Shahmukhi alphabet
Shahmukhi (شاہ مکھی, Gurmukhi: ਸ਼ਾਹਮੁਖੀ, lit. 'from the mouth of the Shah') is a modified Perso-Arabic alphabet used by Punjabi Muslims (primarily in Punjab, Pakistan) to write the Punjabi language[1][2][3][4]. It is generally written in the Nastaʿlīq calligraphic hand,[3][4] which is also used for Urdu.[5] Perso-Arabic is one of two scripts used for Punjabi, the other being Gurmukhi, used in Punjab, India.[3][6][4]
Shahmukhi شاہ مکھی | |
---|---|
Type | Abjad
|
Languages | Punjabi |
Parent systems | Proto-Sinaitic |
Unicode range | U+0600 to U+06FF U+0750 to U+077F |
Shahmukhi alphabet |
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ا ب پ ت ٹ ث ج چ ح خ د ڈ ذ ر ڑ ز ژ س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ک گ ل لؕ م ن ݨ (ں) و ه (ھ) ء ی ے |
Extended Perso-Arabic script |
|
Shahmukhi is written from right to left, while Gurmukhi is written from left to right.[7][8][4] It is also used as the main alphabet to write Pahari–Pothwari in Azad Kashmir and Jammu and Kashmir.
The Shahmukhi alphabet was first used by the Sufi poets of Punjab. It became the conventional writing style for the Muslim populace of the Pakistani province of Punjab following the Partition of India, while the largely Hindu and Sikh modern-day state of Punjab, India adopted the Gurmukhi or the Devanagari scripts to record the Punjabi language.[6]
Alphabet
Vowel Diacritics
Though not normally written and only implied,[4] like Urdu, Shahmukhi also has diacritics, taken from the Arabic language,[9] to express short vowels.[10]
Symbol | Name | Usage | IPA | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
◌ٰ | Khari Zabar | a | [ə] | Used in certain loanwords such as ‘عیسیٰ’ (‘Jesus’) |
◌َ | Zabar | a | [ə] | |
◌ً | Zabar Tanwīn | -an | [ən] | Used for certain loanwords such as ‘فوراً’ (‘Immediately’) |
◌ٓ | Maddah | ā | [aː] | Used only for Alif Maddah (ا + ٓ = آ), usually written |
◌ِ | Zer | i | [ɪ] | Written underneath a letter |
◌ٍ | Zer Tanwīn | in | [ɪn] | Used for certain loanwords, written underneath a letter |
◌ُ | Pesh | u | [u] | |
◌ٔ | Hamza | varied | - | Used on vowels to indicate a diphthong between two vowels, examples such as: ‘ئ’, ‘ۓ’, ‘ؤ‘, and أ usually written |
◌ّ | Tashdīd | Geminite | [.] | Doubles a consonant, goes above the letter being doubled - کّ = kk |
Consonants
No. | Name[11] | IPA | Final glyph | Medial glyph | Initial glyph | Isolated glyph | Gurmukhi | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | الف | alifa | /ɑː, ʔ, ∅/ | ا | ا | ਅ, ਆ (medial) | ||
2 | بے | bē | /b/ | بـ | ب | ਬ | ||
