Punjabi is spoken in mainly three areas of the world; in East Punjab (India) where it is a state language, in West Punjab (Pakistan) where it is most widely spoken and in the diaspora, particularly Britain, North America, East Africa and Australia. No exact figures are available on the number of Punjabi speakers, either as a first or second language, but if the speakers of various dialects of Punjabi are taken into account an approximation of 100 million would not be too far from the truth.

One of the main problems with designating the exact number of Punjabi speakers is the presence of a large number of distinct dialects that are spoken across the large geographical area of East and West Punjab. There are some recognized dialects of Punjabi according to Language Department of Punjab:

    According to Linguistic Department of Punjabi University, Patiala there are following dialects of the Punjabi language.

            One of the more interesting facts about the Punjabi language is that where it is numerically the most widely spoken, in Pakistani Punjab, it is hardly written at all. Punjabi is most often written in East Punjab in the Gurmukhi script. It is also possible to write the language in the Persian script often referred to as Shahmukhi in this context.

Despite the modern day usage of Gurmukhi, the first Punjabi literature was written in Shahmukhi, and popular history associates this writing with Sheikh Farid and Goraknath. However, the literary period of the language begins with the sacred scriptures of the Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib, This collection of writings by the Sikh Gurus is probably the first manuscript of the Punjabi language. After the period of the Gurus, it was the Sufi poets who developed the Punjabi language. In fact it is the folk literature developed by the Sufis, and particularly the Quissa-Love ballad form-which has had a long and lasting impact on the development of Punjabi literature. The stories of Heer-Ranjha and Mirza-Sahiban are deeply embedded in the everyday life and culture of Punjab.

Gurmukhi

           Punjabi is most commonly written in the Gurmukhi script which is the most complete and  accurate way to represent Punjabi sounds. Unlike Roman script, the Gurmukhi script follows a ‘one sound-one symbol’ principle.

           The Gurmukhi script has forty one letters including thirty eight consonants and three basic vowel sign bearers. There are ten clear  vowel signs and three auxiliary signs. The most striking characteristic of the Gurmukhi script, in comparison with Roman, is that, with the exception of five, all letters are joined by a line across the top. Like English and other European, Latin-based languages, it is written and read from left to right. However, there are neither capital letters in Gurmukhi nor articles such as ‘a’ and ‘the’. Punjabi spellings are, for the most part, regular and relatively simple to learn, though you may come across variations in spellings of some words. However, as is the case in English, Punjabi spellings are not fully standardized. Equivalent sounds which have been given in romanised script are only approximate since the Gurmukhi script has many  sounds unfamiliar to the English speaker which often may not be exactly represented by the Roman alphabet.

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Essential Features of the Gurmukhi Script

           All letters of a script have three aspects. Every letter has a particular shape, particular name and it represent a particular sound. Sanskrit may have been one of the first languages to group the letters according to their sounds. At one time there were only thirty-five letters in the Gurmukhi script, but later, five more letters were added in order to accommodate other sounds correctly. This need arose because  many loan words are used in Punjabi. More recently, an extra character ( ਲ਼ ) was introduced. The shape, name and sound of Gurmukhi alphabet is as below:

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Letters with a dot

           It is also important to note the distinction between plain letters and those letters which are marked by a dot, as shown below:   

sa	sha	kha	ḵẖa	ga	ġa	ja	za	pha	fa	la	ḷa

These letters are named by adding the words ਪੈਰ ਬਿੰਦੀ (pair bindī)  to the name of the letter, so ਸ਼ is called ਸੱਸੇ ਪੈਰ ਬਿੰਦੀ  (sassē pair bindī ), which literally means sassa with a dot in its foot. Many Punjabi speakers do not make a distinction between ਖ ਖ਼ ਗ ਗ਼ and ਫ ਫ਼ . There are two main reasons for this, first their pronunciation is quite similar and second, they are used to differentiate borrowed words from other languages, the knowledge of which is decreasing in East Punjab. You may come across written texts in which writers have not used the dot. In this study, however, we have maintained its use.

           Some Punjabi words require consonants to be written in a conjunct form, which takes the shape of a subscript to the main letter. The second consonant is written under the first as a subscript. There are only three commonly used subjoined letters and to distinguish them from their normal forms the word ਪੈਰੀਂ (pairīṃ), which means belonging to the foot, is attached under the letter.

 ਬਿੰਦੀ   (bindī)                ਟਿੱਪੀ  (ṭippī)  

Vowels

There are ten vowel phonemes in Punjabi in contrast to the English twenty or so. Punjabi symbols are generally as they are written following the one sign- one sound rule. They are vowels making only one sound. However, there are two forms that vowels can take. The independent vowel form which does not require a consonant and the dependent form which is attached to a consonant. All consonants use the dependent form of the vowel. First table shows the name and sound of the dependent vowels and second table shows their sound combined with the consonant ਸ.

