Shahmukhi

Perso-Arabic script used to write the Punjabi language

Shahmukhi

شاہ مُکھی

Poetry by Bulleh Shah in Shahmukhi (Nastaliq)[a]

Script type|

Abjad

Time period

| 12th century–present
Direction| right-to-left script
Official script|  Pakistan

* Punjab[b]

Region| Punjab, Hazara, Azad Kashmir
Languages| Punjabi (incl. dialects and varieties)
Related scripts

Parent systems

Egyptian hieroglyphs

* Proto-Sinaitic
* Phoenician
* Aramaic
* Nabataean
* Arabic
* Perso-Arabic
* Shahmukhi

Unicode

Unicode range

* U+0600 to U+06FF
* U+0750 to U+077F
* U+08A0 to U+08FF
* U+FB50 to U+FDFF
* U+FE70 to U+FEFF

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Shahmukhi alphabet

ا ب پ ت ٹ ث ج چ ح خ د ڈ ذ ر ڑ ز ژ س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ک گ ل ࣇ م ن ݨ (ں) و ه (ھ) ء ی ے

* * *

Extended Perso-Arabic script

* History
* Transliteration
* Diacritics
* Hamza
* Numerals
* Numeration

* v
* t
* e

Shahmukhi (Punjabi: شاہ مُکھی, pronounced [ʃaːɦmʊkʰiː], lit. 'from the mouth of the Shah'; Gurmukhi: ਸ਼ਾਹਮੁਖੀ) 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 originated in the 12th century medieval Punjab through Sufi literature.[1][2][3][4] It is generally written in the Nastaʿlīq calligraphic hand,[3][4] which is also used for Persian and Urdu.[5] Shahmukhi is one of the two standard scripts used for Punjabi, the other being Gurmukhi used mainly in Punjab, India.[3][6][4]

Shahmukhi is written from right to left, while Gurmukhi is written from left to right.[7] Shahmukhi has 36 primary letters with some other additional letters.[8][4]

## History[edit]

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

The earliest form of Shahmukhi was introduced by the Sufi poets of the 12th century medieval Punjab.[9] It eventually became the standard and conventional writing style amongst the Punjabi Muslims, while Gurmukhi was adopted by the Sikhs in the 16th century.[6]

The name 'Shahmukhi' is a recent coinage, imitating its counterpart 'Gurmukhi'.[10] However, the writing of Punjabi in the Perso-Arabic script is well-attested from the 12th century onwards.[11] 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 in writing and standardising the Punjabi language; prior to this, Punjabi was primarily a spoken language, not formally taught in schools.[12]

Shackle suggests that the Gurmukhi script was not favoured by Punjabi Muslims due to its religious (Sikh) connotations.[11]

## Alphabet[edit]

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 (ٻ, ڄ, ݙ, ڳ).[13]

### Vowel diacritics[edit]

Like Urdu, Shahmukhi also has diacritics, which are implied - a convention retained from the original Arabic script, to express short vowels.[4][14]

Diacritics used in Shahmukhi  Name  | Symbol  | Usage  | IPA | Notes  | Examples

|
|
|
|
|

Short Vowels
Zabar  | ◌َ‎  | a  | [ə] | Written above a letter
Zer  | ◌ِ‎  | i  | [ɪ] | Written below a letter
Pesh  | ◌ُ‎  | u  | [ʊ] | Written above a letter
Noon Gunna  | ◌٘‎ | ṉ  | [◌̃], [ŋ] | Nasal vowel diacritic  | ‘مُون٘ہہ‎’ (‘face’)
Tashdeed  | ◌ّ‎ | Geminate | [ː] | Doubles a consonant - goes above the letter being prolonged  | ‘کّ’ ('kk')
Loan diacritics
Khari Zabar  | ◌ٰ | á  | [äː] | Used in certain Arabic loanwords only  | ‘عیسیٰ’ (‘Jesus’)
Zabar Tanwīn  | ◌ً | an  | [ən]  | ‘فوراً’ (‘Immediately’)
Other diacritics
Hamza  | ◌ٔ | varied | Indicates a diphthong between two vowels, examples such as: ‘ئ’, ‘ۓ’, ‘ؤ‘, and أ , not written as a separate diacritic

