Gurmukhī
Type	Abugida
Spoken languages	Punjabi language
Time period	c. An abugida ( from Ge‘ez አቡጊዳ ’äbugida or Amharic አቡጊዳ ’abugida is a segmental Writing system which Punjabi (pa ਪੰਜਾਬੀ in Gurmukhi script pa-PK {{Nastaliq پنجابی}} in Shahmukhi script Pañjābī in Transliteration) is an 1539–present
Parent systems	Proto-Canaanite alphabet [a]  → Phoenician alphabet [a]   → Aramaic alphabet [a]    → Brāhmī     → Gupta      → Śāradā       → Gurmukhī
Sister systems	Takri
Unicode range	U+0A00–U+0A7F
ISO 15924	Guru
[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon. The Proto-Canaanite alphabet is a consonantal alphabet of twenty-two acrophonic glyphs found in Levantine texts of the Late Bronze Age (from ca The Phoenician alphabet is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention taken to originate around 1050 BC The Aramaic alphabet is an Abjad, a Consonantal Alphabet, used for writing Aramaic. Brāhmī script refers to the oldest members of the Brahmic family of alphabets. The Gupta script (or Gupta Brahmi) was used for writing Sanskrit and is associated with the Gupta Empire of India which was a period of material The Śāradā, or Sharada, script (sa शारदा is an Abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts developed from ca The Takri script (sometimes called Tankri) is an Abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts Unicode ’s ISO 15924, Codes for the representation of names of scripts, defines two sets of codes for a number of Writing systems (scripts
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

The Brahmic script and its descendants

Brāhmī Northern Brahmic Kusan Gupta Śāradā Landa Old Kashmiri Gurmukhī Takri Dogri Chameali Siddhaṃ Nāgarī Devanāgarī Nandināgarī Gujarati Proto-Bengali Eastern Nagari Bengali Assamese Mithilakshar Oriya Nepal Bhujimol Ranjana Tibetan ’Phagspa Southern Brahmic Tamil Brahmi Vatteluttu Tamil Pallava Grantha Malayalam Tulu Khmer Thai Lao Old Kawi Balinese Javanese Mon Burmese Kalinga Kadamba Old Kannada Kannada Telugu Sinhala

Gurmukhī (ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ) is the most common script used for writing the Punjabi language. Punjabi (pa ਪੰਜਾਬੀ in Gurmukhi script pa-PK {{Nastaliq پنجابی}} in Shahmukhi script Pañjābī in Transliteration) is an An abugida derived from the Later Sharada script and ultimately descended from Brahmi, Gurmukhi was standardized by the second Sikh guru, Guru Angad Dev, in the 16th century. An abugida ( from Ge‘ez አቡጊዳ ’äbugida or Amharic አቡጊዳ ’abugida is a segmental Writing system which The Śāradā, or Sharada, script (sa शारदा is an Abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts developed from ca Guru Angad Dev Ji was the second of the eleven Sikh Gurus. Lehna was born in the village of Sarae Naga in Muktsar district in Punjab, on March 31, The whole of the Guru Granth Sahib's 1430 pages are written in this script. The Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji (ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ gurū granth sāhib) or Guru Granth Sahib, is the eleventh and eternal Guru of the The name Gurmukhi is derived from the Old Punjabi term "guramukhī", meaning "from the mouth of the Guru".

Modern Gurmukhi has forty-one consonants (vianjan), nine vowel symbols (lāga mātrā), two symbols for nasal sounds (bindī and ṭippī), and one symbol which duplicates the sound of any consonant (addak). In addition, four conjuncts are used: three subjoined forms of the consonants Rara, Haha and Vava, and one half-form of Yayya. Use of the conjunct forms of Vava and Yayya is increasingly scarce in modern contexts.

Gurmukhi is primarily used in the Eastern Punjab region of India, while the Shahmukhi script is used in the Western Punjab of Pakistan. Punjab (ਪੰਜਾਬ पंजाब pəɲdʒaːb is a state in northwest India. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Shahmukhi (, Gurmukhi: ਸ਼ਾਹਮੁਖੀ literally "from the King's mouth" is a local variant of the Arabic script The Punjab ( Urdu:) province of Pakistan () officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia, Southwest Asia, Middle East and Gurmukhi has been adapted to write other languages, such as Braj Bhasha, Khariboli (and other Hindustani dialects), Sanskrit and Sindhi. Brij Bhasha (ब्रज भाषा also called Braj Bhasha, Braj Bhakha, or Daihaati Zabaan (country tongue is a Central Indian language Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue) (/ kʰəɽiː boːliː / Hindi Hindustani ( Hindi: हिन्दुस्तानी is an adjectival form of Hindustan which originally meant people from the whole geographical region of Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Sindhi ( Arabic script: سنڌي Devanagari script: सिन्धी Sindhī) is the language of the Sindh region of South Asia

