The Gurmukhi Alphabet and Script

Meet the Gurmukhi script

Panjabi is written in the Gurmukhi script. It is an alphabet of about 35 letters, and it reads and writes left to right, like English. There are no capital letters. The alphabet begins with three vowel-bearing letters, then the consonants. Let us meet some of them.

The first letters

Each Gurmukhi letter has a name and a sound. Here are the first few:

A puff of air?

Panjabi separates sounds that English often treats as the same. Some letters are said with a puff of air (aspirated) and some without (unaspirated):

Match the letter to its name

Which letter?

Which letter makes the sound s?

• ਸ Sassa
• ਹ Haha
• ਕ Kakka
• ਮ Mamma

The aspirated pairs

The puff of air changes the meaning of a word, so these pairs must be kept apart. Kakka (ਕ) is a plain k, but Khakha (ਖ) is an aspirated kh. The same goes for Gagga and Ghagga (g and gh), and for Tatta and Thatha (t and th).

Match the letter to its sound

Which are aspirated?

Select the TWO letters that are ASPIRATED, said with a puff of air.

• ਖ Khakha
• ਥ Thatha
• ਕ Kakka
• ਤ Tatta

Reading a whole sentence

Letters exist to build sentences. Gurmukhi runs left to right with no capital letters, and Panjabi puts the verb at the end: - ਮੈਂ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਪੜ੍ਹਦਾ ਹਾਂ = "I read Panjabi" (said by a male speaker). Four words: ਮੈਂ ("I"), ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (the language), then the verb ਪੜ੍ਹਦਾ ਹਾਂ ("read") at the end. - ਮੇਰਾ ਨਾਮ ਰਵੀ ਹੈ = "my name is Ravi". ਮੇਰਾ is "my", ਨਾਮ is "name", and ਹੈ ("is") closes it.

Stop halfway through

A student reads the first two words of ਮੈਂ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਪੜ੍ਹਦਾ ਹਾਂ and then stops. What do they still not know?

• What the person is doing, because the verb has not arrived yet
• Who the sentence is about, because the pronoun comes last
• Which language is involved, because that word sits at the end
• Nothing at all, because the first word carries the whole meaning

Alphabet order

Put these letters into the order they come at the start of the Gurmukhi alphabet.

• ੳ Ura
• ਅ Aira
• ੲ Iri
• ਸ Sassa

Complete the facts

The Gurmukhi script is read from left to _____. It has no _____ letters. The letter Khakha is the _____ form of Kakka, said with a puff of air, while Kakka is _____. The whole alphabet has about _____ letters.

The Gurmukhi script

Tap the TWO statements that are TRUE.

• Gurmukhi is read and written from left to right.
• Khakha is an aspirated letter, said with a puff of air.
• Gurmukhi has capital and small letters, like English.
• Kakka and Khakha make exactly the same sound.
• The Gurmukhi alphabet has only ten letters.

Use the script

Use what you know about Gurmukhi to answer each question.

• You begin reading a Gurmukhi word. Which side do you start on?
• A letter is said with a strong puff of air. Is it aspirated or unaspirated?
• Which letter is the aspirated partner of Kakka (ਕ)?

Explain the script

In English, explain three ways the Gurmukhi writing system is different from the English alphabet. This is written in English and is not auto-marked.

• Describe the direction Gurmukhi is read and written
• Explain what aspirated and unaspirated letters are, with an example pair
• Say whether Gurmukhi has capital letters
• Say roughly how many letters the alphabet has