### Consonants[edit]

No.  | Name[15] | IPA | Final glyph  | Medial glyph  | Initial glyph  | Isolated glyph

|
|
|
|
|
|

1  | الف | alif | /äː/, /ə/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/ | ـا | ـا | ا | ا
2  | بے | bē | /b/ | ـب | ـبـ | بـ | ب
3  | پے | pē | /p/ | ـپ | ـپـ | پـ | پ
4  | تے | tē | /t/ | ـت | ـتـ | تـ | ت
5  | ٹے | ṭē | /ʈ/ | ـٹ | ـٹـ | ٹـ | ٹ
6  | ثے | s̱ē | /s/ | ـث | ـثـ | ثـ | ث
7  | جيم | jīma | /d͡ʒ/ | ـج | ـجـ | جـ | ج
8  | چے | cē | /t͡ʃ/ | ـچ | ـچـ | چـ | چ
9  | وڈّی حے | waḍḍi ḥē | /ɦ/ | ـح | ـحـ | حـ | ح
10  | خے | k͟hē | /x/ | ـخ | ـخـ | خـ | خ
11  | دال | dāla | /d/ | ـد | ـد | د | د
12  | ڈال | ḍāla | /ɖ/ | ـڈ | ـڈ | ڈ | ڈ
13  | ذال | ẕāla | /z/ | ـذ | ـذ | ذ | ذ
14  | رے | rē | /r/ | ـر | ـر | ر | ر
15  | ڑے | ṛē | /ɽ/ | ـڑ | ـڑ | ڑ | ڑ
16  | زے | zē | /z/ | ـز | ـز | ز | ز
17  | ژے | žē | /ʒ/ | ـژ | ـژ | ژ | ژ
18  | سین | sīna | /s/ | ـس | ـسـ | سـ | س
19  | شین | shīna | /ʃ/ | ـش | ـشـ | شـ | ش
20  | صاد | ṣwāda | /s/ | ـص | ـصـ | صـ | ص
21  | ضاد | ẓwāda | /z/ | ـض | ـضـ | ضـ | ض
22  | طوئیں | t̤oʼēṉ | /t/ | ـط | ـطـ | طـ | ط
23  | ظوئیں | z̤oʼēṉ | /z/ | ـظ | ـظـ | ظـ | ظ
24  | عین | ʻaina | /∅/, /äː/, /ə/, /eː/, /oː/, | ـع | ـعـ | عـ | ع
25  | غین | ġaina | /ɣ/ | ـغ | ـغـ | غـ | غ
26  | فے | fē | /f/ | ـف | ـفـ | فـ | ف
27  | قاف | qāfa | /q/ | ـق | ـقـ | قـ | ق
28  | کاف | kāfa | /k/ | ـک | ـکـ | کـ | ک
29  | گاف | gāfa | /g/ | ـگ | ـگـ | گـ | گ
30  | لام | lāma | /l/ | ـل | ـلـ | لـ | ل
31[16] | ࣇام | ḷāma | /ɭ/ | ـلؕ | ـلؕـ | لؕـ | لؕ
32  | میم | mīma | /m/ | ـم | ـمـ | مـ | م
33  | نون | nūna | /n, ɲ/ | ـن | ـنـ | نـ | ن
34[16] | ݨون | ṇūna | /ɳ/ | ـݨ | ـݨـ | ݨـ | ݨ
35  | نون غنّہ | nūn ġunnah | /◌̃, ŋ/ | ـں | ـن٘ـ | ن٘ـ | ں

(ن٘)

36  | واؤ | vāʼoa | /ʋ, uː, ʊ, oː, ɔː/ | ـو | ـو | و | و
37  | نکی ہے
گول ہے | nikkī hē
gol hē | /ɦ, ɑː, e:/ | ـہ | ـہـ | ہـ | ہ
38  | دو چشمی ہے | do-cashmī hē | /ʰ/ or /ʱ/ | ـھ | ـھـ | ھ | ھ
39  | ہمزہ | hamzah | /ʔ/, /∅/ | ء | ء | ء | ء
40  | چھوٹی يے | choṭī yē | /j, iː/ | ـی | ـیـ | یـ | ی
41  | وڈّی يے | waḍḍi yē | /ɛː, eː/ | ـے | N/A  | N/A  | ے

No Punjabi words begin with ں, ھ, or ے. Words which begin with ڑ are exceedingly rare, but some have been documented in Shahmukhi dictionaries such as Iqbal Salahuddin's Waddi Punjabi Lughat.[17] The digraphs of aspirated consonants are as follows. In addition, ل and لؕ form ligatures with ا: لا (ـلا) and لؕا (ـلؕا).