Contents 1 Origins 2 Gurmukhi etymology 3 Alphabet 4 Vowels 4.1 Vowel Examples 5 Halant 6 Numerals 7 Other Signs 8 Visarg 9 Ek Onkar 10 Gurmukhi in Unicode 11 Bibliography 12 External links

Origins

The Gurmukhi alphabet was devised during the 16th century by Guru Angad Dev, the Second Sikh guru. Guru Angad Dev Ji was the second of the eleven Sikh Gurus. Lehna was born in the village of Sarae Naga in Muktsar district in Punjab, on March 31, It was modelled on the Landa alphabet.

Notable Features:

• This is a syllabic alphabet in which all consonants have an inherent vowel. Diacritics, which can appear above, below, before or after the consonant they belong to, are used to change the inherent vowel.
• When they appear at the beginning of a syllable, vowels are written as independent letters.
• When certain consonants occur together, special conjunct symbols are used which combine the essential parts of each letter.
• Punjabi is a tonal language with three tones. These are indicated in writing using the voiced aspirates consonants (gh, dh, bh, etc) and the intervocal h.

There are two major theories on how the Proto-Gurmukhi script emerged in the 15th century. G. B. Singh (1950), while quoting Abu Raihan Al-Biruni's Ta'rikh al-Hind (1030 AD), says that the script evolved from Ardhanagari. Ardhanagari (also Bhatachhari) an Abugida, was a mixture of Nagari, used in Malwa, particularly Ujjain, and Siddha Matrika or the Al-Biruni writes that the Ardhanagari script was used in Bathinda, including Sindh and western parts of the Punjab in the 10th century. Ardhanagari (also Bhatachhari) an Abugida, was a mixture of Nagari, used in Malwa, particularly Ujjain, and Siddha Matrika or the Bathinda (ਬਠਿੰਡਾ is one of the oldest cities in Punjab and the current administrative headquarters of Bathinda District. Sindh ( Sindhī: سنڌ Urdu: سندھ is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhis. Punjab ( ਪੰਜਾਬ پنجاب, पंजाब پنجاب also Panjab (پنجاب meaning "Land of the Five Rivers") (c For some time, Bhatinda remained the capital of the kingdom of Bhatti Rajputs of the Pal clan, who ruled North India before the Muslims occupied the country. Bhati / Bhatti (भाटी (Bhati ਭੱਟੀ (Bhatti / भटटी بھٹی is a Rajput Caste and is one of the largest tribes among Rajputs Because of its connection with the Bhattis, the Ardhanagari script was also called Bhatachhari. Ardhanagari (also Bhatachhari) an Abugida, was a mixture of Nagari, used in Malwa, particularly Ujjain, and Siddha Matrika or the Ardhanagari (also Bhatachhari) an Abugida, was a mixture of Nagari, used in Malwa, particularly Ujjain, and Siddha Matrika or the According to Al-Biruni, Ardhanagari was a mixture of Nagari, used in Ujjain and Malwa, and Siddha Matrika or the Siddham script, a variant of the Sharada script used in Kashmir. Ardhanagari (also Bhatachhari) an Abugida, was a mixture of Nagari, used in Malwa, particularly Ujjain, and Siddha Matrika or the WikipediaWikiProject Indian cities for details --> Ujjain ( Hindi:उज्जैन (also known as Ujain, Ujjayini, Avanti Siddhaṃ ( Sanskrit सिद्धं "accomplished" or "perfected" — is the name of a North Indian script used for writing Sanskrit during the period The Śāradā, or Sharada, script (sa शारदा is an Abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts developed from ca This article is about the geographical region of greater Kashmir

Pritam Singh (1992) has also traced the origins of Gurmukhi to the Siddha Matrika.

