Elearnpunjabi L1 Transcript

Online Punjabi Teaching ::
Lesson 1: Introduction to
Punjabi Language
http://www.elearnpunjabi.com
Online Punjabi Teaching :: Lesson 1: Introduction to Punjabi Language
Welcome to e-learnPunjabi, an online course for Punjabi teaching. One might think why
he/she should learn Punjabi. The answers to the following questions might help you.
 Well do you have Punjabi roots and cannot speak Punjabi or cannot write in Punjabi?
 Do you love Punjabi culture and Punjabi food?
 Do you plan to visit the culturally rich states of Punjab in India and Pakistan and
would like to communicate in the local language?
 Do you absolutely love Punjabi dance and music?
 Do you wish to learn the script in which holy Sri Guru Granth Sahib has been written?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes then this free online course is perfect for you.
This first lesson will provide the brief introduction of Punjabi language.
Punjabi is one of the major international languages spoken by over 120 million native
speakers worldwide in more than 150 countries, making it the 10th most widely spoken
language in the world. It is the native language of the Punjabi people who inhabit the
historical Punjab region of India and Pakistan. Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in
Pakistan, second most widely spoken language in North India and the third-most spoken
native language in the Indian Subcontinent. Outside Indian sub-continent, Punjabi is the
third-most spoken native language in Canada and fourth-most spoken language in the United
Kingdom. The language also has a significant presence in the United States of America,
Australia and United Arab Emirates. It is not unusual to find in UK and Canada, the names
of streets and stations written in Punjabi. Currently four Canadians with Punjabi roots are
serving as Cabinet ministers in Canada.
Punjabi has a rich and diverse literary tradition spanning more than 800 years. This tradition
includes poetry, prose, philosophy, traditional folk dance, film, music and meditation.
Punjabi music and dance is very popular today throughout the world. A large number of
Hindi movies now incorporate Punjabi music and dance.
For Punjabi learning, we shall be following the Communicative language teaching

methodology, where we parallel the “real world” as closely as possible. Besides teaching
Copyright © Punjab School Education Board, Mohali & RCPLT, Punjabi University, Patiala
2
Punjabi language, we shall be providing cultural information about Punjab and Punjabi and
link spoken and written texts to the cultural context of their use.
Let us start with the script used for writing Punjabi.
Punjabi is a one of the few languages of world that are written in two mutually
incomprehensible scripts. In India, Punjabi language is written in Gurmukhi script, while in
Pakistan, it is written with a version of the Urdu script known as Shahmukhi. The word
Punjabi is written as ‘ਪੰਜਾਬੀ/pañjābī’ in Gurmukhi and as ‘‫پنجابى‬/pañjābī’ in Shahmukhi
scripts. The Punjabi text shown below is written in both Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi scripts.
The two scripts look totally different from each other.
ਗੁ ਰਮੁਖੀ, ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ ਲਈ ਵਰਤੀ ਜਾਣ ਵਾਲੀ ਲਲਪੀ ਹੈ ৷ ‫ پنجابی بھاشا لئی ورتی‬،‫گورمکھی‬
‫جان والی لپی ہے‬
ਗੁ ਰਮੁਖੀ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਦੋ ਸ਼ਬਦਾ ਦਾ ਸੁਮੇਲ ਹੈ : ਗੁ ਰ ੂ ਅਤੇ ਮੁਖੀ
‫گورمکھی شبد دو شبداں دا سمیل ہے‬
ਭਾਵ ‘ਗੁ ਰ ੂ ਦੇ ਮੁਖ ਤੋੋਂ ਲਿਕਲੀ ਹੋਈ’ ৷ ‫ گورو اتے مکھی‬:
،‫بھاو ‘گورو دے مکھ توں نکلی ہوئی‬
َ
Gurmukhi Script Shahmukhi Script
We shall be teaching Punjabi language using the Gurmukhi script.
Gurmukhi script (ਗੁ ਰਮੁਖੀ/gurmukhī)
The word Gurmukhi is made by two words Guru and mukhi which means 'from the mouth of
the Guru'. The Gurmukhi alphabet was developed from the Landa alphabet and was
standardized during the 16th century by Guru Angad Dev Ji, the second Sikh Guru.
Originally, there were 35 letters in Gurmukhi script, so the letters are also sometimes called
'Paintee', where paintee means thirty five in Punjabi. The loan words mostly from Perso-
Arabic and Sanskrit sources are also used in this language. To fulfill the requirement of such
sounds, the dot is used below the six letters of this script. With the addition of these six
letters, the letters became forty one in number.
The first three letters ੳ/ūṛā, ਅ/aiṛā and ੲ/īṛī, the only letters of this kind, have no sounds of
their own and act as vowel carriers.
3
The vowel carriers are used

