Punjabi is spoken by Punjabis in the Punjab state of India & Pakistan. In India Punjabi is written with the Gurmukhi (ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ) alphabet, while in Pakistan it is written with a version of Urdu alphabet also known as Shahmukhi (شاہ مکھی). The Punjabi alphabets, is composed of 10 vowels and 30 consonants. This article focus on the version of Gurmukhi alphabets adopted in India.
Let's start with vowels.
In Punjabi, vowels are also called Swar (ਸਵਾਰ). Punjabi has 10 vowel accents which are derived from the 3 semi-vowels — ੳ (oorhaa), ਅ (airhaa), and ੲ (eerhee).
Vowels in Punjabi, can also take two forms. They are independent vowel which does not require a consonant and the dependent vowel which is attached to a consonant.
In Punjabi, they are called `Akhar (ਆਖ਼ਰ)`. There are 35 consonants in Punjabi script. Each consonant character represents a phonetic sound and alphabetical order of the Gurmukhi alphabet is different from the English alphabet. In addition to these, there are six consonants which has a dot (bindi) at the foot of the consonants.
Gurmukhi has its own set of numerals that used to write numbers in the Gurmukhi script, and it behaves exactly as the Latin numerals. While they are extensively used in older texts, in modern contexts, they are being replaced by standard Latin numerals.
Punjabi (ਪੰਜਾਬੀ, ˈpənˈdʒaːbːi), is an official language in the state of Punjab and Pakistan. There are 36 million speakers of Punjabi (Gurmukhi) and additional 3 million as second language in the rest of the world. Below is the quick summary:
| Pronunciation: | [ˈɡʊɾᵊmʊkʰiː] |
| Native Name: | Gurmukhi (ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ) |
| Number of Speakers: | 113 million |
| Parent Systems: | Egyptian hieroglyphs |
| Spoken in: | Indian State of Punjab, Pakistan and other countries around the world. |
| Status: | Official language in Indian State of Punjab |
| Two digit language code (ISO 639-1): | pa |
Below is a list of complete Punjabi Alphabets Chart.