Tarlochan Singh Bedi (1999) writes that the Gurmukhi script developed in the 10-14th centuries from the Devasesha stage of the Sharada script. The Śāradā, or Sharada, script (sa शारदा is an Abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts developed from ca His argument is that from the 10th century, regional differences started to appear between the Sharada script used in Punjab, the Hill States (partly Himachal Pradesh) and Kashmir. The Śāradā, or Sharada, script (sa शारदा is an Abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts developed from ca The regional Sharada script evolves from this stage till the 14th century, when it starts to appear in the form of Gurmukhi. The Śāradā, or Sharada, script (sa शारदा is an Abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts developed from ca Indian epigraphists call this stage Devasesha, while Bedi prefers the name Pritham Gurmukhi or Proto-Gurmukhi. Epigraphy (ἐπιγραφολογία from Greek ἐπιγραφή — "inscription" is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs engraved

Gurus adopted the Proto-Gurmukhi script to write the Guru Granth Sahib, the religious scriptures of the Sikhs. The Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji (ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ gurū granth sāhib) or Guru Granth Sahib, is the eleventh and eternal Guru of the Other contemporary scripts used in the Punjab were Takri and the Laṇḍā alphabets. The Takri script (sometimes called Tankri) is an Abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts The Laṇḍā script ( Gurmukhi: ਲੰਡਾ meaning an alphabet "without tail" is a Punjabi word used to refer to scripts in Northern India Also Takri was a script that developed through the Devasesha stage of the Sharada script, and is found mainly in the Hill States, such as Chamba, where it is called Chambyali and in Jammu, where it is known as Dogri. The Śāradā, or Sharada, script (sa शारदा is an Abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts developed from ca History of Jammu Many historians and locals believe that Jammu was founded by Raja Jamboolochan in 14th century BC. The local Takri variants got the status of official scripts in some of the Punjab Hill States, and were used for both administrative and literary purposes until the 19th century. The Punjab Hill States Agency was an administrative unit of British India. After 1948, when Himachal Pradesh was established as an administrative unit, the local Takri variants were replaced by Devanagari.

Meanwhile, the mercantile scripts of Punjab known as the Laṇḍā were normally not used for literary purposes. The Laṇḍā script ( Gurmukhi: ਲੰਡਾ meaning an alphabet "without tail" is a Punjabi word used to refer to scripts in Northern India Landa means alphabet "without tail", applying that the script did not have vowel symbols. In Punjab, there were at least ten different scripts classified as Laṇḍā, Mahajani being the most popular. Mahajani is an ancient Laṇḍā script that was used to record the Punjabi and Marwari languages The Laṇḍā alphabets were used for household and trade purposes. Compared to the Laṇḍā, Sikh Gurus favoured the use of Proto-Gurmukhi, because of the difficulties involved in pronouncing words without vowel signs.

The usage of Gurmukhi letters in Guru Granth Sahib meant that the script developed its own orthographical rules. The Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji (ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ gurū granth sāhib) or Guru Granth Sahib, is the eleventh and eternal Guru of the In the following epochs, Gurmukhi became the prime script applied for literary writings of the Sikhs. Later in the 20th century, the script was given the authority as the official script of the Eastern Punjabi language. Punjabi may refer to The Punjabi language of Pakistan and India Punjabi grammar List of Punjabi Meanwhile, in Western Punjab a form of the Urdu script, known as Shahmukhi is still in use. Shahmukhi (, Gurmukhi: ਸ਼ਾਹਮੁਖੀ literally "from the King's mouth" is a local variant of the Arabic script

Gurmukhi etymology

The word Gurmukhi is commonly translated as "from the Mouth of the Guru". However, the term used for the Punjabi script has somewhat different connotations. The opinion given by traditional scholars is that as the Sikh holy writings, before they were scribed, were uttered by the Gurus, they came to be known as Gurmukhi or the "Utterance of the Guru". And consequently, the script that was used for scribing the utterance was also given the same name. However, the prevalent view among Punjabi linguists is that as in the early stages the Gurmukhi letters were primarily used by Gurmukhs, or the Sikhs devoted to the Guru, the script came to be associated with them. Another view is that as the Gurmukhs, in accordance with the Sikh belief, used to meditate on the letters ਵ, ਹ, ਗ, ਰ which jointly form ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ or God in Sikhism, these letters were called Gurmukhi or the "speech of the Gurmukhs". Subsequently, the whole script came to be known as Gurmukhi.

Alphabet

The Gurmukhi alphabet contains thirty-five distinct letters. The first three letters are unique because they form the basis for vowels and are not consonants. Except for Aira, the first three characters are never used on their own. See the section on vowels for further details.