3 | پے | pē | /p/ | پـ | پ | ਪ | ||
4 | تے | tē | /t/ | تـ | ت | ਤ | ||
5 | ٹے | ṭē | /ʈ/ | ٹـ | ٹ | ਟ | ||
6 | ثے | s̱ē | /s/ | ثـ | ث | ਸ | ||
7 | جيم | jīma | /d͡ʒ/ | جـ | ج | ਜ | ||
8 | چے | cē | /t͡ʃ/ | چـ | چ | ਚ | ||
9 | وڈّی حے | waḍḍi ḥē | /ɦ/ | حـ | ح | ਹ | ||
10 | خے | k͟hē | /x/ | خـ | خ | ਖ਼ | ||
11 | دال | dāla | /d/ | د | د | ਦ | ||
12 | ڈال | ḍāla | /ɖ/ | ڈ | ڈ | ਡ | ||
13 | ذال | ẕāla | /z/ | ز | ذ | ਜ਼ | ||
14 | رے | rē | /r/ | ر | ر | ਰ | ||
15 | ڑے | ṛē | /ɽ/ | ڑ | ڑ | ੜ | ||
16 | زے | zē | /z/ | ز | ز | ਜ਼ | ||
17 | ژے | zhē | /ʒ/ | ژ | ژ | - | ||
18 | سین | sīna | /s/ | سـ | س | ਸ | ||
19 | شین | shīna | /ʃ/ | شـ | ش | ਸ਼ | ||
20 | صاد | ṣwāda | /s/ | صـ | ص | ਸ | ||
21 | ضاد | ẓwāda | /z/ | ضـ | ض | ਜ਼ | ||
22 | طوۓ | t̤oʼē | /t/ | طـ | ط | ਤ | ||
23 | ظوۓ | z̤oʼē | /z/ | ظـ | ظ | ਜ਼ | ||
24 | عین | ʻaina | /ɑː, oː, eː, ʔ, ʕ, ∅/ | عـ | ع | ਅ | ||
25 | غین | g͟haina | /ɣ/ | غـ | غ | ਗ਼ | ||
26 | فے | fē | /f/ | فـ | ف | ਫ਼ | ||
27 | قاف | qāfa | /q/ | قـ | ق | ਕ਼ | ||
28 | کاف | kāfa | /k/ | کـ | ک | ਕ | ||
29 | گاف | gāfa | /ɡ/ | گـ | گ | ਗ | ||
30 | لام | lāma | /l/ | لـ / لا | ل | ਲ | ||
31 | لؕام | ḷāma | /ɭ/ | لؕـ / لؕا | لؕ | ਲ਼ | ||
32 | میم | mīma | /m/ | مـ | م | ਮ | ||
33 | نون | nūna | /n, ɲ/ | نـ | ن | ਨ | ||
34 | ݨون | ṇūṇa | /ɳ/ | ݨـ | ݨ | ਣ | ||
35 | نون غنّہ | nūn ġunnah | /◌̃, ŋ/ | ں
(ن٘)
|
ੰ, ਂ | |||
36 | واؤ | wāʼoa | /ʋ, uː, ʊ, oː, ɔː/ | و | و | ੳ, ਵ | ||
37 | چھوٹی ہے گول ہے |
choṭī hē gol hē |
/ɦ, ɑː, e:/ | ہـ | ہ | ਹ | ||
38 | دو چشمی ہے | do-cashmī hē | /ʰ/ or /ʱ/ | ھـ | ھ | varied / ੍ਹ | ||
39 | ہمزہ | hamzah | /ʔ/, /∅/ | ء | ء | - | ||
40 | چھوٹی يے | choṭī yē | /j, iː, ɑː/ | یـ | ی | ੲ, ਯ | ||
41 | وڈّی يے | waḍḍi yē | /ɛː, eː/ | ے | ੇ, ੈ |
No Punjabi words begin with ں, ھ, ڑ or ے. The digraphs of aspirated consonants are as follows.
No. | Digraph[12] | Transcription[12] | IPA | Example |
1 | بھ | bh | [p], [b] | بھاری |
2 | پھ | ph | [pʰ] | پھول |
3 | تھ | th | [tʰ] | تھم |
4 | ٹھ | ṭh | [ʈʰ] | ٹھیس |
5 | جھ | jh | [t͡ʃ], [d͡ʒ] | جھاڑی |
6 | چھ | ch | [t͡ʃʰ] | چھوکرا |
7 | دھ | dh | [t], [d] | دھوبی |
8 | ڈھ | ḍh | [ʈ], [ɖ] | ڈھول |
9 | رھ | rh | [rʱ] | No example? |
10 | ڑھ | ṛh | [ɽʱ] | کڑھنا |
11 | کھ | kh | [kʰ] | کھولنا |
12 | گھ | gh | [k], [ɡ] | گھبراہٹ |
13 | لھ | lh | [lʱ] | No example? |
14 | مھ | mh | [mʱ] | No example? |
15 | نھ | nh | [nʱ] | ننھا |
16 | وھ | wh | [ʋʱ] | No example? |
17 | یھ | yh | [jʱ] | No example? |
- ے (Bari ye) is only found in the final position, when writing the sounds e (ਏ) or æ (ਐ), and in initial and medial positions, it takes the form of یَ.