 At the beginning of words that start with a vowel as a place holder for the vowel,
 and where there is no consonant between vowel sounds (ਗਈ/gaī).
The next 38 characters are consonants representing distinct sounds.
Gurmukhi script is designed in a very systematic way.
 Each letter transcribes a distinct sound.
o The Gurmukhi script represents the sounds of Punjabi language with
remarkable consistency. Whereas many letters of the English alphabet can be
pronounced in many different ways (As an example c and k can represent
sound k, and c can represent two sounds /k/ and /s/), the letters of the
Gurmukhi script are pronounced consistently. There is one sound – one
symbol principle in Gurmukhi script. There is only one symbol for one sound.
Thus, Gurmukhi is relatively easy to learn.
 It recognizes subtle distinctions in sounds. Like ਖ਼/ḵẖ and ਖ/kh, ਗ਼/ġ and ਗ/g.
 The ordering of the letters is according to precise scientific principles.
The letters of Gurmukhi are arranged into groups of five characters, only the last group has
six characters. Except first and last two groups, consonants in all other groups are classified
according to the place and manner of articulation.
Like, all the letters of second group represent Velar sounds – ਕ/k, ਖ/kh, ਗ/g, ਘ/gh and ਙ/ṅ.
These consonants are pronounced with the back of our tongue touching the soft palate.
4
All the letters of next group represent Palatal sounds – ਚ/ch, ਛ/chh, ਜ/j, ਝ/jh and ਞ/ñ.
These consonants are pronounced with our tongue touching the hard palate.
The next group represents retroflex sounds – ਟ/ṭ, ਠ/ṭh, ਡ/ḍ, ਢ/ḍh and ਣ/ṇ. These are
pronounced when our tongue tip is curled slightly backward and touches the front portion of
the hard palate.
The fifth group represents Dental sounds – ਤ/t, ਥ/th, ਦ/d, ਧ/dh and ਿ/n. These consonants
are pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the back of the upper front teeth.
The next group of letters represents bilabial consonants – ਪ/p, ਫ/ph, ਬ/b, ਭ/bh and ਮ/m.
These are pronounced with the lips.
5
So it can be seen that the sounds of every next group are produced from the point that is
further forward from the last one – first soft palate, then hard palate, then front part of hard
palate, then back of upper teeth and then lips.
There are three short letters in the Gurmukhi script, called pairīn akhar. pairīn means they
occur in the foot of other letters i.e. they occur underneath the other letters. These short letters
are shown below:
Some of the example words which use these short letters are ਸਵਰ/svar, ਕ੍ਰਮ/kram, ਪੜ੍ਹ/paṛh.
Here Pairien ਰ/r and ਵ/v are used to make consonant clusters and ਹ/h raises tone.
Gurmukhi has the following nine signs to denote vowels.
Gurmukhi has three auxiliary signs to denote nasalization and stress.
In the coming lessons, we shall be discussing these vowel signs and letters in detail.
A letter in Gurmukhi script can be partitioned into three horizontal zones.
Upper Zone
Head Line
Middle Zone
Lower Zone
It can be noted that most of the characters have a horizontal line at the upper part. The
characters are connected mostly by this line called head line to form a word. The upper zone
denotes the region above the head line, where the vowels reside. Except vowels, some part of
6
ੳ/ūṛā also occurs above the head line, while the middle zone represents the area below the
head line where the consonants and some sub-parts of the vowels are present. The middle
zone is the busiest zone. The lower zone represents the area below middle zone where some
vowels and certain short letters lie in the foot of consonants. When we form a word, all letters
are joined with each other by the head line.
Like English, Gurmukhi is written and read from left to right. However, there are no
capital letters in Gurmukhi. Gurmukhi script has many characters that represent sounds
unfamiliar to the English speaker like ਖ/kh, ਘ/gh, ਛ/chh, ਝ/jh, ਠ/ṭh, ਢ/ḍh, ਤ/t, ਧ/dh, ਭ/bh
and ੜ੍/ṛ etc. These may not be exactly represented by the Roman alphabet.
7
Quiz
Q1. Punjabi is:
a) Fifth most widely spoken language in the world
b) Tenth most widely spoken language in the world
c) Twentieth most widely spoken language in the world
d) Thirtieth most widely spoken language in the world
Q2. The most widely spoken language in Pakistan is:

a) Urdu
b) Punjabi
c) Sindhi
d) Arabic
Q3. Punjabi is written in:

a) Gurmukhi and Devmukhi scripts
b) Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi scripts
c) Punjmukhi and Devmukhi scripts
d) Punjmukhi and Shahmukhi scripts
Q4. The number of vowel carriers in Gurmukhi are

a) 2
b) 5
c) 3
d) 4
Q5. The number of characters in each row in Gurmukhi alphabet, except the last row, is
a) 4
b) 5
c) 6
d) 7
Q6. Gurmukhi has ___ auxiliary signs to denote nasalization and stress.
a) 2
b) 3
c) 4
d) 5
8
Q7. A letter in Gurmukhi script can be partitioned into _____ horizontal zones.
a) 2
b) 3
c) 4
d) 5
9

Elearnpunjabi L1 Transcript

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Elearnpunjabi L1 Transcript

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Online Punjabi Teaching ::

For Punjabi learning, we shall be following the Communicative language teaching

Let us start with the script used for writing Punjabi.

Punjabi is written as ‘ਪੰਜਾਬੀ/pañjābī’ in Gurmukhi and as ‘‫پنجابى‬/pañjābī’ in Shahmukhi

We shall be teaching Punjabi language using the Gurmukhi script.

Gurmukhi script (ਗੁ ਰਮੁਖੀ/gurmukhī)

their own and act as vowel carriers.

The vowel carriers are used

 The ordering of the letters is according to precise scientific principles.

These are pronounced with the lips.

Gurmukhi has the following nine signs to denote vowels.

Gurmukhi has three auxiliary signs to denote nasalization and stress.

A letter in Gurmukhi script can be partitioned into three horizontal zones.

Q2. The most widely spoken language in Pakistan is:

Q3. Punjabi is written in:

Q4. The number of vowel carriers in Gurmukhi are

You might also like