Name		Pron.	Name		Pron.	Name		Pron.	Name		Pron.	Name		Pron.
ੳ	Ura		ਅ	Aira		ੲ	Iri		ਸ	Sussa	Sa	ਹ	Haha	Ha
ਕ	Kakka	Ka	ਖ	Khukha	Kha	ਗ	Gugga	Ga	ਘ	Ghugga	Gha	ਙ	Ungga	Nga
ਚ	Chuchaa	Ca	ਛ	Chhuchha	Cha	ਜ	Jujja	Ja	ਝ	Jhujja	Jha	ਞ	Neya	Nya
ਟ	Tainka	Tta	ਠ	Thutha	Ttha	ਡ	Dudda	Dda	ਢ	Dhudda	Ddha	ਣ	Nahnha	Nna
ਤ	Tutta	Ta	ਥ	Thutha	Tha	ਦ	Duda	Da	ਧ	Dhuda	Dha	ਨ	Nunna	Na
ਪ	Puppa	Pa	ਫ	Phupha	Pha	ਬ	Bubba	Ba	ਭ	Bhubba	Bha	ਮ	Mumma	Ma
ਯ	Yaiyya	Ya	ਰ	Rara	Ra	ਲ	Lulla	La	ਵ	Vava	Va	ੜ	Rharha	Rha

In addition to these, there are six consonants created by placing a dot (bindi) at the foot (pair) of the consonant (these are not present in Sri Guru Granth Sahib):

Name		Pron.
ਸ਼	Sussa pair bindi	Sha
ਖ਼	Khukha pair bindi	Khha
ਗ਼	Gugga pair bindi	Ghha
ਜ਼	Jujja pair bindi	Za
ਫ਼	Phupha pair bindi	Fa
ਲ਼	Lulla pair bindi	Lla

Lulla pair bindi was only recently added to the Gurmukhi alphabet. Some sources may not consider it a separate letter.

Vowels

Gurmukhi follows similar concepts to other Brahmi scripts and as such, all consonants are followed by an inherent ‘a’ sound (unless at the end of a word when the ‘a’ is usually dropped). This inherent vowel sound can be changed by using dependent vowel signs which attach to a bearing consonant. In some cases, dependent vowel signs cannot be used – at the beginning of a word or syllable for instance – and so an independent vowel character is used instead.

Independent vowels are constructed using three bearer characters: Ura (ੳ), Aira (ਅ) and Iri (ੲ). With the exception of Aira (which represents the vowel 'a') they are never used without additional vowel signs.

Vowel			Name		IPA
Ind.	Dep.	with /k/	Letter	Unicode
ਅ	(none)	ਕ	Mukta	A	[ə]
ਆ	ਾ	ਕਾ	Kanna	AA	[ɑ]
ਇ	ਿ	ਕਿ	Sihari	I	[ɪ]
ਈ	ੀ	ਕੀ	Bihari	II	[i]
ਉ	ੁ	ਕੁ	Onkar	U	[ʊ]
ਊ	ੂ	ਕੂ	Dulankar	UU	[u]
ਏ	ੇ	ਕੇ	Lavan	EE	[e]
ਐ	ੈ	ਕੈ	Dulavan	AI	[æ]
ਓ	ੋ	ਕੋ	Hora	OO	[o]
ਔ	ੌ	ਕੌ	Kanora	AU	[ɔ]

Dotted circles represent the bearer consonant. Vowels are always pronounced after the consonant they are attached to. Thus, Sihari is always written to the left, but pronounced after the character on the right.

Vowel Examples

Word	Transcription	Meaning
ਆਲੂ	ālū	potato
ਦਿਲ	dil	heart
ਗਾਂ	gã	cow

Halant

The Halant (੍) character is not used when writing Punjabi in Gurmukhi. However, it may occasionally be used in Sanskritised text or in dictionaries for extra phonetic information. When it is used, it represents the suppression of the inherent vowel.

The affect of this is shown below:

ਕ – Ka

ਕ੍ – K

Numerals

Gurmukhi has its own set of numerals that behave exactly as Hindu-Arabic numerals do. The arabic numerals (often capitalized are the ten Digits (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 which—along with the system These are used extensively in older texts. In modern contexts, they are being replaced by standard Latin numerals although they are still in widespread use.

0 - ੦

1 - ੧

2 - ੨

3 - ੩

4 - ੪

5 - ੫

6 - ੬

7 - ੭

8 - ੮

9 - ੯

Other Signs

Bindi (ਂ) and Tippi (ੰ) are used for nasalisation (similar to the ‘n’ sound in words ending in ‘ing’). In Phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by In general, Onkar (ੁ) and Dulankar (ੂ) take Bindi in their initial forms and Tippi when used after a consonant. All other short vowels take Tippi and all other long vowels take Bindi. Older texts may not follow these conventions.

The use of Addak (ੱ) indicates that the following consonant is geminate. In Phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken Consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short Consonant. This means that the subsequent consonant is doubled or reinforced.

