Shahmukhi (Punjabi: شاہ مُکھی, pronounced [ʃäː(ɦ)˦.mʊ.kʰiː], lit. 'from the king's mouth') is the right-to-left alphabet, developed from the Perso-Arabic script, used for the Punjabi language varieties, predominantly in Pakistan. [1][2][3][4] It is generally written in the Nastaʿlīq calligraphic hand.[3][4][5] Shahmukhi is one of the two standard scripts used for Punjabi, the other being Gurmukhi used officially in India.[3][6][4]
Shahmukhi شاہ مُکھی | |
---|---|
Script type | |
Time period | 13th century–present |
Direction | Right-to-left script |
Region | Punjab, Hazara, Azad Kashmir |
Languages | Punjabi (incl. dialects and varieties) |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Unicode | |
Most of the classical Punjabi literature has been produced in Shahmukhi; used by major Muslim writers including Baba Farid, Bulleh Shah, Waris Shah, Sultan Bahu, and Mian Muhammad Bakhsh, among others.
Shahmukhi is written from right to left, while Gurmukhi is written from left to right.[7] Shahmukhi has 36 primary letters with some other additional letters.[8][4]
History
editBefore the advent of Shahmukhi, writing systems were not popular for the Old Punjabi varieties.[citation needed]
The name 'Shahmukhi' is a recent coinage, imitating its counterpart 'Gurmukhi'.[9] However, the writing of Punjabi in the Perso-Arabic script is well-attested from the 13th century onwards with the first major works produced by Baba Farid.[10] According to Dhavan, Punjabi began to adopt the script as a "side effect" of educational practices in Mughal-era Punjab, when Punjabi Muslims learned the Persian language in order to participate in Mughal society. Educational materials taught Persian to Punjabi speakers by using Punjabi written in Persian's alphabet, which was a novel innovation. This was one of the first attempts at standardising the Punjabi language; prior to this, Punjabi was primarily a spoken language, not formally taught in schools.[11]
Shackle suggests that the Gurmukhi script was not favoured by Punjabi Muslims due to its religious (Sikh) connotations.[10]
Alphabet
editShahmukhi script is a modified version of the Arabic script's Persian alphabet. It is identical to the Urdu alphabet, but contains additional letters representing the Punjabi phonology. For writing Saraiki, an extended Shahmukhi is used that includes 4 additional letters for the implosive consonants (ٻ, ڄ, ݙ, ڳ).[12]
Vowel diacritics
editLike Urdu, Shahmukhi also has diacritics, which are implied - a convention retained from the original Arabic script, to express short vowels.[4][13]
Name | Symbol | Usage | IPA | Notes | Examples |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Short vowels | |||||
Zabar | ◌َ | a | [ə] | Written above a letter | |
Zer | ◌ِ | i | [ɪ] | Written below a letter | |
Pesh | ◌ُ | u | [ʊ] | Written above a letter | |
Nūn Ġunna | ◌٘ | ṉ | [◌̃], [ŋ] | Nasal vowel diacritic | ‘مُون٘ہہ’ (‘face’) |