#### Aspirates[edit]

No.  | Digraph[18] | Transcription[18] | IPA | Example

|
|
|
|

1  | بھ | bh |  | بھاری
2  | پھ | ph |  | پھل
3  | تھ | th |  | تھم
4  | ٹھ | ṭh |  | ٹھیس
5  | جھ | jh |  | جھاڑی
6  | چھ | ch |  | چھوکرا
7  | دھ | dh |  | دھوبی
8  | ڈھ | ḍh |  | ڈھول
9  | رھ | rh |  | بارھویں
10  | ڑھ | ṛh | [ɽʱ] | کڑھنا
11  | کھ | kh |  | کھولنا
12  | گھ | gh |  | گھبراہٹ
13  | لھ | lh | [lʱ] | کولھ
14  | مھ | mh | [mʱ] | ڈمھ
15  | نھ | nh | [nʱ] | چنھاں
16  | وھ | wh | [ʋʱ] | No example?
17  | یھ | yh | [jʱ] | یھاوا[19]

* ے (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 ی.
* Vowels are expressed as follows:

Final  | Middle  | Initial

|
|

ـہ  | ـَ | اَ
یٰ  | ـَا | آ
N/A  | ـِ | اِ
ـِى | ـِيـ | اِی
ـے‬ | ـيـ | اے
ـَے‬ | ـَيـ | اَے
N/A  | ـُ | اُ
ـُو | اُو
ـو | او
ـَو | اَو

### Difference from Persian and Urdu[edit]

See also: Persian alphabet and Urdu alphabet

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: ٹ to represent /ʈ/, ڈ to represent /ɖ/, ڑ to represent /ɽ/, ں to represent /◌̃/, and ے to represent /ɛ:/ or /e:/. Furthermore, a separate do-cashmi-he letter, ھ, exists to denote a /ʰ/ or a /ʱ/, this letter is mainly used as part of the multitude of digraphs, detailed below. Characters added which differ from Urdu include: ࣇ to represent /ɭ/ and ݨ to represent /ɳ/. These characters, however are rarely used.

### Pronunciation[edit]

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

## Gallery[edit]

* "Shahmukhi" written in Shahmukhi script

* Another example of poetry by Bulleh Shah in Shahmukhi

## See also[edit]

* Gurmukhī alphabet
* Saraiki alphabet

## References[edit]

1. ^ Romanized Punjabi
Tussee'n vee uchhay, Tuhadi zaat vee uchhee
Tussee'n vich Uch day rehnday
Asee'n Kasoori, Saadi zaat Kasoori
Asee'n vich Kasur day rehnday

Approximate English translation
"You are also high, your self is also high
You live inside Uch
We are poor, our self is poor
We live inside Kasur"
2. ^ Official provincial status

1. ^ Evans, Lorna Priest; Malik, M.G. Abbas (1 May 2019). "Unicode Proposal for ArLaam" (PDF). Unicode. Punjabi Parchar. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
2. ^ Singh Saini, Tejineder; Singh Lehal, Gurpreet; S Kalra, Virinder (August 2008). "Shahmukhi to Gurmukhi Transliteration System". Aclweb.org. Coling 2008 Organizing Committee: 177–180. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
3. ^ a b c Sharma, Saurabh; Gupta, Vishal (May 2013). "Punjabi Documents Clustering System" (PDF). Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence. 5 (2): 174. doi:10.4304/JETWI.5.2.171-187. S2CID 55699784. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
4. ^ a b c d e Dhanju, Kawarbir Singh; Lehal, Gurpreet Singh; Saini, Tejinder Singh; Kaur, Arshdeep (October 2015). "Design and Implementation of Shahmukhi Spell Checker" (PDF). Learnpunjabi.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 December 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
5. ^ Malik, Muhammad Ghulam Abbas; Boitet, Christian; Bhattcharyya, Pushpak (27 June 2012) [2010]. "Analysis of Noori Nasta'leeq for Major Pakistani Languages". King AbdulAziz University. Penang, Malaysia. p. 4\. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 August 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
6. ^ a b Dorren, Gaston (2018). Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages. Profile Books. ISBN 978-1782832508.
7. ^ Sharma, Saurabh; Gupta, Vishal (May 2013). "Punjabi Documents Clustering System" (PDF). Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence. 5 (2): 174. doi:10.4304/JETWI.5.2.171-187. S2CID 55699784. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
8. ^ Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography. Springer. 2019. p. 142\. ISBN 978-3030059774.
9. ^ Omer Tarin, 'Hazrat Baba Farid Ganj Shakar and the evolution of the literary Punjabi:A Brief Review' in Journal of Humanities and Liberal Arts, 1995, pp.21-30
10. ^ Shackle, Christopher. "Punjabi language". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
11. ^ a b Shackle, Christopher (2007). Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh (eds.). Panjabi. p. 655\. ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5. `{{cite book}}`: `|work=` ignored (help)
12. ^ Dhavan, Purnima (2019-12-31), Green, Nile (ed.), "Marking Boundaries and Building Bridges: Persian Scholarly Networks in Mughal Punjab", The Persianate World, University of California Press, pp. 168–169, doi:10.1525/9780520972100-009, ISBN 978-0-520-97210-0, S2CID 211601323, retrieved 2021-06-12
13. ^ Bashir, Elena; Conners, Thomas J.; Hefright, Brook (2019). A descriptive grammar of Hindko, Panjabi, and Saraiki. Hefright, Brook. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 62, 77. ISBN 978-1-61451-296-7. OCLC 1062344143.
14. ^ Bhardwaj, Mangat (2016). Panjabi: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. p. 378\. ISBN 978-1317643265. "It is an ancient Arabic writing tradition (carried on in Persian, Urdu and Shahmukhi) to omit the diacritics (except the Hamza) in ordinary writing and to depend on the context to interpret a word."
15. ^ Delacy 2003, p. XV–XVI. sfn error: no target: CITEREFDelacy2003 (help)
16. ^ a b Rarely used in literature, except when a distinction between the pronunciation of the non-retroflex character is needed
17. ^ Muhammad Iqbal Salahuddin (2002). وڈی پنجابی لغت: پنجابی توں پنجابی (in Western Punjabi). Vol. 2\. Lahore: Aziz Publishers. pp. 1672–1673. ISBN 978-969-455-042-8. LCCN 2010341553. OCLC 629702100. OL 31212991M. Wikidata Q113450202. Retrieved 2022-08-29.
18. ^ a b "Urdu romanization" (PDF). The Library of Congress.
19. ^ Muhammad Iqbal Salahuddin (2002). وڈی پنجابی لغت: پنجابی توں پنجابی (in Western Punjabi). Vol. 3\. Lahore: Aziz Publishers. p. 2958\. ISBN 978-969-455-042-8. LCCN 2010341553. OCLC 629702100. OL 31212991M. Wikidata Q113450202. Retrieved 2022-08-29.