- Vowels are expressed as follows:
Romanization | Final | Middle | Initial |
---|---|---|---|
a (ਅ) | N/A | ـَ | اَ |
ā (ਆ) | ـَا، ـَی، ـَہ | ـَا | آ |
i (ਇ) | N/A | ـِ | اِ |
ī (ਈ) | ـِى | ـِيـ | اِی |
e (ਏ) | ـے | ـيـ | اے |
ai (ਐ) | ـَے | ـَيـ | اَے |
u (ਉ) | N/A | ـُ | اُ |
ū (ਊ) | ـُو | اُو | |
o (ਓ) | ـو | او | |
au (ਔ) | ـَو | اَو |
Difference from Persian and Urdu
Shahmukhi has more letters added to the Urdu base to represent sounds not present in Urdu, which already has additional letters added to the Arabic and Persian base itself to represent sounds not present in Arabic. Characters added which differ from Persian but not Urdu include: ٹ to represent /ʈ/, ڈ to represent /ɖ/, ڑ to represent /ɽ/, ں to represent /◌̃/, and ے to represent /ɛ:/ or /e:/. Furthermore, a separate do-cashmi-he letter, ھ, exists to denote a /ʰ/ or a /ʱ/, this letter is mainly used as part of the multitude of digraphs, detailed below. Characters added which differ from Urdu include: ࣇ to represent /ɭ/ and ݨ to represent /ɳ/.
Loanwords
In Punjabi, there are many Arabic and Persian loanwords. These words contain some sounds which were alien to South Asian languages before the influence of Arabic and Persian, and are therefore represented by introducing dots beneath specific Gurumukhi characters. Since the Gurmukhi alphabet is phonetic, any loanwords which contained pre-existing sounds were more easily transliterated without the need for characters modified with subscript dots.
Shahmukhi Letter | Gurmukhi Letter |
---|---|
ذ | ਜ਼ |
ص | ਸ |
ض | ਜ਼ |
ط | ਤ |
ظ | ਜ਼ |
غ | ਗ਼ |
ح | ਹ |
ث | ਸ |
گ | ਗ |
چ | ਚ |
پ | ਪ |
ژ | ਜ਼ |
خ | ਖ਼ |
ز | ਜ਼ |
ف | ਫ਼ |
ق | ਕ਼ |
ع | variable |
ژ is pronounced 'j' in French or as vision in English
ع is often transliterated in many ways due to its changing sound in various Arabic and Persian words.
See also
- Gurmukhī alphabet
- Saraiki alphabet
References
- Evans, Lorna Priest; Malik, M.G. Abbas (1 May 2019). "Unicode Proposal for ArLaam" (PDF). Unicode. Punjabi Parchar. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
- Singh Saini, Tejineder; Singh Lehal, Gurpreet; S Kalra, Virinder (August 2008). "Shahmukhi to Gurmukhi Transliteration System". Aclweb.org. Coling 2008 Organizing Committee. p. 177. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
- Sharma, Saurabh; Gupta, Vishal (May 2013). "Punjabi Documents Clustering System" (PDF). Semantic Scholar. p. 174. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
- Dhanju, Kawarbir Singh; Lehal, Gurpreet Singh; Saini, Tejinder Singh; Kaur, Arshdeep (October 2015). "Design and Implementation of Shahmukhi Spell Checker" (PDF). Learnpunjabi.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 December 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
- Malik, Muhammad Ghulam Abbas; Boitet, Christian; Bhattcharyya, Pushpak (27 June 2012) [2010]. "ANALYSIS OF NOORI NASTA'LEEQ FOR MAJOR PAKISTANI LANGUAGES". King AbdulAziz University. Penang, Malaysia. p. 4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 August 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
- Dorren, Gaston (2018). Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages. Profile Books. ISBN 1782832505.
- Sharma, Saurabh; Gupta, Vishal (May 2013). "Punjabi Documents Clustering System" (PDF). Semantic Scholar. p. 174. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
- Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography. Springer. 2019. p. 142. ISBN 3030059774.
- Bhardwaj, Mangat (2016). Panjabi: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. p. 378. ISBN 1317643267.
It is an ancient Arabic writing tradition (carried on in Persian, Urdu and Shahmukhi) to omit the diacritics (except the Hamza) in ordinary writing and to depend on the context to interpret a word.
- "Punjabi - Shahmukhi Script". sanlp.org. Archived from the original on 19 September 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- Delacy 2003, p. XV–XVI.
- "Urdu romanization" (PDF). The Library of Congress.