Tashdīd | ◌ّ | Geminate | [ː] | Doubles a consonant - goes above the letter being prolonged | ‘کّ’ ('kk') |
Loan diacritics | |||||
Khaṛī Zabar | ◌ٰ | á | [äː] | Used in certain Arabic loanwords only | ‘عیسیٰ’ (‘Jesus’) |
Zabar Tanwīn | ◌ً | an | [ən] | ‘فوراً’ (‘Immediately’) | |
Other diacritics | |||||
Hamza | ◌ٔ | varied | Indicates a diphthong between two vowels, examples such as: ‘ئ’, ‘ۓ’, ‘ؤ‘, and أ , not written as a separate diacritic |
Consonants
editNo. | Name[14] | IPA | Final glyph | Medial glyph | Initial glyph | Isolated glyph | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | الف | alif | /äː/, /ə/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/ | ـا | ـا | ا | ا |
2 | بے | bē | /b/ | ـب | ـبـ | بـ | ب |
3 | پے | pē | /p/ | ـپ | ـپـ | پـ | پ |
4 | تے | tē | /t/ | ـت | ـتـ | تـ | ت |
5 | ٹے | ṭē | /ʈ/ | ـٹ | ـٹـ | ٹـ | ٹ |
6 | ثے | s̱ē | /s/ | ـث | ـثـ | ثـ | ث |
7 | جيم | jīm | /d͡ʒ/ | ـج | ـجـ | جـ | ج |
8 | چے | cē | /t͡ʃ/ | ـچ | ـچـ | چـ | چ |
9 | وڈّی حے | waḍḍi ḥē | /ɦ/ | ـح | ـحـ | حـ | ح |
10 | خے | k͟hē | /x/ | ـخ | ـخـ | خـ | خ |
11 | دال | dāl | /d/ | ـد | ـد | د | د |
12 | ڈال | ḍāl | /ɖ/ | ـڈ | ـڈ | ڈ | ڈ |
13 | ذال | ẕāl | /z/ | ـذ | ـذ | ذ | ذ |
14 | رے | rē | /r/ | ـر | ـر | ر | ر |
15 | ڑے | ṛē | /ɽ/ | ـڑ | ـڑ | ڑ | ڑ |
16 | زے | zē | /z/ | ـز | ـز | ز | ز |
17 | ژے | žē | /ʒ/ | ـژ | ـژ | ژ | ژ |
18 | سین | sīn | /s/ | ـس | ـسـ | سـ | س |
19 | شین | shīn | /ʃ/ | ـش | ـشـ | شـ | ش |
20 | صاد | ṣwād | /s/ | ـص | ـصـ | صـ | ص |
21 | ضاد | ẓwād | /z/ | ـض | ـضـ | ضـ | ض |
22 | طوئیں | t̤oʼēṉ | /t/ | ـط | ـطـ | طـ | ط |
23 | ظوئیں | z̤oʼēṉ | /z/ | ـظ | ـظـ | ظـ | ظ |
24 | عین | ʻain | /∅/, /äː/, /ə/, /eː/, /oː/, | ـع | ـعـ | عـ | ع |
25 | غین | ġain | /ɣ/ | ـغ | ـغـ | غـ | غ |
26 | فے | fē | /f/ | ـف | ـفـ | فـ | ف |
27 | قاف | qāf | /q/ | ـق | ـقـ | قـ | ق |
28 | کاف | kāf | /k/ | ـک | ـکـ | کـ | ک |
29 | گاف | gāf | /ɡ/ | ـگ | ـگـ | گـ | گ |
30 | لام | lām | /l/ | ـل | ـلـ | لـ | ل |
31[15] | اڑلام | ḷām | /ɭ/ | ـلؕ | ـلؕـ | لؕـ | لؕ |
32 | میم | mīm | /m/ | ـم | ـمـ | مـ | م |
33 | نون | nūn | /n, ɲ/ | ـن | ـنـ | نـ | ن |
34[15] | اڑنون | ṇūn | /ɳ/ | ـݨ | ـݨـ | ݨـ | |
35 | نون غنّہ | nūn ġunnah | /◌̃, ŋ/ | ـں | ـن٘ـ | ن٘ـ | ں
(ن٘) |
36 | واؤ | vāʼo | /ʋ, uː, ʊ, oː, ɔː/ | ـو | ـو | و | و |
37 | نکی ہے گول ہے |
nikkī hē gol hē |
/ɦ, ɑː, e:/ | ـہ | ـہـ | ہـ | ہ |
38 | دو چشمی ہے | do-cashmī hē | /ʰ/ or /ʱ/ | ـھ | ـھـ | ھ | ھ |
39 | ہمزہ | hamzah | /ʔ/, /∅/ | ء | ء | ء | ء |
40 | چھوٹی يے | choṭī yē | /j, iː/ | ـی | ـیـ | یـ | ی |
41 | وڈّی يے | waḍḍi yē | /ɛː, eː/ | ـے | N/A | N/A | ے |
No Punjabi words begin with ں, ھ, or ے. Words which begin with ڑ are exceedingly rare, but some have been documented in Shahmukhi dictionaries such as Iqbal Salahuddin's Waddi Punjabi Lughat.[16] The digraphs of aspirated consonants are as follows. In addition, ل and لؕ form ligatures with ا: لا (ـلا) and لؕا (ـلؕا).
