Shahmukhi

Shahmukhi (, , , ) is the right-to-left abjad-based script developed from the Perso-Arabic alphabet used for the Punjabi language varieties, predominantly in Punjab, Pakistan. It is generally written in the Nastaʿlīq calligraphic hand, which is also used for Persian and Urdu. Shahmukhi is one of the two standard scripts used for Punjabi, the other being Gurmukhī used mainly in Punjab, India. Shahmukhi is written from right to left and has 36 primary letters with some other additional letters.

History Before the advent of Shahmukhi, writing systems were not popular for the Old Punjabi varieties.

The name 'Shahmukhi' is a recent coinage, imitating its counterpart 'Gurmukhī'. However, the writing of Punjabi in the Perso-Arabic script is well-attested from the early 17th century onwards.An Introduction to Punjabi: Grammar, Conversation and Literature (Patiala: Punjabi University, 2011) by Gurinder Singh Mann, Gurdit Singh, Ami P. Shah, Gibb Schreffler, and Anne Murphy. p. viii. 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.

Shackle suggests that the Gurmukhī script was not favoured by Punjabi Muslims due to its religious (Sikh) connotations. Shahmukhi Punjabi was added to Google Translate in 2024.

Alphabet Shahmukhi 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 ().

Vowel diacritics Like Urdu, Shahmukhi also has diacritics, which are implied - a convention retained from the original Arabic script, to express short vowels. + Diacritics used in ShahmukhiNameSymbolUsageIPANotesExamplesShort vowelsZabaraWritten above a letterZeriWritten below a letterPeshuWritten above a letterNūn Ġunnaṉ, Nasal vowel diacritic‘’ (‘face’)TashdīdGeminateDoubles a consonant - goes above the letter being prolonged‘’ ('kk')Loan diacriticsKhaṛī ZabaráUsed in certain Arabic loanwords only‘’ (‘Jesus’)Zabar Tanwīnan[ən]‘’ (‘Immediately’)Other diacriticsHamzaIndicates a diphthong between two vowels, examples such as: ‘’, ‘’, ‘‘, and , not written as a separate diacritic

Consonants

No.NameIPAFinal glyphMedial glyphInitial glyphIsolated glyph 1 alif 2 bē 3 pē 4 tē 5 ṭē 6 s̱ē 7 jīm 8 cē 9 waḍḍi ḥē 10 k͟hē 11 dāl 12 ḍāl 13 ẕāl 14 rē 15 ṛē 16 zē 17 žē 18 sīn 19 shīn 20 ṣwād 21 ẓwād 22 t̤oēṉ 23 z̤oēṉ 24 ain 25 ġain 26 fē 27 qāf 28 kāf 29 gāf 30 lām 31Rarely used in literature, except when a distinction between the pronunciation of the non-retroflex character is needed ḷām 32 mīm 33 nūn 34 aṛnūn ݨ 35 nūn ġunnah 36 vāo 37 nikkī hēgol hē 38 do-cashmī hē or 39 hamzah , 40choṭī yē 41waḍḍi yēN/AN/A

No Punjabi words begin with , , or . Words which begin with are exceedingly rare, but some have been documented in Shahmukhi dictionaries such as Iqbal Salahuddin's Waddi Punjabi Lughat. The digraphs of aspirated consonants are as follows. In addition, and form ligatures with : () and ().

Aspirates Digraph Transcription IPA Example1 bh 2 ph 3 th 4 ṭh 5 jh 6 ch 7 dh 8 ḍh 9 rh 10 ṛh 11 kh 12 gh 13 lh 14 mh 15 nh 16 wh 17 yh

(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 . Vowels are expressed as follows:

FinalMiddleInitialـہیٰN/AN/A

Difference from Persian and Urdu

Shahmukhi 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: to represent /ʈ/, to represent /ɖ/, to represent /ɽ/, to represent /◌̃/, and to represent /ɛ:/ or /e:/. Furthermore, a separate do-cashmi-he letter, , 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 seldom used.

Pronunciation The letter is pronounced 'j' in French or as vion in English and the letter is often transliterated in many ways due to its changing sound in various Arabic and Persian words.

Gallery

See also Gurmukhī alphabet Saraiki alphabet

References

Shahmukhi

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