	Vowel Sign		Name of vowel
	Invisible	a	ਮੁਕਤਾ	muktā
		ā	ਕੰਨਾ	kannā
		i	ਸਿਹਾਰੀ	sihārī
		ī	ਬਿਹਾਰੀ	bihārī
		u	ਔਂਕੜ	auṅkaṛ
		ū	ਦੁਲੈਂਕੜ	dulaiṅkaṛ
		ē	ਲਾਂਵਾਂ	lāṃvāṃ
		ai	ਦੁਲਾਂਵਾਂ	dulāṃvāṃ
		ō	ਹੋੜਾ	hōṛā
		au	ਕਨੌੜਾ	kanauṛā

 

Consonant and vowel sign		Sound	Pronunciation
ਸ		sa	a in about
ਸਾ		sā	a in part
ਸਿ		si	i in it
ਸੀ		sī	ee in see
ਸੁ		su	u in put
ਸੂ		sū	oo in food
ਸੇ		sē	a in cake
ਸੈ		sai	a in man
ਸੋ		sō	o in show
ਸੌ		sau	o in bought

You may note that the vowels are divided into five pairs. In the first three, the distinction is between a short and long sound, for example between u and oo. In the last two pairs distinction is between closed and open sounds so e is closed and ai is open sounding.

Independent vowels

           The independent form of vowels can occur in three ways. First, when the vowel comes at the beginning of a word or a syllable, second in those instances where two vowel sounds are required as a consonant cannot support two vowels, and third, in a diphthong-when two vowels are present in one syllable. In fact one of the features of Punjabi is the presence of many diphthongs, sometimes with three vowel sounds in one word with no consonant, for instance ਆਇਆ  (āiā), (he) came.

Independent vowels are represented by dependent vowels carried by the first three letters of the Gurmukhi alphabet.

 ਊੜਾ  (ūṛā)             ਐੜਾ (aiṛā)              ਈੜੀ  (īṛī)

           oorhaa and eerhee are never used on their own. These three vowel signs do not represent any consonant sounds. They must be accompanied by their allocated vowel signs. Their main function is to denote their own respective vowel sounds. They are founder, basic or parent vowel bearers representing the ten sounds. However, the pronunciation of both independent and dependent vowels is the same. 

Formula
	u is added to		to give	ਉ
	oo is added to		to give	ਊ
	o is added to consonant letters and when added to consonant sign ਕ to give ਕੋ		to give	ਓ
invisible sign				ਅ
	aa is added to		to give	ਆ
	ai is added to		to give	ਐ
	au is added to		to give	ਔ
	i is added to		to give	ਇ
	ee is added to		to give	ਈ
	e is added to		to give	ਏ

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Auxiliary Signs

 

 1.Nasal Signs

(A) ਬਿੰਦੀ (bindī)

It serves to add a nasal sound to a particular vowel. Bindee is used with kannā, lāṃvāṃ, dulāṃvāṃ, bihārī, hōṛā and  kanauṛā and the independent forms of vowels where a is the bearer. Its sound is same as 'n' in band, grand, slang, grant. For example

kāṃ (crow) = ਕਾਂ                                                                           

gāṃ (cow) = ਗਾਂ   

(B) ਟਿੱਪੀ (ṭippī)

It serves to add a nasal sound to a particular vowel. Tippee is used with muktā, sihārī, auṅkaṛ and dulaiṅkaṛ only. It is not used upon a (instead bindī  is used with this letter) and last letter of a word. Its sound is same as 'n' in punch, lunch. For example

amb (mango) = ਅੰਬ

pañchī (bird) = ਪੰਛੀ

jhaṇḍā (flag) = ਝੰਡਾ

2. ਅਧਕ (adhak) 

The function of ਅਧਕ (adhak) is to allocate a double sound to the particular letter that it is assigned to. It should be placed above the preceding letter that is to be read twice, however, in practice it is placed between the two letters. Therefore, when the adhak occurs between two letters, it is the second of the two that is to be repeated. For example, in the Punjabi word for boundary ਹੱਦ (hadd), the adhak affects the letter ਦ (d) changing the sound of the word from had to hadd. In some cases another vowel sound may come in between the two letters, but the adhak still affects the second letter, for example in the word ਬੱਚਿਓ (bacciō), the adhak comes before the sihaaree vowel but still affects the letter ਚ (c), so it is pronounced chch. The adhak is a very important, though subtle device, as two letters without an adhak give rise to completely different meanings. For example ਕਦ (kad) means when, whereas ਕੱਦ (kadd) means height.

Tones

One of the unique features of Punjabi, in the variety of modern South Asian Languages, is the presence of pitch contours. These change the meaning of the word depending on the way it sounds. In technical terms these are called ‘tones’ and there are three types: low, high and level. The Punjabi tone system is far less complex than Chinese, the best known tone language. The low tone is characterised by lowering the voice below the normal pitch and then rising back in the following syllable. In the high tone the pitch of the voice rises above its normal level falling back at the following symbol. The level tone is carried by the remaining words. Tones are not represented by any letters or symbols in the Gurmukhi script.

Low tone				Level tone				High tone
ਝਾ	jhā		peep	ਚਾਅ	cāa		desire	ਚਾਹ	cāh		tea
ਘੋੜਾ	ghōṛā		horse	ਕੋੜਾ	kōṛā		whip	ਕੋਹੜਾ	kōhṛā		leper
ਘੜੀ	ghaṛī		watch	ਕੜੀ	kaṛī		link of a chain	ਕੜ੍ਹੀ	kaṛhī		turmeric curry