Visarg

The Visarg symbol (ਃ U+0A03) is used very occasionally in Gurmukhi. It can either represent an abbreviation (like period is used in English) or it can act like a Sanskrit Visarga where a voiceless ‘h’ sound is pronounced after the vowel. Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Visarga ( visarga) is a Sanskrit word meaning "sending forth discharge"

Ek Onkar

Ek Onkar (ੴ) is a Gurmukhi symbol that is often used in Sikh literature. Ik Onkar (also pa ੴ, pa ਇਕ/ਏਕ ਓਅੰਕਾਰ, Ēk Ōaṅkār, Ik Onkar, Ek Onkar and other variants means Sikh (English or; ਸਿੱਖ sikkh, IPA) is the title and name given to an adherent of Sikhism. It literally means ‘One God’.

Gurmukhi in Unicode

The Unicode range for Gurmukhi is U+0A00–U+0A7F. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points. Using Unicode for Gurmukhi has only recently started to become widespread. Many sites still use proprietary fonts that convert Latin ASCII codes to Gurmukhi glyphs. A glyph is an element of writing Two or more glyphs representing the same symbol whether interchangeable or context-dependent are called Allographs the abstract unit they

Gurmukhi Unicode.org chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+0A0x

ਁ

ਂ

ਃ

ਅ

ਆ

ਇ

ਈ

ਉ

ਊ

ਏ

U+0A1x

ਐ

ਓ

ਔ

ਕ

ਖ

ਗ

ਘ

ਙ

ਚ

ਛ

ਜ

ਝ

ਞ

ਟ

U+0A2x

ਠ

ਡ

ਢ

ਣ

ਤ

ਥ

ਦ

ਧ

ਨ

ਪ

ਫ

ਬ

ਭ

ਮ

ਯ

U+0A3x

ਰ

ਲ

ਲ਼

ਵ

ਸ਼

ਸ

ਹ

਼

ਾ

ਿ

U+0A4x

ੀ

ੁ

ੂ

ੇ

ੈ

ੋ

ੌ

੍

U+0A5x

ਖ਼

ਗ਼

ਜ਼

ੜ

ਫ਼

U+0A6x

੦

੧

੨

੩

੪

੫

੬

੭

੮

੯

U+0A7x

ੰ

ੱ

ੲ

ੳ

ੴ

Bibliography

Following books/articles have been written on the origins of the Gurmukhi script (all in the Punjabi language):

Gurbaksh (G. Gurmukhī (ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ Shahmukhi:) is the most common script used for writing the Punjabi language. Punjabi (pa ਪੰਜਾਬੀ in Gurmukhi script pa-PK {{Nastaliq پنجابی}} in Shahmukhi script Pañjābī in Transliteration) is an B. ) Singh. Gurmukhi Lipi da Janam te Vikas. Chandigarh: Punjab University, 1950.

Ishar Singh Tãgh, Dr. Gurmukhi Lipi da Vigyamulak Adhiyan. Patiala: Jodh Singh Karamjit Singh.

Kala Singh Bedi, Dr. Lipi da Vikas. Patiala: Punjabi University, 1995.

Kartar Singh Dakha. Gurmukhi te Hindi da Takra. 1948.

Piara Singh Padam, Prof. Gurmukhi Lipi da Itihas. Patiala: Kalgidhar Kalam Foundation Kalam Mandir, 1953.

Prem Parkash Singh, Dr. "Gurmukhi di Utpati. " Khoj Patrika, Patiala: Punjabi University.

Pritam Singh, Prof. "Gurmukhi Lipi. " Khoj Patrika. p. 110, vol. 36, 1992. Patiala: Punjabi University.

Sohan Singh Galautra. Punjab dian Lipiã.

Tarlochan Singh Bedi, Dr. Gurmukhi Lipi da Janam te Vikas. Patiala: Punjabi University, 1999.

External links

• Free Online Gurmukhi Typewriter
• Utility to write in Gurmukhi using Transliteration
• Punjabi Computing Resource Centre
• Saab - A free Unicode 4.0 OpenType Gurmukhi font
• Gurmukhi pseudo text generator
• Free online Punjabi (Gurmukhi) lessons
• Learn Gurmukhi
• Omniglot's guide to Gurmukhi
• Test for Unicode support in Web browsers
• Unicode script chart for Gurmukhi (PDF file)
• Introduction to Gurmukhi
• The Advanced Centre for Technical Development of Punjabi language, Literature and Culture, Punjabi University, Patiala

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