Aspirates
editNo. | Digraph[17] | Transcription[17] | IPA | Example |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | بھ | bh | [bʱ] | بھاری |
2 | پھ | ph | [pʰ] | پھل |
3 | تھ | th | [t̪ʰ] | تھم |
4 | ٹھ | ṭh | [ʈʰ] | ٹھیس |
5 | جھ | jh | [d͡ʒʱ] | جھاڑی |
6 | چھ | ch | [t͡ʃʰ] | چھوکرا |
7 | دھ | dh | [d̪ʱ] | دھوبی |
8 | ڈھ | ḍh | [ɖʱ] | ڈھول |
9 | رھ | rh | [ɾʰ] | بارھویں |
10 | ڑھ | ṛh | [ɽʰ] | کڑھنا |
11 | کھ | kh | [kʰ] | کھولنا |
12 | گھ | gh | [ɡʱ] | گھبراہٹ |
13 | لھ | lh | [lʰ] | کولھ |
14 | مھ | mh | [mʰ] | ڈمھ |
15 | نھ | nh | [nʰ] | چنھاں |
16 | وھ | wh | [ʋʰ] | وھایا |
17 | یھ | yh | [jʰ] | یھاوا[18] |
- ے (waddi 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 ی.
- Vowels are expressed as follows:
Final | Middle | Initial | |
---|---|---|---|
ـہ | ـَ | اَ | |
یٰ | ـَا | آ | |
N/A | ـِ | اِ | |
ـِى | ـِيـ | اِی | |
ـے | ـيـ | اے | |
ـَے | ـَيـ | اَے | |
N/A | ـُ | اُ | |
ـُو | اُو | ||
ـو | او | ||
ـَو | اَو |
Difference from Persian and Urdu
editShahmukhi has more letters than its Persian base and related Urdu alphabet, to represent the special sounds that are only in Punjabi, which already have additional letters added to the Arabic 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 above. Characters added which differ from Urdu include: لؕ to represent /ɭ/ and ݨ to represent /ɳ/. These characters, however are rarely used.
Pronunciation
editThe letter ژ is pronounced 'j' in French or as vision in English and the letter ع is often transliterated in many ways due to its changing sound in various Arabic and Persian words.
Gallery
edit-
Modern Shahmukhi alphabet table in Mehr Nastaliq Saraiki font
-
Standard Shahmukhi alphabets
-
"Shahmukhi" written in Shahmukhi script
-
Another example of poetry by Bulleh Shah in Shahmukhi
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Romanized Punjabi
Tussee'n vee uchhay, Tuhadi zaat vee uchhee
Tussee'n vich Uch day rehnday
Asee'n Kasoori, Saadi zaat Kasoori
Asee'n vich Kasur day rehnday
Approximate English translation
"You are also high, your self is also high
You live inside Uch
We are poor, our self is poor
We live inside Kasur"
- ^ 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: 177–180. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
- ^ a b c Sharma, Saurabh; Gupta, Vishal (May 2013). "Punjabi Documents Clustering System" (PDF). Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence. 5 (2): 174. doi:10.4304/JETWI.5.2.171-187. S2CID 55699784. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
- ^ a b c d e 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 978-1782832508.
