Punjabi alphabet is known as Gurmukhi. Gurmukhi is a script. Since its characters were used for writing and transcribing the biography and hymns of Guru Nanak, it was given this name by the second Sikh Guru, Guru Angad Dev. It is a misnomer to call the Guru as the inventor of its characters, because before the advent of Guru Nanak, their usage had been prevalent according to in a tablet found at Athur in Ludhiana district. Even Guru Nanak himself based one of his poems entitled 'patti' on its characters.
This Alphabet is also called 'Paintis Akhri' because it contains thirty-five letters. The first three characters Ura, Aim and Iri are vowels. Sassa is sibilant, Haha is aspirate. There are twenty-five mutes, which include five Gutturals: kakka, Khakkha, gagga, ghaggha and ngannga, five Palatals: chachcha, chhachchha, jajja, jhajjha and nyanya, five Cerebrals: tainka, thattha, dadda, chaddha and nana, five Dentals: tatta, thattha, dadda, dhaddha and nanna and five Labials: pappa, phappha, babba, bhabbha and mamma.
The last five letters are consonants like mutes, but they are also called semi-vowels. They are: yayya, rara, lalla, wawa and rara. The vowels, that is, the first three letters are made to represent ten vowel sounds with the aid of additional signs, which are known as laghan matran. These are the short a inherent in each consonant, aa, i, ee, u, oo, ey, ai, o and au. These laghan matran are: mukta, kanna, siari, biari, uankar, dulainkare, lan, dulaian, hora and kanaura respectively. When used with consonants, these signs represent the three vowels. There are three additional signs, viz., tippi, bindi and adhik.
Tippi is a nasal sound and is joined with mukta, siari, uankar and dulainkare. Bindi is also nasal and is joined with kanna, biari, lan, dulaian, hora and kanaura. Adhik is placed between two letters, indicating the reduplication of the second. The sha sound of Sanskrit and Persian are represented by putting a dot under khakkha, gagga, jajja and phappha respectively. Compound letters are avoided in Gurmukhi, with the exception of haha and rara, which are joined with consonants at their foot with the signs.
Gurmukhi script is an evolute from the old Brahmi script like Devanagari and other scripts of the area like Sharda, Takri, Mahajani etc. Gurmukhi characters are even older than Devanagari.
Paanti
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
---|---|---|---|---|
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 |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
ਸ਼ | ਖ਼ | ਗ਼ | ਜ਼ | ਫ਼ | ਲ਼ |
੧ | ੨ | ੩ | ੪ | ੫ | ੬ | ੭ | ੮ | ੯ | ੧੦ | ੧੧ | ੧੨ | ੧੩ | ੧੪ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ਾ | ਿ | ੀ | ੇ | ੈ | ੋ | ੌ | | ੂ | ੰ | | ਼ | ੱ | ਂ |
See also
- Learn Gurmukhi
- Gurmukhi
- Painti Akhri
- Gurmukhi Script
- Gurmukhi Pronunciation
- Gurmukhi Letters
- Gurmukhi to English
- Gurmukhi Alphabet
- Gurmukhi Text
- Words in the Guru Granth Sahib
- List of Punjabi computing resources
Banis in Gurmukhi
Setting up Gurmukhi facility on your Computer
External Links
Learning Tools
- Learn Gurmukhi and Panjabi for advanced learning centre of Panjabi University patiala site
- Learn Gurmukhi lessons from letters to sentences to Shabads - Sound and Graphics
- Free online Diaspora Punjabi (Gurmukhi) lessons
- Learn Gurmukhi - Sound and Graphics
- omniglot.com
Unicode Gurmukhi
- Punjabi Computing Resource Centre web site
- Test for Unicode support in Web browsers
- Unicode script chart
Conversion tool
- Punjabi Font Converter This is an online utility which will allow the conversion of ASCII based Gurmukhi characters to Unicode. So for example the phrase : siqgur pRswid will be converted to ਸਤਿਗਰ ਪਰਸਾਦਿ
Dictionary & Translation tools
- Powerful Gurmukhi to Punjabi Dictionary by SriGranth.org
- Gaini Kirpal Singh's Punjabi Thesaurus
- Gurmukhi-Shahmukhi-English Online Multimedia Dictionary by Punjabi University, Patiala
- Alphabatic Search by PunjabiDictionary.com
- Punjabi Dictionary by PunjabOnline.com
- Multimedia enabled Punjabi (Gurmukhi & Shahmukhi) to English Dictionary by LearnPunjabi.org
- English-Punjabi Administrative Terms by Bhasha Vibhag, Punjab
- Punjabi-English and English-Punjabi Dictionaries by TamilCube
- Translate Punjabi to English (From Gurmukhi) with Translatiz
- Webtran Punjabi to English translator
- Easyhindityping Punjabi To English Translation
- Typing Baba
- Indiatyping.com
- Lingvanex
- Online Marathi Typing
Downloadable
- Punjabi-English Dictionary (Download) Distributed by MCIT, Govt. of India
- Punjabi Kosh - English to Punjabi Dictionary (Download) by Noah Hart
- Mahan Kosh Encyclopedia (Download) at ik13.com
More resources
- Punjabi Software Tools & Resources by Punjabi University, Patiala
History of Script
- Ancient scripts Landa script
- Indian alphabet comparison page
- Sharda script
- Brahmi script Sharda script
- History of Landa and Gurmukhi Script
Typing
Translation tools
References
- 1. Singh , G.B., Gurmukh] Lipi da Janarn te Vikds. Chandigarh, 1972
- 2. Teja Singh, Sahit Darshan. Paliala, 1951
- 3. Bedi, Tarlochan Singh , Punjabi Vaiiak da Alochnatmak Adhyan. Delhi, n.d.
- 4. Arun, V.B., Panjabi Bhasha da ftihds. Ludhiana, 1956
- 5. Bedi, Kala Singh, Panjabi Bhashn da Vikds. Delhi, 1971
- 6. Chatterji, Suniti Kumar, ed., The Cultural IIni/nge of India. Calculla, 1978
- 7. Grierson, G.A., Linguistic Survey of India,Vol IX, Part I, Delhi, 1968. & Singh, G.B., Gurmukhi Lippi da Janam te Vikas, Chandigarh, 1972.
- 8. Linguistic Survey of India,Vol IX, Part I, Delhi, 1968. &
- 9. Singh, G.B., Gurmukhi Lippi da Janam te Vikas, Chandigarh, 1972.