## Further reading[edit]

* Mumtaz Ahmad (1 April 1992), Punjabi Reader: in the Arabic Script (in Punjabi), Kensington: Dunwoody Publishing & Press, Wikidata Q113235868
* Muhammad Iqbal Salahuddin (2002). وڈی پنجابی لغت: پنجابی توں پنجابی (in Punjabi). Lahore: Aziz Publishers. ISBN 978-969-455-042-8. LCCN 2010341553. OCLC 629702100. OL 31212991M. Wikidata Q113450202.
* Rehman Akhter (2019), Gulshan-e-Urdu (in Punjabi and Urdu) (2nd ed.), Malerkotla: Brar Sons, Wikidata Q113270613
* پلاک ڈکشنری (in Punjabi), Lahore: Punjab Institute of Language, Art, and Culture, 2018, Wikidata Q113301763
* Gurpreet Singh Lehal; Tejinder Singh; Joga Singh; Suman Preet (2009), Punjabi-English Dictionary (in English and Punjabi), Patiala: Publication Bureau, Punjabi University, OCLC 1036828588, Wikidata Q112690336
* Gurpreet Singh Lehal; Tejinder Singh Asani (2012), Conversion between Scripts of Punjabi: Beyond Simple Transliteration (PDF) (in English and Punjabi), Wikidata Q112672112

## External links[edit]

* Shahmukhi to Gurmukhi Transliteration System: A Corpus based Approach
* The Western Panjabi Alphabet Archived 2017-11-30 at the Wayback Machine
* Learn Shahmukhi
* Likhari in Shahmukhi
* Kalam-e-Baba Nanak
* Punjabi and Punjab
* E-Book on Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi
* PDF on Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi Archived 2018-09-03 at the Wayback Machine

* v
* t
* e

Arabic alphabets

Europe|

* Albanian
* Aljamiado
* Azerbaijani
* Belarusian
* Crimean Tatar
* Kazakh
* Ottoman Turkish
* Serbo-Croatian
* Tatar (İske imlâ
* Yaña imlâ)

Asia|

* Arabic
* Arabi Malayalam
* Arwi
* Azerbaijani
* Buri Wolio
* Jawi
* Kazakh
* Khowar
* Kurdish
* Kyrgyz
* Ottoman Turkish
* Pashto
* Pegon
* Persian
* Rohingya
* Saraiki
* Sindhi
* Shahmukhī
* Tajik
* Turkmen
* Urdu
* Uyghur
* Uzbek
* Xiao'erjing

Africa|

* Afrikaans
* Hausa Ajami
* Berber
* Fula Ajami
* Kibushi
* Serer Ajami
* Shimaore
* Sorabe
* Swahili Ajami
* Wadaad's (Somali)
* Wolof

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Punjabi language topics

* Grammar
* Gurmukhi script
* Shahmukhi script
* Punjabi Braille
* Dialects
* Literature
* Punjabi nationalism
* Punjabiyat
* Writers
* Poets

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[lit.]: literal translation