- ^ Sharma, Saurabh; Gupta, Vishal (May 2013). "Punjabi Documents Clustering System" (PDF). Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence. 5 (2): 174. doi:10.4304/JETWI.5.2.171-187. S2CID 55699784. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
- ^ Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography. Springer. 2019. p. 142. ISBN 978-3030059774.
- ^ Shackle, Christopher. "Punjabi language". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
- ^ a b Shackle, Christopher (2007). "Panjabi". In Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh (eds.). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. p. 655. ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5.
- ^ Dhavan, Purnima (2019-12-31), Green, Nile (ed.), "Marking Boundaries and Building Bridges: Persian Scholarly Networks in Mughal Punjab", The Persianate World, University of California Press, pp. 168–169, doi:10.1525/9780520972100-009, ISBN 978-0-520-97210-0, S2CID 211601323, retrieved 2021-06-12
- ^ Bashir, Elena; Conners, Thomas J.; Hefright, Brook (2019). A descriptive grammar of Hindko, Panjabi, and Saraiki. Hefright, Brook. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 62, 77. ISBN 978-1-61451-296-7. OCLC 1062344143.
- ^ Bhardwaj, Mangat (2016). Panjabi: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. p. 378. ISBN 978-1317643265.
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.
- ^ Delacy, Richard (2003). Beginner's Urdu Script. McGraw-Hill. pp. xv–xvi.
- ^ a b Rarely used in literature, except when a distinction between the pronunciation of the non-retroflex character is needed
- ^ Muhammad Iqbal Salahuddin (2002). وڈی پنجابی لغت: پنجابی توں پنجابی (in Punjabi). Vol. 2. Lahore: Aziz Publishers. pp. 1672–1673. ISBN 978-969-455-042-8. LCCN 2010341553. OCLC 629702100. OL 31212991M. Wikidata Q113450202. Retrieved 2022-08-29.
- ^ a b "Urdu romanization" (PDF). The Library of Congress.
- ^ Muhammad Iqbal Salahuddin (2002). وڈی پنجابی لغت: پنجابی توں پنجابی (in Punjabi). Vol. 3. Lahore: Aziz Publishers. p. 2958. ISBN 978-969-455-042-8. LCCN 2010341553. OCLC 629702100. OL 31212991M. Wikidata Q113450202. Retrieved 2022-08-29.
Further reading
edit- Mumtaz Ahmad (1 April 1992), Punjabi Reader: in the Arabic Script (in Punjabi), Kensington: Dunwoody Publishing & Press, Wikidata Q113235868
- Muhammad Iqbal Salahuddin (2002). وڈی پنجابی لغت: پنجابی توں پنجابی (in Punjabi). Lahore: Aziz Publishers. ISBN 978-969-455-042-8. LCCN 2010341553. OCLC 629702100. OL 31212991M. Wikidata Q113450202.
- Rehman Akhter (2019), Gulshan-e-Urdu (in Punjabi and Urdu) (2nd ed.), Malerkotla: Brar Sons, Wikidata Q113270613
- پلاک ڈکشنری (in Punjabi), Lahore: Punjab Institute of Language, Art, and Culture, 2018, Wikidata Q113301763
- Gurpreet Singh Lehal; Tejinder Singh; Joga Singh; Suman Preet (2009), Punjabi-English Dictionary (in English and Punjabi), Patiala: Publication Bureau, Punjabi University, OCLC 1036828588, Wikidata Q112690336
- Gurpreet Singh Lehal; Tejinder Singh Asani (2012), Conversion between Scripts of Punjabi: Beyond Simple Transliteration (PDF) (in English and Punjabi), Wikidata Q112672112
External links
edit- Shahmukhi to Gurmukhi Transliteration System: A Corpus based Approach
- The Western Panjabi Alphabet Archived 2017-11-30 at the Wayback Machine
- Learn Shahmukhi
- Likhari in Shahmukhi
- Kalam-e-Baba Nanak
- Punjabi and Punjab
- E-Book on Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi
- PDF on Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi Archived 2018-09-03 at the Wayback Machine