Punjabi Alphabet Pronunciation Guide

Punjabi Pronunciation Guide from English

Punjabi is one of the official languages of India and is quite popular language in the whole world. It is also the 4th popular language of Canada. It is spoken mainly in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and some parts of Haryana and Delhi.

Microsoft Windows allow the usage of this language and support the font for Punjabi. Below is the list of alphabets used in Punjabi with the guide to pronounce it as the sounds are present in the English language.

Vowels of Punjabi Alphabet

ਅ As ‘a’ in mal
ਆ Stressed ਅ
ਇ As ‘I’ in ill
ਈ As ‘e’ in eke
ਉ As ‘u’ in Ubuntu
ਊ As ‘ou’ in you
ਏ As ‘e’ in par se
ਐ As ‘a’ in as
ਓ As ‘o’ in go
ਔ Stressed and long sound of ‘o’

Consonants of Punjabi Alphabet

ਕ As ‘k’ in kite
ਖ Coupled sound of ‘k’, ‘h’= ‘kh’
ਗ As ‘g’ in gun
ਘ Coupled sound of ‘g’, ‘h’= ‘gh’
ਙ As ‘gn’ in gnome. Does not produce a particular sound: Just used for articulation of tongue while pronouncing the next word
ਚ As ‘ch’ in chair
ਛ This sound is not available in English. The tongue touches a bit away (to the inner side) from the teeth while pronouncing ‘ch’ as in chair.
ਜ As ‘j’ in jug
ਝ This sound is not available in English. This is produced using the naval sounds while the tongue touches the upper part of mouth cavity.
ਞ Just like ‘gn’ of gnome with a slight up movement of tongue. No particular sound just articulation while speaking.
ਟ As ‘t’ in top
ਠ Hard sound of ‘t’. Not available in English.
ਡ As ‘d’ in dark
ਢ Coupled sound of ‘d’ and ‘h’= ‘dh’. Not available in English but as ‘dh’ in Indian musical instrument ‘dhol’.
ਣ Nasal sound when the tongue touches a bit away from teeth. In ਨ, the tongue touches the roots of the teeth.
ਤ Soft sound of ‘t’ as used in the name of country Bharat
ਥ As ‘th’ in thermo
ਦ As ‘th’ in the
ਧ Not available in English. Again, naval sound produced by coupling soft ‘d’ and ‘h’= ‘dh’.
ਨ As ‘n’ in man
ਪ As ‘p’ in push
ਫ Sound of ‘f’ if pronounced with closed lips. ‘f’ of German language.
ਬ As ‘b’ in ban
ਭ Not available in English. Coupled sound of ‘b’ and ‘h’= ‘bh’.
ਮ As ‘m’ in mass
ਯ As ‘y’ in yacht
ਰ As ‘r’ in run
ਲ As ‘l’ in love
ਵ As ‘v’ in vowel
ਸ਼ As ‘sh’ in shot
ਸ As ‘s’ in sound
ਹ As ‘h’ in has

Variations of consonants in Punjabi

ਕ਼ Sound of ‘k’ produced from the throat: equal to ‘q’ of English.
ਖ਼ Sound of ‘kh’ produced from the throat. As ‘kh’ used in the name of ‘khan’.
ਗ਼ Sound of ‘g’ produced from the throat.
ਜ਼ As ‘z’ in zebra
ੜ Next variation of ‘d’. Not available in English and very difficult to produce for foreigners. As ‘re’ in Crore.
ਫ਼ As ‘f’ in fast. As ‘v’ in German language

Specials characters in Punjabi

ੱ This character is called “adhak”, which is used in the place of half-letters. In transliterated forms of words like pull and mull, this character will be used.

Symbols used in Punjabi

ਂ Sound of ‘m’ with the previous consonant along with some other symbols used for that consonant
ੰ Sound of ‘n’ with the previous consonant
ਾ Sound of stressed ‘a’ with the previous consonant
ਿ Sound of ‘i’ as in ill with the previous consonant
ੀ Sound of ‘e’ as in eke with the previous consonant
ੁ Sound of ‘u’ as in Ubuntu with the previous consonant
ੂ Sound of ‘ou’ as in you with the previous consonant
ੇ Sound of ‘ai’ as in aim with the previous consonant
ੈ Sound of ‘a’ as in as with the previous consonant
ੋ Sound of ‘o’ as in go with the previous consonant
ੌ Stressed sound of ‘o’
੍ Halant. This is used to make the consonant half making it disjointed from the sound of ਅ.
। Symbol of ‘.’ Full stop in English.

Numeric symbols of Punjabi (0-9)

੦
੧
੨
੩
੪
੫
੬
੭
੮
੯

Apart from these symbols, there is one type of half-sound of ‘r’ that is used in Punjabi. It is placed at the foot of the consonant with which it is associated and is sounded after that consonant. The symbol is not present as such in the Raavi Font but can be made by pressing the Shift+3 keys. This symbol will put the half-sound of ‘r’ in the foot of the consonant and its sound would come after the consonant.

Microsoft uses “Raavi” font for Punjabi language.